David Rosenthal

and to allow for national sports contracts on a league-wide basis.

It's called the Sports Broadcasting Act.

It ends up getting passed towards the end of 1961.

The day after the bill is passed and signed by John F. Kennedy, he literally hosts a party at the White House for the NFL, which is like, just tells you everything you need to know right there.

Pete Rozelle, all the owners, they are invited to the White House to celebrate this new antitrust exemption that has been passed through Congress to allow them to negotiate this landmark deal because the president wants to watch his football.

And at this point in time, I think a lot of those arguments hold water.

This actually was driving a lot of commerce for the nation.

Wow.

Did you look at what it would be inflation adjusted?

Still pretty good.

So on the back of this landmark TV deal, Rozelle does two other really brilliant things.

First comes as kind of another accident.

So the league every year sold the rights to the NFL championship game to make a movie out of it.

Yeah, they were kind of hokey, like a really rudimentary highlight reel type thing.

In 1962, they get a bid for the rights.

The bidding is a sealed auction.

They get a bid that comes in from a guy named Ed Sable, who was a suburban dad in Philadelphia who liked to make home movies, particularly home movies of his son Steve's high school football games.

This guy, Ed, bids on the rights to make the NFL championship movie for 1962.

So the bids are unsealed.

And Ed had done a little homework.