Wide World of Women

Arrives one year or two ahead of schedule, even with The President I Refuse To Name was going to plan some dumb and/or stupid means to thwart the deal.

But since NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is buddy-buddy with him, Andrew Marchand from The Athletic was the first to report late on Saturday night.

What this means, most NFL Network assets will join The Worldwide Leader. Get ready to see Jamie Erdahl, Kyle Brandt, Ian Rappaport, and others joining Laura Rutledge, Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, Marcus Spears, even Jason Kelce.
The league receives a 10 percent stake in ESPN, meaning more content will be seen more than likely a bigger chunk of the calendar year--with the only major breaks coming for the NBA/WNBA, NHL, weeknight MLB games, and SEC/Big 12 football and basketball.
Here are some details about what this will mean when the deal is formally completed in April:

https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/nfl-secure-government-approval-equity-deal.html

Can you imagine guys from NFL Network would join NFL Live and SportsCenter for the foreseeable future?

Jamie Erdahl, Sara Walsh, and Rich Eisen for SportsCenter on the hosting side.

Kyle Brandt, MJD, Michael Robinson on the analyst side for NFL Live.

Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter as main NFL insiders.

Also, what's going to happen to Kurt Warner, Mike Yam, Chris Rose, Stacey Dales, Chase Daniel, Colleen Wolfe, Jane Slater, and Cynthia Frelund?

Also, will Scott Hanson host RedZone on ESPN in the near future?

Only more questions than answers now.

Half of those people will probably be laid off.
When two big companies like this merge, it’s to save money not to spend more money.

I expect that will probably be the case.

Once we know more either via their social media accounts, or with sports media columnists like Richard Deitsch, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, John Ourand of Puck, and Austin Carp of Sports Business Journal we will then have confirmed news to see which faces will be sticking around.
Besides, they usually have no more than five or six people during Sunday NFL Countdown.
No question about it, this is a seismic move in sports TV history being this is all appropriately timed for ESPN's endless promotion of their first Super Bowl in 2027.

It will start shortly after Super Bowl LX next Sunday night:
Chris Berman and Boomer McFarland with Primetime from Santa Clara, followed by Scott Van Pelt from Los Angeles for SportsCenter with SVP.
Then instead of going back to Bristol with Nicole Brisoce and Michael Eaves, it will be Laura Rutledge and others with the first of several editions of Super Bowl Live(a name used by the NFL Network during Super Week) will also air from L.A.
Buckle up for what will be 371 days of pigskin overload.

The NFL has been targeting international domination for the last several years. Games in London, Munich, last year playing in Madrid, Spain for the first time, Rio de Janeiro the last two years being very popular, and this coming fall playing one game each in Paris, France and Sydney, Austrailia) and a return to Mexico City.

The Shield has already figured how popular the sport is (and IMHO the only thing that is holding legacy media afloat, thanks to the fragmentation of people watching via streaming platforms). In their minds, Bad Bunny is hoping to carve something for the rest of the world that will be watching. All we know is this is the first Super Bowl halftime show entirely sung in Spanish.

Of course, that dumb group out of Arizona is doing their alternative halftime show--which is only going to be seen online.
Oh, I miss the days when FOX did In Living Color and NBC did Fear Factor, Playboy Playmates Edition.