What NFL Owners Don't Want You to Know, with Don Van Natta Jr.
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What insights does Don Van Natta Jr. provide about NFL ownership?
That got the New York Times' attention, got recruited there at the age of 30, and won two Pulitzers there, team Pulitzers, for explanatory journalism about the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York.
In other words, just a natural progression to the NFL.
That's right. I always say that covering the CIA, the Pentagon, trying to get secrets out of there prepared me for covering the National Football League.
So there are two kinds of news that I think you need to know about. There's the kind of news that powerful people want you to find out, and then there's the kind that they don't. And Don Van Natta is a master of that second kind of news. Don is currently working on an unauthorized biography of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He has famously profiled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. And at ESPN, he has investigated pretty much all of the most powerful people in pro football, often with Seth Wickersham. And so during Super Bowl week, when almost everyone else does the first kind of news, what I wanted to do was sit down with Don in Miami to talk about what power looks like inside the single most powerful institution in American culture.
whose status, by the way, was not always this secure. Just over 10 years ago, in fact, the NFL was in crisis mode. I remember no less than former NBA owner Mark Cuban, at this point, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, echoing many other businessmen and many other thought leaders, like Malcolm Gladwell, for instance, when Cuban declared before a Mavs game, quote, I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion. I'm just telling you, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, and they're getting hoggy. Just watch. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I'm just telling you, when you've got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That is rule number one of business." And I just don't know if there's a worse prediction in our business.
I remember that quote vividly. The NFL, you could argue, has been quite greedy since then. Quite hoggy. Quite hoggy. And all of the metrics are moving in the right direction from ratings to team valuations, which are maybe the most important to owners. But yeah, absolutely. 10 years later, Mark got that one wrong.
Yeah, I mean, what Mark Cuban was saying about the real estate available on television, he was saying they're trying to take over every night of television. And this is basically a heat check. They're doing too much. They're trying to take too much. People are going to, as he says this, he says, talking about the NFL games, claiming Saturday. Now you're impacting colleges.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What insights does Don Van Natta Jr. provide about NFL ownership?
1:54–8:53
2
How did the NFL navigate past crises?
8:53–10:41
3
What role does Roger Goodell play in the NFL's power dynamics?
10:41–31:19
4
How do NFL owners influence major decisions?
31:19–34:38
5
Why is Jerry Jones considered a powerful figure among NFL owners?
34:38–38:27
6
What makes the NFL's financial landscape unique?
38:27–47:34
7
How has the perception of the NFL changed over time?
47:34–48:14
Speakers
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