Almost precisely one year ago, Patriots owner Robert Kraft told me why the NFL had hired senior Washington insider Ted Ullyot as its new top lawyer. “We’re at the top of the heap,” Kraft said. "We’re going to be a target in antitrust, and in a lot of other ways.”
In fact, everyone in sports should, said Jodi Balsam, a former NFL lawyer and professor at Brooklyn Law School. “Anyone who sells a national package that is behind a paywall is potentially vulnerable to exactly the inquiry the DOJ is making with respect to the NFL,” Balsam said.
The labor strife between the NFL and its officials union is just one of several big-ticket challenges facing the NFL this offseason. Getty Images
So much for the NFL offseason. At a time when most NFL and team employees are starting to envision life after the draft and maybe some PTO, the league is putting together a lengthy and significant offseason to-do list. Here’s a rundown of the most obvious big-ticket loose ends, which doesn’t even include the biggest thing — the long-term media rights packages — just because that doesn’t have to happen this offseason.
Players contract/18th game: Can the NFL secure an 18th regular-season game from the NFLPA this offseason? If you take the world at face value, it would seem difficult. JC Tretter is just nine days into his tenure as executive director of the NFLPA; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said nice things about letting him get acclimated. And Tretter says the union wouldn’t negotiate now anyway.
Bears stadium: Goodell says this needs to be settled “sooner rather than later.” Bears President Kevin Warren says he expects to get a stadium deal done, in either Illinois or Indiana, by “late spring/early summer.” That’s an intentionally flexible timeline, but know this: The Illinois Legislature is supposed to adjourn May 31; it can sit longer, but all bills passed after that need 60% support, not just a bare majority.
If that date passes without the property tax and infrastructure spending legislation the Bears say they need in Illinois, well, summer starts June 21, and Indiana is locked and loaded. If the Bears are truly prepared to move to Indiana, then at that point the decision appears made.
Incidentally, Warren made clear that the “due diligence” on the stadium site in Hammond, Indiana, is not the kind of due diligence that could still uncover a critical flaw. “I don’t foresee any reason that we’re going to find something that’s going to render this project not capable of getting done, but it will give us clarity on kind of the final cost and the process and the timing,” he said.
Mini media rights package: The NFL wants to release a schedule during the network Upfronts the week of May 11. That gives Executive VP/Media Distribution Hans Schroeder and his team about four weeks to sell the rights to the five games that don’t have a distributor, including the 49ers-Rams matchup in Australia. One challenge, sources said, is networks and streamers are bidding without knowing matchups or windows. Yes, the Australia game drives extraordinary value, but there’s no guarantee the others are premier games.
The uncertainty around those five games doesn’t affect the rest of the schedule much, Schroeder said, so it’s not holding back the work. Finding the best combination of creative possibilities for business and fans is the hard part, he said. “The challenge, quite frankly, is managing through some really interesting proposals and creativity for the market.”
Seahawks sale:As I wrote last week, everyone believes the Seahawks sale can get done by the season, but it’s potentially a tough putt because of the Super Bowl appearance, which delayed the auction by weeks. In other words, anyone associated with this deal should have modest vacation expectations this summer.
Referee CBA:The NFLRA’s labor contract expires May 31, which in theory is still plenty of time to strike a deal. But the league’s tactic of going public against the officials starting at the league meeting, including a plan to hire replacement officials in May, suggests trouble ahead.
Athletes First clients attend a Como 1907 match against Pisa Sporting Club on March 22. (l-to-r): Nick Emmanwori (Seahawks); Como 1907 CRO Ryan Shelton; Kyle Pitts (Falcons); Justin Fields (Chiefs); Como 1907 President Mirwan Suwarso; Micah Parsons (Packers); Will Johnson (Cardinals); and Bijan Robinson (Falcons). Open field Advisory/Kali Reed
The NFL’s aggressive international push has uncovered a strength hiding in plain sight: For every fan of American football overseas, there are 100 more fans of youthful American culture, and the NFL’s players embody that culture. Even if the Xs and Os might be a hard sell, the whole scene is in demand.
Athletes First, the league’s largest player representation agency, has discovered this as well over a series of international business-development trips for players in recent years, said Bryan Burney, head of athlete marketing. Recently, he took six clients, including 2025 All-Pros Bijan Robinson (Falcons RB) and Micah Parsons (Packers DE), to Lake Como, Italy, for three days that blended a luxury vacation and business introductions.
There, the six NFL players attended a Como 1907 soccer match, where they met privately with senior C-suite leaders of the club. They also met Dolce & Gabbana Beauty CEO Gianluca Toniolo. The ultimate goal, Burney said, is obviously to generate revenue-producing deals for the clients, but simply exposing the young players to other cultures and connections with potential business partners is a worthwhile use of time.
Como 1907 players and staff were impressed when Parsons used their training equipment to rehab his knee, Burney said, and the NFL and Serie A players bonded over their workouts. Some trips include youth camps, where the players teach the sport to kids. In all cases, they find plenty of intrigue waiting for them.
“Maybe they’re not NFL fans, but they love high performance,” Burney said. “Flag football is slowly growing there, but hip-hop music is massive, the culture of the NFL is very popular, whether it’s the clothes they wear or the music they listen to. There’s no getting away from fashion.”
Another benefit has come from enhancing existing deals; Packers QB Jordan Love already has a deal with Sony, but via an Athletes First trip to Japan, he was able to get face time with global Sony leadership in Tokyo.
The trips started in 2023 and have visited 16 countries. Burney said the progress has been clear.
“At first, I said to my clients, from a cash-endorsement standpoint, I’m not really sure what’s out there for you guys, but I can assure you we’ll have a first class experience, and you won’t spend a dime on the trip. That’s my underwriting commitment, and how it goes from there, we’ll explore it together,” Burney said. “But the last two years, we’re starting to see real paid opportunities.”
Athletes First produces the trips in cooperation with Open Field Advisory, a Milan-based consultancy that helps NFL athletes find international opportunities.
A diagram of the Rams’ draft activation plans, designed to help sponsor Zillow promote its real estate marketplace and emphasize Hollywood Park near SoFi Stadium. Rams draft plans
The L.A. Rams and sponsor Zillow are moving away from their active “Draft House” concept of recent years, when coach Sean McVay and GM Les Snead actually chose their players from an invite-only brand activation/sponsored content creation venue, a truly unusual football ops-business side collaboration.
This year’s Zillow Draft House will be a more conventional, fan-facing brand activation, this time in the Hollywood Park development near SoFi Stadium. It opens to the public April 16, and during the draft itself April 23-25, a nearby “Rams Block Party presented by Zillow” will launch for public viewing. (McVay and Snead will also be at Hollywood Park, but will draft from Code Next Inglewood by Google, a space the firm funds for STEM education. It will not be open to the public.)
Note the location: Hollywood Park, Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s real estate development that includes residences along with stores, restaurants and a movie theater. It dovetails with Zillow’s marketing campaign that leans into the importance of the community surrounding a home on the market, said CMO Beverly Jackson.
“The reality is home buying and home ownership is a hyper-local experience,” Jackson said. “Nobody makes home ownership a reality by themselves, and you don’t just pick a home based on a home. You’re looking for the best dog park, or the best schools. In L.A., you might be looking for an easy commute, and that’s why community matters.”
Rams Chief Commercial Officer Jen Prince said the Hollywood Park development will become a major site for fan gatherings and commercial activity around the coming major events at SoFi, including the World Cup, the Olympics and another Super Bowl in the next three years. “We’re celebrating what Mr. Kroenke’s been able to build here, and fans will get to experience it before the world comes to also experience it.”
The Draft House will include a living room where fans can experience “getting drafted,” a turf field and a retail store. Zillow’s overarching brand message is “someday starts today,” an inspirational theme around home ownership that connects well with college players entering the NFL. The block party includes carnival rides, the watch party presented by Bud Light, and brand experiences.
There’s another job opening for the new professional flag football league. TMRW Sports and Excel Search & Advisory are searching for a senior VP/flag football operations. The chosen hire will “own the full flag football ecosystem,” including player admin, coaches, talent development, gameday operations, rules and officiating, according to a job description. The position will report to the as-yet-unnamed president of flag for TMRW (which Elevate Talent is handling). Excel Partner Matt Rogers is leading the search.
The UFL says it will launch its first expansion team since 2024 after signing a contract to use the MAPS 4 Multipurpose Stadium now under development in Oklahoma City.
Temple students won a mock NFL contract negotiation competition at Villanova with a five-year, $358 million contract for Texans QB C.J. Stroud, notes SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario.
