SBJ Football: The NFL-Hall of Fame conundrum

It’s been so depressing to be a friend of former Washington Post reporter Mark Maske this week. On Monday, he got the first question at Roger Goodell’s press conference (as he has for years), and by Wednesday morning, he was out of a job. I am not a sentimental journalist; the industry’s been in flux my entire career, and nobody should be obligated to run a business at a loss. But the people who own and run the Washington Post didn’t even try to prevent this. They took a called third strike.

Keep reading for more from the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the booming business of flag football at the Super Bowl and some stories from the sponsorship and media trenches here on the ground.

Oh, and don’t miss my appearance on the Columbia Sports Management program’s official podcast, live from radio row. You can find out what news story I deem to be “mostly nonsense.”

Roger Goodell’s tough press conference Monday was headlined by questions about Giants co-owner Steve Tisch’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein and the backsliding on minority coach hiring. But let’s return to the questions about Bill Belichick and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which seemed to frustrate him and frankly raises a fair question in my mind about the Hall’s place in the modern football business.

“The Pro Football Hall of Fame is not in any way controlled by the NFL,” Goodell said when Boston Globe reporter Ben Volin raised the Belichick snub. “We have no say in the voting process. We don’t participate in the voting process. I think you know this, but I want to make sure that the question doesn’t lead people that conclusion.”

Then, ProFootballTalk’s Charean Williams asked him a follow-up about the voting process, noting he serves on the Hall of Fame’s board of directors. (Most of that board and all of its officers are unaffiliated with the NFL, but it does include Goodell and eight NFL owners or limited partners.)

Goodell said: “We don’t make the rules at our board level.” Later, he pleaded: “Please don’t misrepresent our role in this because it’s the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s not the NFL Hall of Fame, and it is completely and entirely run separately.”

To me, the question is: Is that a good thing? Goodell recognizes the position he’s in: The hall is, in practice, an extension of the NFL’s brand, and this week it’s “wounded.” The league gives the hall money and rights. But he’s just one board member there. That lack of control is a big loose end when it comes to the NFL’s normally precise management of its reputation and intellectual property.

This isn’t the first time I’ve raised this question. As debt and legal problems piled up at the Hall of Fame’s troubled mixed-use real estate development in Canton, I’ve asked lots of NFL insiders how much it bothered them, considering how un-NFL-like that entire project is. To a person, those insiders told me it was a fair question, but they believe most people know the Hall is separate, and besides, the solution, whatever it would be, would end up creating more problems than it solves.

Marc Ganis, a consultant who’s close with Goodell and other owners, said there’s an upside to the separation. Goodell can legitimately distance himself from the Belichick omission. Ganis did acknowledge that the relationship between the NFL and the Hall of Fame “has anomalies.” “It is generally satisfactory, but it has anomalies,” said Ganis.

When LA28 pulled off the audacious accomplishment of adding American football to the Olympic program in 2023, the commercial potential of the NFL-Olympics marriage was immediately evident. Before the final vote, I wrote: “If flag football does make the final list, it would be an extraordinary coup for the NFL.”

This week in San Francisco, we see one of the most visible examples yet of this. Nike, already a global NFL sponsor and licensee, announced it’s now sponsoring the national flag football teams of Great Britain, Mexico and the Canada through the 2028 games. As this newsletter hits inboxes, Mexico is debuting its Nike uniforms at a USA-Mexico friendly on the NFL’s flag field at the Super Bowl Experience, with Toyota along as the game’s presenting sponsor.

The Olympics are one of the few marketing platforms with more reach than the NFL, and because of its decentralized nature, marketers in the Olympics space — whether for a sport or for a brand — can work both a global awareness angle and impactful team- and market-specific grassroots campaigns.

“This moment brings two powerful forces together,” Ann Miller, EVP/global marketing at Nike, told me. “Our long partnership with the NFL has helped grow flag football across the United States, and now that work connects directly to the global stage of LA28.”

Those three country teams will benefit from Nike’s years of investment in flag growth, she said. “The overlap gives us a rare opportunity to bring these worlds together and accelerate access to the sport,” Miller said.

I don’t know whether flag football will ever become a commercially viable product in its own right. And I don’t know whether the British, Spanish or Emiratis will ever really love the game the way Americans do. But look at the lineup all rowing in the same direction to make this happen: Nike (the world’s largest sportswear brand), Toyota (the world’s largest automaker), the NFL and the Olympics. All the levers are being used. That doesn’t happen without the sport making the Olympic program.

When Rocket Companies, the parent of NFL sponsor Rocket Mortgage, acquired the online real estate brokerage Redfin in July, a brainstorming session developed a bold idea: A creative campaign that covered both brands. While unconventional, “Own the dream” works for both a brokerage and a mortgage provider.

CMO Jonathan Mildenhall started thinking big, envisioning an integrated Super Bowl campaign that would use both Rocket and Redfin branding to drive interest in a $1 million home giveaway contest. The winner will be the first eligible contestant to guess the location of a real home on the app, using small clues in photos. The mystery home would be disclosed nationally in a Super Bowl ad, and hype would be built at Rocket’s activation at the Super Bowl Experience here in San Francisco.

After Mildenhall created the vision and the mockup for the activations, he says, his team gave him the bad news: Redfin can buy a Super Bowl ad, but it can’t be at the Experience unless it also becomes an NFL sponsor. Online brokerages are a different category from mortgages. “I didn’t realize that,” Mildenhall said. “I honestly didn’t think about that. It was going to be a Rocket and Redfin activation, so we needed to pivot.”

The contest is still on. It will be promoted in a Redfin commercial bought on NBC. But at the Experience, fans at the Rocket Mortgage activation won’t see Redfin, but they can play a game called “Dream Home Finder.” The whole thing collects email addresses, which Rocket will then use to drive interest in the Redfin contest.

“Originally, I had Redfin branding all over the top of this thing and then it was like, oh, right, OK, no, we can’t actually show Redfin branding, so we took the whole thing down,” Mildenhall said. “So now the invitation is: You show up to the Rocket experience that enhances the Super Bowl experience. We get traffic flow, we get party data, and then we can market to that first-party data however we wish.”

Incidentally, Mildenhall did not rule out eventually obtaining NFL sponsorship rights for Redfin, but he says there simply hasn’t been enough time to vet the idea and cost. Does he worry that this tale might spur the NFL to offer those rights to Zillow and gin up a bidding war? “No, I’m never really worried about the competition.”

The Super Bowl always involves a higher level of production than a normal NFL broadcast, especially extra cameras and new personnel to operate them.

For years, broadcasters enlisted local high school teams in the Super Bowl market to practice with the unfamiliar equipment in the final days before the game. This year, my colleague Austin Karp reports that NBC tapped powerhouse De La Salle from nearby Concord, Calif., to help out on the field at Levi’s Stadium on Friday.

The kids coming from the East Bay suburb will don uniforms with numbers corresponding to the Seahawks and Patriots players and run plays at Levi’s as the NBC producers test a variety of situations. That includes the national anthem and other pregame elements, various camera positions and adjusting for the sun with kickoff set for 3:30pm Pacific time.

“We have a lot more equipment, and it’s a really great opportunity for us to see new camera angles, new replay sources,” said Rob Hyland, NBC Sports’ coordinating producer for Super Bowl LX. “For me as a producer calling the replays, it’s a chance to make sure I’m familiar with all these additional sources.”

Hyland noted the players come already set with a playbook, simulating Sam Darnold, Drake Maye and other players based on plays run this season. “We’ll even rehearse the national anthem and ‘America the Beautiful’ with the high school kids on the sidelines with the right jersey numbers so we know who we want to see during those moments,” Hyland said.

NBC Sports NFL Executive Producer Fred Gaudelli said that when he was directing the Super Bowl he would have a direct line to whomever the play caller was during the practice run. “I would always put in a couple of trick plays to see if everybody was on it,” said Gaudelli, referencing camera and replay staff.

Big moment

The NFL and De La Salle have worked together before. The team was brought over to London in 2024 to play an exhibition against the NFL Academy.

The NFL reached out last March about getting involved, said De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh. His kids are thrilled. “If I’m a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kid, are you kidding me?” he said. “They needed 35-40 kids, and we had 59 immediately that wanted to go. ... My coaches are drawing straws to see who goes.”

Long history

NBC director Drew Esocoff, a self-described “high school football junkie,” shared an anecdote about visiting the Fox production compound ahead of Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium. “Within 10 miles, you have [Don Bosco Prep], Paramus Catholic, Bergen Catholic, St. Peter’s and all the big public schools,” he said. “Richie Russo, my buddy who’s [Fox’s] director, brings a local high school from like Marlboro [N.J.] and I don’t think that anybody over 5’6” was getting off the bus.”

Gaudelli noted that John Madden would sit behind him during these practices years ago, but the current booth doesn’t attend. “[Madden] wanted to see these angles that he hadn’t seen all season,” Gaudelli said. “And then he would want to see what he thought I would be showing him in a particular replay, like if someone caught the ball or not. And afterward, he would give me some feedback.”

My SBJ colleagues Austin Karp and Terry Lefton are with me covering the Super Bowl from the San Francisco Bay Area this week, with our work hitting on labor issues, the schedule, marketing revenue and merchandise and media. Also: Be sure to read this week’s cover story package on the seemingly unlimited ceiling for the Super Bowl’s growth.

An observation from San Francisco: The surest bet at the Super Bowl — if your brand can activate at radio row with free food and beverage to working journalists, you’ll be a hit. Bounty’s chicken wings giveaway has been selling out for a few years now, and this year, Visit Victoria joined the fun, serving Australian coffee while also promoting Melbourne ahead of the Rams-49ers international game later this year. They had long lines every time I walked by, and for good reason. Food’s hard to come by around there, oddly enough.

NFL team sponsorship revenue growth outpacing team deals

NFL team sponsorship revenue growth is outpacing the number of team deals by close to 3X, according to data generated by the newest version of SponsorUnited’s industry-tracking software. NFL team sponsorship revenues are up 11% year-over-year, reaching $2.7 billion. Read more.

NFLPA talks downsides of more football

Super Bowl fever is building in the Bay Area. In that environment, it’s easy to recall former NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell Jr.’s words from 2024: “Who doesn’t want to see more football, myself included?” But as the world looks forward to Sunday’s game, on Tuesday, Howell’s interim successor wanted fans to pause and remember injuries from Week 16 in December and wild-card weekend, which would be Week 18 if the NFL adds another game to its schedule. Read more.

NBC’s debut Super Bowl producer: ‘Do your job’

Rob Hyland has no shortage of enormous sporting events on his resume, which includes countless Olympics, “Sunday Night Football,” Notre Dame football and horse racing’s Triple Crown. But none of them compare to Hyland’s task Sunday, as he serves as coordinating producer for his first Super Bowl. In terms of storytelling, Hyland and his team are planning to mic up family members of certain players from both teams so viewers can hear their reactions to key plays. Read more.

NFLPA ‘in no rush’ to open contract early, president says

Union leaders said Tuesday they’ll listen to offers if the NFL wants to renegotiate the contract early, but they are in no hurry to consider an 18th game or any other changes. “I don’t think the union is in any rush, or player membership, is in a rush to open that deal,” said NFLPA President Jalen Reeves-Maybin during the union’s traditional Super Bowl week press conference. Read more.

There are limits to employees speaking out, NFLPA chief says

NFLPA interim Executive Director David White said Tuesday that union staffers should be able to speak their mind “within limits,” suggesting that untoward publicity can be at odds with best serving the player members. Read more.

Goodell insists NFL is not ‘assuming’ 18th game gets done

Less than two weeks after Patriots owner and NFL power broker Robert Kraft said the league “will” extend the regular season to 18 games, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to discourage that certainty Monday, repeating his prior remarks that it must be negotiated with the NFLPA as part of comprehensive collective bargaining. Read more.

Goodell: College football needs ‘clarity,’ NFL will help if asked for input

Goodell said Monday the league would be willing to help solve some of the challenges facing the tumultuous world of college football, but only if its input is solicited and welcome. “There’s obviously a lot of change going on and a lot of disruption, and they do need to bring some clarity to that,” Goodell said. “And I think that’s something that, if for some reason we could be helpful with the right people, we would obviously be willing to engage with anybody. But I think we try to stay in our lane unless we’re invited in to be part of the solution.” Read more.

• Veteran 49ers President Al Guido is now the organization’s CEO, assuming the title owner Jed York had held since 2010. Nothing on the team’s org chart will change. Guido will continue to report to York, who will now be referred to as the principal owner.
• This week’s SBJ Media newsletter from Austin Karp examines where things stand heading into the Super Bowl after one full NFL season of Nielsen Big Data measurement of viewership.
• Karp also writes that Nielsen and the NFL are launching a pilot program around Super Bowl LX aimed at a new methodology that could enhance accounting for co-viewing, which is an area the NFL (and other leagues) have looked at improving.
• Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Wednesday the network would be able to offset any cost increases that would come with a renegotiated NFL contract, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.
• Carpenter also writes that Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the Disney/ESPN acquisition of NFL Network and its assets actually closed ahead of time and will give the company an upper hand ahead of ESPN/ABC having the rights to next year’s Super Bowl.
• Eagles RB Saquon Barkley had the top-selling jersey sold at Lids this past season and the Cowboys sold more merchandise than any team, notes SBJ’s Robert Irby.