The NFL’s decision to put a playoff game exclusively on Peacock this coming season is being met poorly by the media. Tuesday morning, Damon Amendolara added his voice to the chorus calling the decision a money grab by NFL owners.
NBC reportedly paid $110 million for a postseason game to be exclusive to their streaming service. Divided amongst 32 teams, that will work out to just under $3.5 million for each owner. Amendolara was shocked by how little money it took for the owners to disregard the fan experience.
“Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones and John Mara and the Rooneys, Steve Bisciotti, all these guys, they decided, is this good for the audience? And everybody said no,” the CBS Sports Radio morning man said. “They said, ‘But you get an extra 4 million bucks if you say yes’. They all said yes.”
He said that the NFL was screwing its fans with the decision. This is another app to download. It is potentially another streaming bill to pay. None of it is worth it or necessary in Amendolara’s eyes.
“None of them truthfully would say this is better for the audience, better for the consumers,” he said. “Just keep it at NBC. Nobody would say this is better. Not one voice in that room would say this is better.”
Roger Goodell has prioritized generating more media revenue for the league since becoming the commissioner, and he has been very successful in that endeavor. Damon Amendolara said that not all revenue is necessary or even good for the game.
NFL owners, however, feel differently. Even if $3.5 million is a fraction of what they pay their quarterbacks, revenue is revenue and you do not turn that down.
“That’s what sucks,” Amendolara said. “That’s what’s hard. None of them could honestly say it’s better. But they turned, they held their hand out, they got three and a half million bucks per person, and they said, ‘Well, I could live with that.’”
