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There’s a lot going on at the Olympics. There’s an idealism to it, an apolitical celebration of the world’s strongest and fastest man in front of a global audience. There’s Hypocrisy, a biennial event sponsored by the Sportswash Cabal, a group of despicable fat cats who bow down to dictators and oligarchy in the name of athletic competition.
But in the United States, the Olympics are more important than anything else. Today you could call it a multiplatform production, but it’s a television show.
And this production costs a lot of money. NBCUniversal is paying the International Olympic Committee $7.65 billion for exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States through 2032. Given that NBCUniversal is a for-profit company, it has to recoup this payment through advertising and sponsorship, and from the perspective of this column, this week’s great gift to the company is:
Flag football will be included as an event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The sport was approved by the IOC on Monday along with squash and lacrosse, which also approved the return of baseball, softball and cricket. As an organization, the NFL is already an outspoken supporter of flag football in the Olympics. The league wants to make soccer a global sport, and the Olympics offer a huge marketing opportunity.
This is where it gets interesting for sports media purposes.We’ve already seen NFL stars Tyreek Hill etc. Not only retired players have expressed interest in participating ( rob gronkowski). The more NFL players learn about the sport, the more interest will only grow. The opportunity to represent your country brings new ground for NFL players. I don’t think the NFL Players Association is against that.
Typically, each Olympic cycle, in addition to the sports that traditionally attract viewer interest (gymnastics, swimming, track and field, figure skating, ice hockey), there are one or two sports that attract public attention. Considering the possibility of a household name playing, I’d bet big that flag football will be popular in his 2028. NBCUniversal will be heavily involved in programming the Los Angeles games for U.S. television, but imagine a prime-time flag football game featuring NFL stars. So the Pro Bowl (now also known as flag football) averaged 6.28 million viewers this year, even though nothing was on the table. What would these numbers look like in a gold medal match?
NBC Olympic and Paralympic President Gary Zenkel said: “This is America’s most popular sport, in this case for both men and women, played on the world’s greatest stage and is a very exciting addition to the Olympic program for American audiences. ”.
Zenkel said NBC hasn’t done any internal research on how popular the sport will be in the U.S.-based Olympics, but said it’s interesting. I expect the programming gurus at NBC Sports to do some extensive data mining to see where the sport really shines in terms of platforms and start times.
USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck He told NFL Network’s Judy Batista. It’s “likely” that something like the Dream Team will appear in flag football this week. He understands the value of his NFL brand behind it.
“I’m excited to see Tyreek Hill say, ‘I want to play,'” Hallenbeck said. “Who wouldn’t want him involved? I would say there’s a very rigorous process between the United States Olympic Committee and USA Football to put in place the player selection process. Of course, that We welcome NFL players as part of the process.”
Will the games be competitive between Americans and other countries? I doubt it, but tell me when Americans aren’t crowding around the TV to watch someone wearing the Stars and Stripes beat the competition. Example: The most dominant U.S. Olympic team in recent history, the U.S. women’s basketball team at the Tokyo Olympics, defeated Japan 90-75 in the gold medal game in August 2021, drawing 7.8 million viewers. collected. The game was broadcast live in prime time. Airs on NBC and Peacock at 10:30pm ET.
Zenkel said, “Any NFL player, current or former, will bring a tremendous amount of interest and excitement. ‘Brady goes to Gronk for money!’ Hmm. ”
Speaking of Tom Brady, I know at least one American viewer who’s already committed to watching flag football at the Olympics.
“It’s not going to be like U.S. Olympic basketball, where there are a lot of great basketball players from all over the world,” Brady said on this week’s episode of the SiriusXM show “Let’s Go!” With Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray. “In the world of soccer, we certainly have some good players from other countries, but I don’t know if they can play with a full team like they do in America. It’s been our sport for a long time. I don’t know how it got passed, but I definitely see it, so I’m glad it passed.”
Please make a reservation. he is not alone.
even deeper
Flag football at the 2028 Olympics?Here’s what you need to know
(Photo of Tyreek Hill at this year’s Pro Bowl: Michael Owens/Getty Images)
