Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [297]
DICK EBERSOL:
Pat Bowlen [owner of the Denver Broncos] was the first person to say to me, “There still may be a chance for Sunday night. Steve Bornstein and I really have come around, and we believe Sunday night with you guys has more of an opportunity for us to maintain our rating. You should call Paul.” So I called Tagliabue and I talked to him for an hour, and he basically said the same thing. Then he said, “We can’t do anything until we get ESPN to move.” This was the end of January.
The league agreed to extend the deadline to April 15. So now it’s the very beginning of March, and I’m living in our house in Colorado, and one Sunday morning, the second Sunday in March, I called Pat at work—I just knew he’d be at work—and I said, “I can take Sunday Night Football,” and he asked me about a number. I told him I thought it could be done for about $600 million, and then he said, “All right, but I want you to put this to a vote of your coworkers. I want to make sure they’re all in this thing. I don’t want to find out later that you and Jeff were the only hot passionate guys and the others were forced to do something.” So I went around to everybody and we were all on board for $600 million. And then we just waited.
AL MICHAELS:
I did find out a day or two before the whole thing came down that NBC was the other player, and I called Bob [Iger], and he said, “That can’t be. They’re out of it.” I said, “Bob, I can’t tell you how I know, but I know it’s NBC. I’m 99 percent certain.” He said, “But that doesn’t make any sense.”
Friday, April 14, 2005, proved to be a major day in the histories of ESPN, the National Football League, and the National Broadcasting Company. Breakfast was served on the fifteenth floor of the NFL’s headquarters in Manhattan. Iger, Bodenheimer, and Shapiro arrived and were met by Bornstein, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, his deputy Roger Goodell, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos.
Iger told the NFL guys that he had an offer for Monday night, but they didn’t want to hear about it, at least not then. “We’re not going to accept offers for Monday night,” Bowlen announced. “You want to be in prime-time football, you have to be on Sunday night.” Iger said he didn’t want to do it that way, and proceeded to make a $1.5 billion offer: $1 billion for Sunday night football on ESPN, and $500 million for Monday night football on ABC. So much for ABC dumping Monday Night Football.
Bowlen exploded; Kraft was frustrated. They couldn’t believe Iger was now making a bid that Bowlen had practically begged him to make more than six months earlier. The NFL gang was so miffed, they left the room.
ROBERT KRAFT, Owner, New England Patriots:
I never used the word “insulting” about their offer. I don’t think anyone can use that word when you’re talking about $1.5 billion. What I did feel was that their offer didn’t reflect fair value for both nights, and we were pleased that the market proved that belief to be right.
While Iger agonized, NFL chief operating officer Roger Goodell called Dick Ebersol and asked how quickly he could get over there. Ebersol was at 280 Park Avenue in twenty minutes and was spirited up by a back elevator. The NFL negotiating team asked Ebersol if he was still willing to pay $600 million for Sunday night. Ebersol said yes, and the NFL guys said, “Congratulations, you have a new football night.”
Minutes later, Commissioner Tagliabue told Iger and Bodenheimer that Sunday night was no longer an option. The 21 lunch notwithstanding, Iger had been told by at least one knowledgeable insider that NBC was in the bidding and had simply refused to believe it. Now he knew it was true, whether it made sense or not. Sunday night was gone; only Monday night remained. And Iger knew what Bornstein had known for close to two decades: he just couldn’t let ESPN go without football because it would brutally harm the brand,