It all started with a Tweet. On Monday, Sports Illustrated journalist and former NFL Media employee Albert Breer conveyed his thoughts on the NFL’s deal with Peacock to give the streaming platform exclusive rights to carry a Wild Card Round playoff game. Breer asserted that since the NFL is reportedly receiving $110 million from Peacock in the deal, it is a genuine sign of who the owners are and their priorities.
One of the notable departures in the layoffs was Jim Trotter, coming after he publicly questioned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about a lack of diversity in the leadership of NFL Media. He shared that he declined a three-month severance package from the league under the condition that he sign a non-disclosure agreement. On Wednesday morning, WFAN’s Boomer & Gio reacted.
“On the surface to me, the NFL shouldn’t be laying off anybody because if any business has been extremely successful in pro sports more than any of the others, it’s the NFL,” Gregg Giannotti said. “They keep finding ways to make new money, whether it’s overseas; whether it’s the new contract with YouTube, Amazon Prime [and] Peacock – it’s crazy the amount of money that they are pulling in.”
Indeed, the NFL is set to embark on the first season under a new media rights agreement with its primary production and distribution partners – including Paramount Global (CBS), FOX Corporation (FOX), Comcast (NBC/Peacock), The Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN/ESPN+), Google (YouTube/YouTube TV), Westwood One Radio and league-owned NFL Network. It is expected to generate approximately $12 billion in annual revenue for the league, on top of billions in advertising dollars for the media partners.
Giannotti likened the criticism to pushback ESPN received for announcing the addition of The Pat McAfee Show to its weekday programming lineup in a deal worth a reported eight figures. Even so, he is cognizant that business leaders do not look at both factors as mutually exclusive.
“People think that one has something to do with the other,” Giannotti said, “but really what they are thinking is, ‘We can give this guy ‘X’ amount of money and make more money on him, so that’s why we’re giving him that money.”
Goodell is not the sole decision maker when it comes to determining which employees to lay off and how to best operate the business. However, it is likely, according to Esiason, that he has to approve of certain moves being executed. Having a competent and prudential structure aligning the league for future prosperity is essential in its operations.
It points to why some employees feel they must strive to make themselves indispensable, but implicitly instantiating that culture in the past through layoffs has been shown to have mixed results, sometimes ultimately diminishing returns. The effect of NFL layoffs is largely unforeseen, for now, but it is fairly certain that the league will profit from its new media rights deal and encapsulate fans with new storylines next season.
“I just think it’s more about redundancy and the way things change and the way things are looked at differently,” Boomer Esiason said. “They may be firing some other people in other areas – older areas – and then in newer areas, hiring more people to be part of a growing aspect of a company.”
