Power in the N.F.L.
The N.F.L.’s annual meeting is just two weeks away.
The league’s board of governors, meeting in Florida this week, is expected to approve a proposed merger with the league’s television partners. The plan would give the N.F.L. a TV deal worth $5 billion. This deal would not only bring the N.F.L. closer to the $16 billion goal its board set last year, it would also put it in better position to become a world-class organization.
The N.F.L. is a great football league and something to be proud of. There are so many reasons why it is the best in the NFL and one of the greatest in all of sports. The fact that the N.F.L. is on a path to $16 billion in revenues is amazing. The fact that it could end up being the first billion-dollar sports organization is even more amazing. The fact that the N.F.L. could attract more than 20,000 football fans to its games is mindblowing.
But there is one reason for all of this—power.
Power: The Power
The N.F.L. has the power to change the way the game is played, the way it is watched, the way it is monetized. The power to alter the way the game is played and the way it is monetized is not something that every team in the league has. The N.F.L. could be a leader in the N.A.D.A.P., the National Association of Passive Aggressive Players. It could be the first organization to make a full-scale effort to stop the use of racial slurs in the N.F.L. The N.F.L. could be a leader in the fight against domestic violence. It could be the first in the N.A.D.A.P. to make it illegal to talk about domestic violence on social media. It could change the way the N.F.L. monetizes games. It could be the first to prohibit the use of social media for gambling.
Power is a word that gets bandied about a lot in sports. I am not talking about power in general. I am talking about the power that is associated with the N.F.L. The power that is associated with the N.F.L. is not
