The NFL, which produces revenue in excess of $6 billion a year, is undoubtedly the benchmark to which all other professional sports organizations are measured. Its reach has spread from leveraging broadcasting rights to the nation's cable television providers to the launching of NFL Network, the NFL's own proprietary network dedicated to providing football content around the clock. The league dissolved cash sink NFL Europa (formerly NFL Europe) and has instead elected to play two regular season games in foreign venues to attract an international audience. Its influence over the NFL Players Association strengthens with every Michael Vick and Pacman Jones incident. Thanks to its ability to control the usage of NFL player names and likenesses, The NFL now exercises a good deal of influence in the sports video game industry as well.
In the modern era of professional sports, league commissioners are forced to play many roles. They are tasked with ensuring fair competition, enacting rules to promote player safety, side-stepping potential media landmines, imposing penalties or suspensions appropriately, negotiating television broadcasting rights, and always presenting the game in a positive way. This is all to ensure that their brand of sports entertainment remains a profit-making enterprise. To this end, former NFL chief operating officer and current NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, could teach the NBA and MLB a thing or two.
According to Goodell, "We operate at a very high level. I talk to CEOs that run Fortune 500 companies about what they do to be successful. And we apply some of the same principles." (Business Week)
Has the NFL's multilateral influence spread too far though?
As a monopoly officially sanctioned by Congress, the NFL enjoys a market nearly void of competition. Upstart leagues, such as the USFL of the mid-'80s, and, more recently, the XFL, have been marred by financial instability or an inability to attract a viable viewing audience. In addition, with the lack of federal oversight, the NFL has carte blanche to derail competing enterprises from entering the market through the leveraging of cable providers and stadium access.
This control of the mainstream media not only produces a barrier to entry for competing leagues, it also allows the NFL to manage every aspect of the game's portrayal to the viewing public. Regular season games produce some of the top TV ratings every Sunday and Monday nights, while and the Super Bowl consistently ranks as the most-watched broadcast in the US every year. This content is so sought after that ESPN alone spends in excess of $1.1 billion per year to broadcast Monday Night Football. The NFL has also brokered deals with CBS, FOX, and NBC along with an exclusive agreement with satellite broadcaster DirecTV to bring you NFL Sunday Ticket.
The NFL dangles this carrot-on-a-stick in front of the networks every chance it gets. Take, for example, the ESPN series, Playmakers, which aired for a single season in 2003. The show depicted some of the more behind-the-scenes aspects of professional football, including drug usage, steroids, domestic abuse, and homosexuality. The series drew acclaim from publications, such as TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly, but ESPN cancelled the show after the first season when the NFL expressed grievances with the way the game was portrayed.
The NFL takes this depiction of its sport so seriously that it is in constant communication with a network's broadcasting crew during every NFL game. The NFL constantly feeds statistics and rule clarifications to the announcers covering the game directly from the NFL offices in New York. Every aspect of the game's presentation is carefully monitored and dissected.
The NFL's media influence also reflects on how it handles damage control following player transgressions. Obviously in high-profile cases, such as Michael Vick's dog-fighting racket, the NFL can do nothing but distance itself to avoid public backlash from spilling over. In other cases, though, would-be black eyes are simply not covered by mainstream media or at least to a far lesser degree.
Take, for example, the issue of steroid use among NFL players. In 2005, 60 Minutes showed an exclusive on rampant steroid use by Carolina Panthers' players during the 2004 NFL season--even up to a week before their Super Bowl matchup against the Patriots. Although the story was brushed aside as an isolated case, the implication was that players know how to circumvent the NFL's random drug testing and that steroid use may be much more widespread than the NFL would have the public believe.
This shouldn't be that hard to believe. Twenty years ago, the average linebacker was 225 pounds and could run 40 yards in 4.4 seconds. Today, the average linebacker is 265 pounds and can run just as fast. Instead of receiving the same scrutiny that the MLB has undergone, though, the NFL is routinely touted as the most aggressive league in terms of combating the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
It's also apparent that the NFL has set it sights on the sports video gaming genre as a new frontier to educate fans on the nuances of the game and to reach new, younger audiences. Obviously, because EA Sports owns the exclusive license to reproduce player names and likenesses, we are specifically referring to Madden and EA's new franchise, NFL Tour.
"There's a whole new generation coming up," Goodell says. "We have to be responsive to that." (Business Week)
It isn't hard to see the NFL's influence on an arcade-style football game, such as NFL Tour. Compared with Midway's Blitz series (which uses fictitious names), NFL Tour doesn't feature late hits, trash-talking, steroid use, or other aspects that the NFL deems would put the sport in a negative spotlight.
In terms of Madden, the effect is more subtle--if only because the majority of sports gamers have come to expect a standard of accuracy from the game every year. Each week during the season, game film from every game played is sent to EA (at the same time, it is sent to the teams to prepare for their next opponent). This is the reason that Madden's playbooks are so robust and accurate in comparison to playbooks used in other sports games.
When player attribute values are being assigned or modified, EA has access to every play in which each player was involved. This makes it possible for EA to augment ratings during the season based on the individual's performance the week before. While this does little to curb the public outcry every time ratings are released, at least you know the changes aren't without basis.
