Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [214]
STEVE BORNSTEIN:
This deal was about billions and billions in revenue and asset value, and the fact is that every other business that Eisner was running, including his animation business and his television network, was going in the crapper. This was the only thing that was making money. I don’t think Tom Murphy or Dan Burke would’ve allowed me to do that. They would’ve not seen the risk as worth it.
STEVE BURKE:
I was there when Michael [Eisner] called and they patched in Warren Buffett. Warren was great. Within five seconds he said, “It looks like with the NFL on ESPN you just built the biggest moat around the biggest castle in the world.”
That NFL deal really made ESPN.
As if the cable surcharges weren’t enough, Disney shareholders could thank Eisner for adding one more layer of protection onto the deal. As a 20 percent owner in ESPN, Hearst was expected to pay for 20 percent of deals, but for a deal this big, Eisner got Hearst to adjust the allocation between ABC and ESPN so that the network paid less and ESPN paid more. That meant Hearst would have to contribute more than 20 percent.
From the moment he arrived at ESPN in 1980, Steve Bornstein proved himself one of the most competitive and aggressive executives in television. It’s doubtful that anyone else could have or would have been as determined and resourceful in pushing his new boss to acquire a full season of NFL games as Bornstein was with Michael Eisner. But to succeed, Bornstein’s plan needed a foundation built on contacts and contracts with cable operators—fortunately, a subculture with which George Bodenheimer had been masterfully familiar for fifteen years. And yet, even if Bornstein and Bodenheimer had gotten their act together without a single hitch, they needed Michael Eisner to get it past the Disney board. The involvement of all three men was necessary to pull off the landmark NFL deal. If one had been missing, it very likely would not have happened.
ESPN’s acquisition of a full season of NFL games in 1998—Step Number Eight in ESPN’s rise to world dominance.
CHRIS BERMAN:
When we got the full season, I called a few people to talk about whether I should go into the booth. I asked each of them, “Should I do this?” I even called Ohlmeyer on my own, and talked to him awhile about it. I remember Steve Sabol, in the classic jargon of football, told me, “That would be like taking Jim Brown and making him a flanker. You’d be a great flanker, but why would you do it? You’re already either the star running back or the quarterback.” I really appreciated that.
FRED GAUDELLI:
When ESPN acquired the rights to the full season, Bornstein brought in Steve Anderson [then executive producer of ABC Sports] and a bunch of us from ABC and ESPN who were involved in Monday Night Football on the remote side and the studio side. He said, “I want to co-mingle these two brands. You guys figure out how far we should go.” So we had a series of meetings and everybody in the room, everybody, was in agreement that Monday Night Football was a very special brand, so ABC should keep Hank Williams, the crashing helmets, and the theme songs. If ESPN wanted to have the same graphic or promo look for Sunday night, that would be okay, but we should keep all those iconic Monday Night Football elements tied to Mondays and ABC.
Then we met with Bornstein and told him what we had come up with, and he says, “You know what? All you guys are fucked up. I want Hank Williams on Sunday Night Football, crashing helmets on Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football theme music on Sunday Night Football. I want these two fucking shows to look the same!” So that’s what happened, and that was a big mistake. Yes, you had to think of a way to make Sunday Night Football