Scrutiny around the journalistic implications of the NFL\u2019s impending mega-deal with ESPN that will see the league cede control of NFL Network and other media assets to ESPN in return for a 10% stake in the network is already starting to crop up.<\/p>\n
This weekend, Reuters reported that ESPN is scrapping a multi-part docuseries about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick<\/a>. The ex-49er has become a symbol for racial justice efforts around the league after his on-field protests during the national anthem became a controversial issue for the NFL nearly 10 years ago.<\/p>\n The timing of the docuseries\u2019 cancelation has understandably drawn attention in the wake of the NFL\u2019s deal with ESPN. The partnership raises obvious questions over whether or not ESPN will continue to be able to cover the league impartially, or at least at the same level of impartiality the outlet covered the league with prior to the deal.<\/p>\n Last week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell informed ESPN employees that the NFL wouldn\u2019t change anything about their jobs; they\u2019d still be free to cover the league as they currently do. It\u2019ll take some time to know whether or not that statement holds true, but the optics of the Kaepernick docuseries getting dropped \u2014 a docuseries that likely would\u2019ve been critical of the league \u2014 lends some credence to the idea that ESPN might be more cautious to platform content that might paint the league in a poor light.<\/p>\n However, veteran NFL writer Mike Florio doesn\u2019t believe that dynamic impacted the fate of the docuseries. \u201cBased on things I\u2019ve separately heard and sensed, I believe the project was destined to die without the NFL on deck to own a piece of ESPN. But the NFL-ESPN relationship will make reasonable people believe the seeds for the scrapping of the show were planted the moment it appeared the NFL would end up owning part of ESPN,\u201d Florio wrote on his website Pro Football Talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given the timing being so shortly after the NFL-ESPN deal was announced, it does seem likely that discussions about the future of the docuseries were happening prior to any tie-up between the league and network.<\/p>\n Regardless, stories such as this are likely to become commonplace in light of the deal, if\/when it receives federal approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scrutiny around the journalistic implications of the NFL\u2019s impending mega-deal with ESPN that will see the league cede…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,47249,4230,514,44486,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-77632","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-colin-kaepernick","11":"tag-mike-florio","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-spike-lee","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77632","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=77632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}