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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

By Evan Weiner

March 7, 2011

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As the representatives from the National Football League ownership group and the National Football League Players Association continue to try and bridge their differences and sign a new collective bargaining agreement (and yes Green Bay Packers players have collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin despite the best efforts of the state’s governor to bust public employee unions as Governor Scott Walker told the fake David Koch), it might be useful to review 60 years of television money and players association activity and how closely linked television and the players really are.

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NFL owners were planning to use some $4 billion in 2011 television rights fees to underwrite a lockout. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (FOX), General Electric (now Comcast)’s NBC, Sumner Redstone’s CBS, the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and DirecTV cozied up to the NFL owners because the owners’ product is still a consistently watched fare in an increasingly fragmented audience industry: TV.

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

By Evan Weiner

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ABC’s Martin Bashir and Roxanna Sherwood did a piece on NFL brain concussions on Friday night’s NIGHTLINE. From their post online:
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“Football players are getting bigger. The game is getting faster. Now, the chorus of concern is getting louder. At least four recent studies have raised serious questions about the impact of pro football on the brains of players. But are they being driven mad by the game?