Ben Gilbert

But like, who cares about your league?

No one's going to watch this.

So we hear your pitch.

We understand that this is very innovative and breakthrough and very different than what the different NFL teams are doing.

And we don't really care that much.

This is probably the fourth episode we've talked about Rune Arledge on.

This is actually shocking.

Like I know to everyone right now, we're like, well, of course.

But it used to be the case that Sunday afternoons kind of had a hole in their schedule.

Like CBS had no good programming.

And so that's why they would originally agree to like, sure, we'll broadcast some NFL games.

But no one expected the American public in their living rooms to take to football as an event, as an entertainment form delivered over the air to the living room the way that it did.

And so the NFL sort of rebranded Sundays in America and turned it into a completely different way that people spend their time.

And that was shocking.

The networks now had signal that people did want to behave in this way and they could feel safe sort of signing business deals and pursuing this because even though it wasn't what they expected, turns out there is demand for this product.

$1.3 million to the league per year.

Yeah, the NFL has just gotten too big.

Each of the owners has too many of their own interests to argue for.

They're in dire need of something or someone to unify them.

Right.