NFL Kickoff: the science gets more damning, but the money keeps growing

Jeff Berman (0:00)

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Michele Steele (0:45)

Something like one in four NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE. Now, is the game safer?

You know, we've saw Tuatunga Wailoa from the Dolphins laid out, prone on the field. The valuations and the business of the NFL keeps growing and growing and growing. I do wonder about the long tail.

Bob Safian (1:12)

That's sports journalist Michele Steele. The NFL is the world's biggest, most successful sports business. And today, Michele and I dig into what to expect in the upcoming 2026-2027 season, drawing on her experience at ESPN, Bloomberg and now the Big Ten Network. We talk about quarterback salaries and what she contends is the most important position in sports, the next iteration of the Taylor Swift effect on the NFL, and the confusing array of TV watching options for fans. Plus, team valuations, sports betting, whether the Bears are really moving out of Chicago, and of course the resurgent question of player safety.

Every season is a fresh beginning. So let's kick things off. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.

I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Michele Steele. Michele, thanks for joining us.

Michele Steele (2:08)

Hey, Bob, thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to get into today's conversation.

Bob Safian (2:13)

Yeah, you've covered the business of sports at Forbes, at Bloomberg, ESPN. Now you're at the Big Ten Network, and you've got a sub-stack Steel Cut.

Do you look at the sports business as being like different than covering, quote, pure sports stories, or has all sports coverage become about business to some extent?

Michele Steele (2:34)

Sports business reporting and sports reporting, Bob, have really converged. When I started out at Bloomberg, I was covering the markets. I was covering stocks. I was at the New York Stock Exchange.

And then something called Tiger Woods happened. And they wanted someone who could speak relatively conversationally about sports. I'm certainly not going to name names, but there was an anchor at Bloomberg TV after I did a story once on the Jets, your New York Jets.

Bob Safian (3:02)

My New York Jets, yes.

Michele Steele (3:03)

He told me at the end of the segment, he said, you know, you really should tell the audience that the Jets are a football team. And I said, if I mentioned that the Jets are a football team, they will think I'm from Mars.

Bob Safian (3:15)

So we're on the cusp of a new NFL season. So are you ready to dive in?

Michele Steele (3:21)

Let's rip.

Bob Safian (3:21)

All right. So the first question is about the NFL's value. The NFL has been called the world's best sports business, bringing in more than $20 billion in revenue each season. But the NBA's LA Lakers were just sold for 10 billion, edging out the Seattle Seahawks 9.6, I guess, billion price.

So is the NBA closing the gap between the two leagues, or is the NFL still top of the heap?

Michele Steele (3:52)

I do think that that gap is certainly narrowing between the two, but I think that the Lakers occupy a very special place and of course a huge market. The Lakers don't even own their stadium and they were able to get $12.5 billion from Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. The fact that that deal came together in 72 hours, it didn't even hit the open market. I think if it had hit an auction, I think it would have necessarily gone for even more than $12.5 billion.

You saw the Seahawks get sold to Vinod Khosla. I think in both situations, there's only a few of these teams in the NBA and the NFL available at any one time. So of course scarcity is one big thing. And the other thing, I was at a conference last year where a deal maker told me, 30 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago, that sports, you could not argue that sports was the center of the entertainment universe. Now it's undisputed, it is. I looked it up and in 2018, 61 of the top 100 shows on broadcast television were sports. Do you know what it was five years later in 2023?

Bob Safian (5:07)