This weekend, ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio revealed that the NFL is requiring head coaches to do live in-game interviews for the 2024 NFL season and potentially beyond.
According to Florio, NFL Vice President of Broadcast Rights, Policies, and Compliance Cathy Yancy, announced the change during the Sunday Ticket trial.
As expected, the new rule requiring in-game coach interviews has been met with mixed reactions. Viewers at home generally dislike them, and coaches are often reluctant to share meaningful information, putting sideline reporters in a difficult position.
But the NFL has decided to go on with them anyway, and amidst a discussion on the return of NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Monday, Peter Schrager shared some more details about what’s to come. According to Schrager, the NFL’s new rule goes beyond requiring head coaches to be available for in-game interviews.
“It’s not just head coaches. They also have the opportunity to [interview] defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator or special teams,” he says. “The team gets to pick. And I think there are rules where each coach only has to do it once per network… but you might be getting Special Teams coordinators at halftime giving interviews to Tracy Wolfson.
“There has to be at least one per game from each team — a coach or a coordinator — interviewing with the sideline reporter.”
Peter Schrager with some more insight on the NFL requiring in-game interviews for coaches.
“It’s not just head coaches. They also have the opportunity to [interview] defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator or special teams. The team gets to pick. I think there are rules… https://t.co/lXop6VosJw pic.twitter.com/BDJFbpJioo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 29, 2024
While there’s a limit of one interview per coach per network per game, at least one coach or coordinator from each team must be interviewed during the game. And Schrager teased the possibility of hearing from those like Cleveland Browns special teams coordinator Ray “Bubba” Ventrone or Cowboys ST coordinator John “Bones” Fassel.
In any event, expanding in-game interviews to include coordinators is a significant escalation of the NFL’s push for increased access. While fans are generally divided on the new rules as in-game interviews have become increasingly unpopular across all sports, the league is clearly committed to providing more in-depth coverage of games.
Whether this leads to more insightful analysis or simply more coaches unwilling to reveal information remains to be seen.
