There are still many questions to be answered about ESPN’s role in taking control of NFL Network. Yesterday, according to a report from Front Office Sports, one of the more immediate questions received an answer. When the NFL Draft takes over Pittsburgh next month, NFL Network will remain status quo with its longstanding NFL Draft presentation.
That means Rich Eisen and the team will not get the weekend off. Then again, if you asked everyone involved, they would likely want it that way.
The report should also spark speculation about how the network will be utilized next year, as ESPN prepares to host its first Super Bowl broadcast in network history. If ESPN will also control NFL Network’s programming, could there be another first when toe meets leather in Inglewood, California?
When ESPN announced its arrangement with the NFL, there was a period when many at NFL Network felt concerned. Anytime another entity takes over your workplace, nerves are tested. Anyone who has worked in media can recall those chilling feelings of an uncertain future.
Despite numerous roster cuts over the past decade, ESPN instead chose to absorb all existing NFL Network talent contracts as part of the acquisition. That is a hefty load for any network, given the amount of talent and salary involved. However, from ESPN’s standpoint, it expands the roster with personalities who have already built audience trust and engagement with NFL fans.
You didn’t really expect the NFL to acquire 10% of ESPN only for the network to cut costs with its newest acquisition, did you?
Still, Monday’s news speaks volumes. Rather than using NFL Network as another outlet for ESPN/ABC’s presentation of the NFL Draft, the approach remains unchanged. Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, Charles Davis, Joel Klatt, and Ian Rapoport will likely all return to the screen as dreams come true for more than 250 people behind the scenes.
Now that the NFL Draft is settled, could this create an opportunity for ESPN with the Super Bowl? Would ESPN dare to pit a Rich Eisen–Kurt Warner call of Super Bowl LXI against the tandem of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman?
Fortune favors the bold.
There is no denying ESPN wants its first Super Bowl broadcast to exceed anything any other network has produced. You do not start a countdown the moment the previous game ends just to generate a cheap headline. ESPN is serious about its year-round “Year of the Super Bowl” campaign, which includes extensive promotion and programming across ESPN, ABC, and Disney platforms.
So why not include NFL Network in that mix? If ESPN sought influence and content direction over NFL Network, this is the moment to make an impression with the biggest event on the NFL calendar.
The question is: should they?
What ESPN has done—and continues to do—with the College Football Playoff National Championship is something FOX, CBS, and NBC cannot replicate. For all the cameras and microphones placed inside a stadium, the depth of content ESPN delivers remains unmatched.
While most networks emphasize pregame and postgame coverage during the Super Bowl, ESPN’s strength has always been the in-game experience.
This year presents a challenge ESPN has never faced before with the Super Bowl. In an age of alt-casts—something ESPN has mastered—most people still watch the Super Bowl in one place: the main broadcast. The Super Bowl is not the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. It has always been different. But with ESPN, will it stay that way?
Every network aims to maximize revenue and reach while delivering a fresh viewing experience. Programmers constantly chase a new look, sound, or presentation that hooks an audience and brings them back. At the same time, an older audience remains rooted in tradition, while younger viewers consume content in entirely different ways.
Historically, the Super Bowl has been a singular destination. While networks have experimented with streaming elements or secondary broadcasts, the priority has always been clear: drive viewers to one central presentation.
Now that ESPN’s first major decision regarding NFL Network is to maintain the status quo with the NFL Draft, what will it do with the Super Bowl? If NFL Network is owned by the NFL, operated by ESPN, and the Super Bowl broadcast is produced by ESPN, the opportunity is obvious.
Why not assemble an alt-cast with Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, and company? If creating alternative broadcasts is a priority—and if there is revenue to be gained—fortune favors the bold.
At some point, ESPN must decide whether its vision for NFL Network remains the same, becomes bigger, or evolves into something entirely different.
This is not just about filling programming hours or justifying a business arrangement. It is about maximizing an opportunity no other network has ever had—full operational control of both the primary broadcast and a secondary, fully built-out football network with its own trusted voices.
The NFL Draft decision suggests ESPN understands the value of letting NFL Network be itself. Not a duplicate. Not a simulcast. A complementary product serving a slightly different audience with a distinct tone.
That same philosophy should extend to Super Bowl LXI.
No, you do not disrupt the main broadcast. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will remain the centerpiece, and rightly so. The Super Bowl still demands their voices—the call most viewers will remember.
But alongside it? That is where ESPN can separate itself from every network that has come before it.
An alternative broadcast led by Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, and the NFL Network crew would not dilute the product—it would deepen it. It would give fans a choice without pulling them away from tradition. It would serve the audience ESPN is trying to grow while respecting the one that made the Super Bowl what it is.
More importantly, it would send a message.
That ESPN did not gain influence over NFL Network simply to maintain it—but to use it.
The safe move is sticking with one feed. The expected move is treating NFL Network as shoulder programming.
The smart move?
Make Super Bowl LXI the moment ESPN proves it can honor tradition on the main stage—while building the future right beside it.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
