The Hardline- Snakepit; a deep dive into NFL on Fox

0:00I'm Sam Slayton, co-owner and CEO at Sante Center for Healing. For 30 years, Sante Center has helped people reclaim their lives from addiction, through expert care, compassion, and proven results. Did you know you can talk with a counselor at any time? Details at SanteCenter.com Join No Touch Freight, access to Schneider's newest equipment and sign on bonuses up to $20,000. Need a driving partner? Schneider will help you find one. Don't let the holiday rush pass you by. Apply now at SchneiderJobs.com. That's SchneiderJobs.com. Real sports fans, we are completely irrational. I'm not going to check my pick every five minutes. Sure. I'm not going to overreact to the first drive. Yeah, right. I'm not going to crash out in the group chat. Good luck, buddy.

1:00That's why I love having something on the line. It turns us all into complete lunatics in the best possible way. Suddenly, you're rooting for a backup tie then you've never heard of because he needs 12 more yards. You're switching seats in the house so you don't jinx the quarterback because, yeah, that's logical. That's sports. That's what Underdog gets. It's not just about the outcome. It's about every second, every yard until the final whistle blows. Download Underdog to play Keep Your Million. Start with $1 million, make it through all 20 picks, and walk away with whatever's left in bonus funds. Underdog. Unleash your dog. Trading involves risk, including total loss of positions. Content is promotional and not a recommendation to trade, terms apply, promotion issued by affiliate. Get it for an all new hardline segment. It's time to step into the snake pit. Now with something completely over the top, the host and star of the snake pit.

2:09Brought to you by American League Detection. So a few days ago, we played the song because it is the anniversary. It was the anniversary of Fox getting the NFL and they debuted that song that we all know. And then it goes on and on. Yes. It's not that. It has nothing to do with that. And that song is lasted now 32 years since the NFL went over to Fox and it stood the test of time miraculously because things like that typically have a shelf life, but that one does it. That one is still tried and true. So that night I went home and I was reading a little bit about the guy who came up with that song. And of course, that led me down about 40 rabbit holes about how the network of Fox, which

3:12again, if you weren't around at the time, you don't realize how insignificant a player, the network was and how they actually got the NFL in the first place. Dude, how has there maybe there is and I'm not aware of it. How has there not been a 30 for 30 on this story because it is beyond any comprehension of what these owners could have thought would have happened back in the day. So back in the day, of course, three networks. That's it. And each of them had a package of NFL games CBS had the NFC NBC had the aFC and ABC had Monday night football and it was just kind of as simple as that. And CBS is was literally the gold standard because if you remember, that is the NFC, the NFC at that time, it won nine straight super goals going into the 93 season.

4:16And CBS just love the fact that they had Philly, Chicago, Washington, Dallas, San Francisco. They had the media of meaty markets all across the landscape. It was the most valuable sports rights deal in all of America. So when it was time to renew. What are you talking about? This is 93. Okay. When they're about to renew all this, this is where it gets nuts. Art Maudel was the guy that was the league power broker on the broadcasting committee. He was the chairman of the broadcast NFL's broadcasting committee. And Art Lugel. Is this before after he scratched his nuts on the coffee table? That I don't know. That I don't know. So he basically was friends with CBS and he was friends with NBC. And it was like, hey guys, we're going to renew.

5:18What do you guys want to do? And he had an idea in 93 because the networks were freaking out over the price. The price was around 250 million for each league or the NFC. And he said, hey, and he told the owners this. And Jerry, of course, is an owner. And Maudel had the idea to offer a refund of their rights fees if they weren't real satisfied with the results. And this is where Jerry Jones stepped in. And this is why Jerry Jones is in the hall of fame because he stepped in and he told and at the time, you know, he was late 40s, early 50s. He told Art Maudel, it's over. Your run here is done. What are we even doing? You want to give them a refund? Yeah, you want to denigrate our product? Yes. Like it sounds insane right now, but this is the way the league was run. And this is why Jerry became Jerry. Jerry, whether it was Pepsi, whether it was Reebok, whether it was all this stuff, he was

6:24like, what are you guys doing? Do you know the baseball component to this Corby? So right before all of this, CBS was spending about the exact, if you can imagine this, CBS was spending roughly the exact same amount of money, if not a little bit more, trying to steal the World Series and the League Championship Series away from NBC. So this back it up a couple years to about 1990. And CBS thought they had just won the lottery because they now are taking over the World Series and the League Championship Series. And that put CBS in a little bit of a financial crunch as well. And so it all sort of led to this month with Fox and CBS. So that makes sense. So the CBS guy that ran the network was a theater mogul named Larry Tish. Yes. Larry Tish is famously quoted as saying before they were going to renew in 93, no way am I

7:27going to lose money on the NFL. And he basically said, we'll give you whatever we gave you last time, 250 million a year. And that's it. And do not offer them a nickel more. Our network is fine. So then, enter Jerry Jones and enter Rupert Murdoch. And Rupert Murdoch had tried to make a play for the NFL before in each of the negotiations. And as Jerry said, told him he goes, look, I don't even know what Fox is. Have no idea. But if you got the money, I want to listen to this. And Jerry and Pat Bolin at the time were both then going to kick Art Modell out of the broadcasting committee. They were going to run this. And both of them, Jerry, especially remember, this is four years after he bought the team. And he was not doing that well financially, which is why he was making all these weird

8:31gunslinger deals left and right because he didn't have the money back then. This 30 something years ago and Jerry was not Jerry financially. Yeah, he had spent all his money and scraped up even more just to get the cowboys. So he had nothing left. And so he's like, dude, what are we doing? Why don't we have a full on just battle between whatever network, name it. And let's just raise the price up. And so Fox, Rupert Murdoch comes in and goes, what do I got to do? Because I'm not looking to buy the NFL. I'm looking to buy a network in the NFL. If I get it, we'll buy a net which cheaper to buy the NFL to help me launch my network, then it would be to buy CBS or ABC or NBC at the time. And Jerry's like, all right, let's do this. And Rupert goes, what's it going to take? And again, they were offering 250 to 65 max to get the NFC CBS was.

9:38And Murdoch said, I'll give you 400 a year. So he didn't just incrementally step on the toes of CBS. He flew past it. And to a point where they were never going to even consider countering. No, that's the thing. Like I said, that's the exact price of the baseball playoffs at the time and try to imagine a universe where you would pay the same amount for a full NFL season, including the playoffs, just to get your hands on October on network TV baseball. Yeah. And Jones and Bolin literally zero sympathy for CBS, even though they've been a partner since the 50s, they don't care. Those guys don't give a rip about history and the league as far as the way it's perceived within those circles. Dude, they need money. And so when Rupert Murdoch did that and then they go back and this was all right around Christmas

10:40time of the 93 season. So we're rolling into the playoffs in 94. And rumors start to float around that this is happening and everybody over at CBS is like, oh my God. What are we, we're going to lose the NFL and it makes its way to the broadcasters. And before the finality of an impaltaglia, who had to approve it, Fox wasn't even available in like 60% of the markets. And if it was, it was a UHF channel, meaning it was channels 18 to 50 or 60, you barely got it. It was 47 where I was. Yeah, you had to get it with 10 foil on an antenna. It literally didn't exist and they're going to get the NFL. And so finally, tagly a book called Rupert Murdoch and they agreed to let Fox do this. And before a Rupert goes, you know, let's offer him more. I feel bad about what this phone call hasn't happened yet. Let's give him 440 and his kids are like, no dad, let's not do that.

11:43I think we're okay right now. So they agreed to do it. Then CBS is having their Christmas party when all of this news broke. And Terry Bradshaw was one of the first to get the news. He says, I got to call it 4 a.m. from Greg Gumball. And Bradshaw says, Gumball says, do you hear the news? I said, no, what? He says, Fox has got the NFC package. They got it from CBS. Bradshaw, you got to be kidding me. I don't even know what Fox is. He had never heard of it. Matt Millen, who was a CBS analyst, said they got same thing, got the news. And he said, Matt Fox has taken over CBS, the NFC package. Millen, what's Fox? I'm not a TV guy. And they said, you know, the one that has the cartoon show. So that's it. That's what they knew it as. And you know, they go back and forth and Bradshaw famously when they gathered the heads

12:44of CBS gathering because they're all out of jobs, all of them. It's CBS. They're gone. They have no idea that Fox is going to hire a lot of them. They just think they're done. And Leslie Visser was working for CBS at the time and the guy who ran sports gathered him and said, hey, look, we still got a lot. We got the masters. We got the US Open tennis tournament. And that's when Bradshaw had the line of, does the masters have a pregame show? Because I need a job. And so Bradshaw ends up selling. He's thinking he's out of a job. He called his uncle and said, we just lost the football package at Fox. I don't have a gig. We got to sell all my cattle, all my horses. And in two weeks, he sold everything, thinking that he needed the money. Then he's one of the first ones to actually get hired. Then of course, they, you know, end up giving John Madden $8 million to move over there. $8 million. His agent. So he was going to move to Monday night football and the money there was two million a year.

13:45And they had a handshake deal, but they didn't sign anything. When Rupert Murdock called Madden's agent and said, what can we get for John? And he says, I just threw out 10 million. And Murdock goes, I'll give him eight. And so that set the market right there. And then they hire Jimmy Johnson, who had just left with the cowboys and all that. And that's how they built that they get the NFL, but they have no programming. They can't even fill out a day's worth of programming on their network. It's all reruns. It's cops. You know, it's, there's only so many Simpson shows you can run in the ex files. They had garbage for entertainment, nothing. And as Rupert Murdock bet, he bet the fact that we will build the network. If we can just acquire the NFL and look at it now. I mean, it, and then he had to guarantee that every affiliate in the country would get Fox

14:48within six weeks. And somehow it happened. I still don't know how that happened. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the post script, right, where so many of the CBS affiliates flipped to Fox because they weren't going to lose the rights to their local team. Did that happen here, right? Yeah. Yes, it did. Yeah. Channel Fox four was CBS. Okay. Yeah. And that was probably one of the biggest ones to flip because like Corby said, Fox was not available in the major markets all across until this deal was done. And then it happened instantly. And a bunch of them are just like, yeah, we're Fox affiliates now. And I think I think Channel 11 was an independent super station when they switched to CBS. It's weird to use all these terms that don't exist anymore, even network, you know, like it just, they don't, they don't really exist. But yeah, I mean, they were nothing. And then of course, the network is built. Then here comes Fox news, you know, like that, it all kind of happened because of the NFL.

15:50And here we are. Like it's a really, really weird story. And then the NFL, the player start making infinitely more money just based on that one TV deal. The owner is obviously and it just keeps growing from there. And as Jerry says, he was like, we don't do that deal right then. Rupert Murdoch may never get into the game. And we're sitting here stuck, twiddling our thumbs. And I'm not making the money that I'm making right now just based on one risk of saying yes to a big risk like that. And the crazy thing Corby is Murdoch's done this three different times because he did this in the UK with Sky Sports and the English Premier League. He did this with Fox and the NFL. And then he went and did it in India with the cricket league. And he's run the same play three times and it's worked three times. Every time. So the famous line from Murdoch when they had the handshake deal, it's like, you got it.

16:50And he turned to Jerry Jones. He goes, can you explain this sport to me because I have no idea what it is. He bought a league and didn't even know what the sport was. Incredible. Yeah. So there you go. There's a little history on as you flip over to 50 different channels to watch the NFL only one on radio with the ticket. But that is the history of Fox truck drivers. The holiday rush is here. Now is the perfect time to become a Schneider team truck driver. Schneider team drivers can earn over $4,000 in incentives when they work between November 2nd and December 23rd. Schneider team drivers also enjoy no touch freight. Access to Schneider's newest equipment and sign on bonuses up to $20,000. Need a driving partner? Schneider will help you find one. Don't let the holiday rush pass you by. Apply now at Schneiderjobs.com. That's Schneiderjobs.com. Real sports fans, we are completely irrational. I'm not going to check my pick every five minutes. Sure. I'm not going to overreact to the first drive.

17:51Yeah, right. I'm not going to crash out in the group chat. Good luck, buddy. That's why I love having something on the line. It turns us all into complete lunatics in the best possible way. Suddenly, you're rooting for a backup tight end you've never heard of because he needs 12 more yards. You're switching seats in the house so you don't jinx the quarterback because, yeah, that's logical. That's sports. That's what Underdog gets. It's not just about the outcome. It's about every second, every yard until the final whistle blows. You don't know what Underdog to play. Keep your million. Start with $1 million, make it through all 20 picks, and walk away with whatever's left in bonus funds. Underdog. Unleash your dog. Trading involves risk, including total loss of positions. Content is promotional and not a recommendation to trade, terms apply, promotion issued by affiliate. Whether you're new to the trucking industry or looking for a change from your current driving job, Schneider has an opportunity for you. To see the L, take advantage of our company paid training and tuition reimbursement programs.

18:55Ready to advance your driving career? Check out Schneider's wide variety of driving job options that fit both your current needs and your goals for the future. Start or grow your trucking career at Schneider. See what we have to offer at Schneiderjobs.com. That Schneiderjobs.com