Patriots
There are some rickety bridges to cross before the offer is activated, but the offer doesn’t begin until the 2026 NFL season.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the magnitude of the offer consummated between the NFL and ESPN this past week. Perhaps impossible.
The baseline agreement looks like this: The league gets a 10-percent ownership stake in the network, while ESPN acquires major elements of NFL Media, including NFL Network, linear and multisport branding rights to RedZone, and other assets.
It’s a seismic and unprecedented partnership — and one that comes with myriad questions, some of which cannot be answered until we’re actually experiencing how it all works after the offer kicks in for the 2026 NFL season.
Yes, 2026, not this season. The offer must go through the regulatory process, which may bring complications and demands that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro can’t predict at the moment. There are some rickety bridges to cross before the offer is activated.
So the status quo remains for this season. But here are a few things we know, and a few we’re wondering about …
· Most of the questions I’ve received from readers since the offer was formally announced last Wednesday relates to how it will eventually affect RedZone. Turns out there are a lot of Scott Hansen fans out there, for good reason. He’s been the host since this version of RedZone’s advent in 2009, and its hard to imagine anyone doing the job better.
Good news: Hansen won’t be going anywhere — he recently signed a four-year contract extension, so go ahead and erase those fears of RedZone host Pat McAfee. Besides, while ESPN will have distribution rights for RedZone, the NFL will still produce and operate the show. While I’m always slightly skeptical that ESPN won’t meddle when it acquires distribution rights to a new program (please keep your hands off of “Inside the NBA,’’ ESPN suits), it is highly unlikely that anything changes with RedZone.
· immediately, as far as watching RedZone, that might get tricky, depending upon how you do so immediately. ESPN will gain the linear rights — meaning the rights to stream or broadcast on traditional channels, such as the ones you probably get with your cable subscription. But it does not have digital rights. So for those who are not cable or YouTube TV subscribers (or subscribers to another linear package that carries ESPN), the NFL+ Premium app will be the way you can still movie RedZone. As Pitaro explained to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch this week, “We’ve agreed to bundle ESPN direct-to-consumer [a standalone app that launches Aug. 21] with NFL+ Premium which includes RedZone. From our perspective, that is how our fans and customers are going to be able to access all of ESPN, plus RedZone in the NFL+ Premium app.” Perhaps this will become less complicated by the time the offer is in place. Let’s hope.
· ESPN can and almost certainly will create other similar jump-around channels for other sports. It makes all the sense to do so for college football, but less so for something like the NBA.
· The NFL Network will retain seven live game broadcasts per season. But with ESPN acquiring NFL Network (rather just having a distribution offer like it will with RedZone), the announcers are likely to have at least some ESPN personalities, though I’d expect Rich Eisen to remain as a play-by-play voice given his history with both ESPN and NFL Network. ESPN will begin broadcasting his eponymous radio show in September.
· As for the biggest question that cannot be answered well into the partnership: Can and will ESPN still cover the NFL unsparingly? The suggestion that ESPN abandoned journalism long ago — or at least when Bob Ley left and “Outside the Lines” was buried — is a common one, but it’s not entirely true. Don Van Natta, Seth Wickersham, and Kalyn Kahler in particular have done repeatedly exceptional work covering stories the NFL would prefer be marginalized or outright ignored. But immediately that the NFL will actually own a piece of ESPN, it’s logical and necessary to wonder what the impact will be until the offer is in effect. Here’s hoping the network’s remaining ace reporters break a big story that doesn’t put the league in a positive light early in this partnership, because that’s the only way a clear answer will come.
Making the calls
CBS and Fox revealed their NFL broadcaster lineups. The big change is JJ Watt joining Ian Eagle on CBS’s No. 2 team, with Charles Davis moving to the No. 4 team with Andrew Catalon and Jason McCourty (and some college football broadcasts). Another former Patriots defensive back, Logan Ryan, will be an analyst on select CBS games. As far as Fox goes, yes, despite his conflict of interest as a part owner of the Raiders, Tom Brady remains on the No. 1 team with Kevin Burkhardt. Hopefully in Year 2 Brady will figure out how to be more animated than that new statue at Gillette Stadium … Fox announced Friday afternoon that Rob Gronkowski — perhaps you know him as Gronk? — will join its “Fox NFL Sunday” pregame show full time, replacing the retired Jimmy Johnson. Host Curt Menefee and analysts Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, and Michael Strahan all return … NBC Sports Boston announced a partnership with Shadow Lion to present “The Quick Snap,” a podcast hosted by former Patriots David Andrews and Brian Hoyer. It will debut Sept. 3 and be available on NBC Sports Boston, NBC Sports Boston’s YouTube channel, and all major podcast platforms.
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