{"id":51598,"date":"2025-08-07T08:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/51598\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:27:08","slug":"dan-patrick-not-worried-by-conflict-of-interest-in-espn-nfl-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/51598\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Patrick not worried by ‘conflict of interest’ in ESPN-NFL deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the smaller aspects of the groundbreaking ESPN-NFL deal that was finalized this week is that it will see a league that the Worldwide Leader covers owning a direct stake in the company.<\/p>\n

This is most unusual for an outlet like ESPN that produces journalism. After all, reporters are supposed to be independent fact-finders who bring audiences as close to the truth as possible about the biggest issues facing their communities. For a sports outlet, the NFL is one of the largest entities to report on.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, as ESPN\u2019s acquisition<\/a> of several content assets in return for a 10 percent stake neared\u00a0<\/a>completion<\/a>, many in the industry expressed concern over the company\u2019s journalistic integrity in its reporting on professional football. Dan Patrick, a former ESPN host and longtime NFL chronicler, is, however, not worried at all.<\/p>\n

Because to Dan Patrick, the \u201cmothership\u201d (as he calls it somewhat mockingly) stopped adhering to a high journalistic standard toward the league long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe journalist in me \u2026 would point out the conflict of interest,\u201d Patrick said Wednesday on his radio show<\/a>. \u201cBut ESPN can\u2019t be any further in bed with the NFL when it comes to their coverage. Are they going to look the other way with whatever negative story comes up? They\u2019ve probably already done that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Patrick went nearly two decades back to when the NFL put pressure on ESPN to cancel\u00a0Playmakers, the hit scripted series based on a pro football team. But there are numerous other, similar examples. Bill Simmons was punished after he dared ESPN to suspend him over his sharp criticisms<\/a> of commissioner Roger Goodell\u2019s handling of footage of Ray Rice punching his partner in 2015.<\/p>\n

The network also suspended Jemele Hill after a series of posts on X<\/a> (then Twitter) calling Donald Trump a white supremacist and encouraging fans to boycott NFL sponsors in retaliation for the league\u2019s treatment of Colin Kaepernick. Former ESPN president John Skipper even hinted once that the network might move on from NFL broadcasting.<\/p>\n

At the same time, ESPN has cut back investment in journalism overall. As Patrick noted, magazine-style shows like\u00a0Outside the Lines,\u00a0The Sports Reporters, and\u00a0E:60 are gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re in the content business,\u201d he said of ESPN.<\/p>\n

This dynamic is not exclusive to ESPN. The single most valuable content rights in 2025 are NFL games. Every media distributor wants a piece. And if that media distributor also produces journalistic work, that work inherently runs the risk of souring the NFL\u2019s view of that distributor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if anybody\u2019s going to hold the NFL, their feet, to the fire,\u201d Patrick worried. \u201cEverybody\u2019s in bed with the NFL. All networks have partnerships here. As far as a conflict of interest, I think that\u2019s long gone. I think there\u2019s certain things that you\u2019re just not going to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, the NFL is riding high. They have largely moved past prominent incidents of domestic violence, their mishandling of the brain trauma crisis, and the alleged blackballing of players like Colin Kaepernick, who protested against racial injustice in the 2010s.<\/p>\n

That guarantees nothing. The league is bound to face another scandal at some point. Something the league does not want attention on. And with the fortunes of ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC, and more bound directly to the NFL, leverage is high on the league\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

But Dan Patrick believes this has been the case for a long time. The new partnership between ESPN and the NFL just makes it official.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you don\u2019t care about it. Being a dinosaur, I do,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cBecause the NFL should be held accountable for certain things. But the NFL, I\u2019m sure, does not want [that]. \u2018Hey we own part of you.\u2019 Ten percent. Well, the NFL has probably owned a lot of ESPN for a long period of time. It\u2019s just not official, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the smaller aspects of the groundbreaking ESPN-NFL deal that was finalized this week is that it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,35059,5979,514,82,35136],"class_list":{"0":"post-51598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dan-patrick","11":"tag-journalism","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-the-dan-patrick-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}