ESPN also issued another statement, denying the NFL had exerted influence. “The decision to remove our branding was not a result of concerns about our separate business relationship with the NFL,” ESPN said. “As we have in the past, we will continue to cover the concussion story aggressively through our own reporting.
Aronson-Rath said there was no hint of discord between ESPN and Frontline. The two companies had worked together on multiple projects including a tough story on NFL doctor Elliot Pellman that was posted on ESPN.com on Aug. 18 and given collaboration language at both places. Frontline and ESPN had collaborated on nine different published projects prior to ESPN ending the marriage, according to Aronson.
Staffers at ESPN had let this column know over the past month that they were fearful something like this could happen with the Frontline-ESPN collaboration. They suggested pressure was being exerted by the NFL at levels well above Outside The Lines management. Said one ESPN staffer last week: “I’m hearing of stuff I never thought I’d see at our place.”
“We had collaboration credit in two different places in their broadcast,” Aronson-Rath said of the Pellman story. “My feeling is, and I can’t verify this, it appears to me that it was not their [OTL management’s] decision. Nobody confirmed that for me but clearly [ESPN senior coordinating producer] Dwayne Bray was with us at the press tour a couple of weeks ago. That is as public as you can go with the TV critics announcing this and being asked all these same questions that are emerging right now.