Did The NFL Put Pressure On ESPN To Divorce Frontline?

 

Under the headline “N.F.L. Pressure Said to Lead ESPN to Quit Film Project,” Miller and Ken Belson reported that ESPN’s decision to divorce itself from Frontline, which airs on PBS, had come a week after the NFL voiced its displeasure with the documentary at a lunch between league and ESPN executives.

 

Wrote Miller: “It was a table for four: Roger Goodell, commissioner of the N.F.L.; Steve Bornstein, president of the NFL Network; John Skipper, ESPN’s president; and John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice president for production. The meeting was combative…with league officials conveying their irritation with the direction of the documentary, which is expected to describe a narrative that has been captured in various news reports over the past decade: the league turning a blind eye to evidence that players were sustaining brain trauma on the field that could lead to profound, long-term cognitive disability.”

 

The Times story was immediately denied by the NFL. In an email sent to reporters including SI.com, the NFL said, “It is not true that we pressured ESPN to pull out of the film. The lunch was requested several weeks ago by ESPN. We meet with our business partners on a regular basis and this was not unusual.”

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