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Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

I'm Michael Barr, along with my colleagues Damien Sassauer and Vanessa Perdomo.

Coming up, we'll talk about the recent turmoil gripping the NFL Players Association and it led to NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell's resignation.

We'll talk with a friend of the show, Marty Eedle, of Gulston and Stores.

The executive director was found to have a conflict of interest.

He was working for the Carlisle Group, a private equity group, while he was the executive director of the NFLPA.

We'll also talk sailing with Red Bull Italy team CEO Jimmy Spithill.

All that is on the way on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

But first, with the FIFA Club World Cup and Conker Caff Gold Cup behind us, we are now full steam ahead to the FIFA World Cup hitting the States next year, and right now, officials in New York and New Jersey are anticipating an economic boost of over three billion dollars from it.

Joining us to talk about how big of an economic win hosting the World Cup could be is Bloomberg News sports reporter Sree Taylor three.

Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

He wrote a great article New York and New Jersey and they expect a boodle coming from the World Cup that the FIFA World Cup next year.

Tell us about it if you can.

Yes, So, New York and New Jersey are jointly hosting the final match and they're projecting a three point three billion economic boost to the entire region.

So that's the entire state of New York and New Jersey from hosting the FIFA World Cup.

And that is a little under a year from now when the final match will kick off.

So let's just clarify, that's eight matches.

That is, like it is the three point three billion dollar economic but it's got to be from all eight matches, right, including the final.

Yeah, all eight matches at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, including the final on the nineteenth of July.

I'm glad we mentioned that MetLife is in New Jersey because that's my point here as a Jersey your own very defensive about this.

I'm very defensive about MetLife is in New Jersey, and people need to know this and they need to remember this.

And it's always, you know, we're always saying it's New York, it's New York.

Whatever.

So what I'd like to know is there any indication between the is there a split difference between the two areas.

Are they expecting people to stay in Jersey at all?

Or is the NJ transit really gonna get be the biggest winner in the New Jersey economy from people coming from the city right.

So I'm a Jersey girl too, and I do hate to say it, but it is a little trickier to stay in a hotel around MetLife Stadium.

So that's why I think the states are kind of making this a joint effort because a lot of people are likely going to be staying in New York.

You know, if their hotels are going to be there, they're probably going to fly into either LaGuardia or JFK and then they are going to hop on New Jersey Transit from Penn Station and then New Jersey Transit will take it from there and then shuttle people to the stadium.

So you know, we might see a little bit of activity in New Jersey too, you.

Know, just people kind of going to met Laight Stadium and you know, buying food, buying drinks, and you know, we'll get some people staying locally, but I can predict there will probably be more people in New York.

I think it might just be a little easier.

You're expecting about one point two million fans and tourists.

You try to put an extra one point two million people in this area, Where where are they going to go?

The room.

We do have the room We.

Do definitely now that hotel prices.

Are going to be going up, oh for sure.

But I mean, you know, it's it's it's gonna only do great things for the area, I think, And you know, I think Atlanta and the other host cities, like I think Atlanta is also expecting a one billion dollar boost.

So the cities are ready, they know what's coming, and they're going to try to, you know, only reap the benefits of the chaos.

We have a sophisticated audience, so we need to do a little history lesson here.

You know, I'm just looking at this economic pack summary that's released, but it was released on Monday by the New York New Jersey Host Committee.

Right, so obviously they're incentivized to fluff these numbers a bit.

But that's three point three billion they're projecting.

There's what, I don't know, one hundred and four matches across eleven host cities.

Right, let's just I mean, I'm just going to the back of the NAP and say fifteen billion is what they expect to generate.

You know, in.

Total across the whole fief for World Cup.

Cutter generated seven point five billion in twenty twenty two.

For those who remember it cost Cutter two hundred and twenty billion.

Dollars to put it on.

I mean a massive dislocation.

And by the way, if you look back at Brazil in twenty fourteen or even Russian eighteen, I mean again, there's this sort of you know, black hole of spending and they you know, the economic impact.

I guess the argument as it goes, doesn't really offset the amount of money that spends.

What makes this time different because obviously they're only projecting one point seven billion and spend across New York and New Jersey to generate this three point three billion.

Sounds like a good investment to me.

But is it accurate?

Ah, I would say it's acurered.

I think that you know, across the country, the World Cup or FIFA is expecting six point five million people to attend the tournament, which is just the highest attended I think sporting event ever.

Maybe you guys.

Probably know that better than me, but that's that's the phrase that I'm seeing thrown around by them.

And you know, they're also expecting the tournament to drive up up to forty point billion point nine billion USD and Christami stick product.

Forty billion is that the number really forty point nine billion?

Wow, and that in US GDP.

That is just for anybody can do the math six times what the World Cup generated in twenty twenty two and cutter.

If that holds, that's an incredible The thing we have.

To remember there, Damien is one.

This is an expanded tournament, so they're playing more games, they have more teams than ever before.

And in those other regions one Qatar, they just.

It was a full build out.

I agree, it was a full buildout.

You're absolutely right.

They built everything out.

We don't have to build anything, so there's all of those things that go into that.

And even in Brazil, in Russia they also had these structures that they built that they stop using and things like that.

That's the biggest part of this.

I do think those numbers are inflated.

And one of the things sure that I'd like to, you know, to talk about that they're not seemingly paying attention to or really noting in this is the problem that people are going to have with visas and people are not risking you know, coming to the US.

What do you have to think about that?

I mean, it's it's kind of at the forefront of my mind.

I don't know if I don't know if the administration is thinking about it as strongly.

I mean, President Donald Trump, who you know, refers to the FIFA president Gianni Infantino as a good friend of his.

They're very chummy.

He has, you know, super high expectations for next year's turnout, and you know, when asked about well, you know how you know, a lot of the success of the Games are riding on how the US will you know, managed to ease the international tensions brought up by Trump's trade war.

You know, his mass deportation mandates.

Sydney say it'll make it more exciting.

He says, tarffs will make the for World Cup more exciting because there'll be more tension between nations.

That is an unbelievable statement.

And I guess, you know, the fact of the matter is, do you think there'll be any sort of negative backlash toward the United States because of this, because of these tarffs.

Is it possible that people just boycott the games entirely?

I think the Games are gonna happen regardless, But I think what we've seen with some you know, other large sporting events that have kind of kicked off since Trump took office.

For example, the you know Boston Marathon earlier this year.

I was talking with the head of a tourism agency meet Boston, and she said that, you know, we do have a lot of concerns about Canada because this was, you know, around the time Trump was coming in really hard on Canadians, you know, and he was threatened tariffs, and I think that a lot of Canadians were, you know, not feeling it.

They were like, well, you know, I don't think I'm going to go as a spectator.

I don't think I'm going to go as a runner.

And that was a really.

Major tension point when the marathon was leading up.

So this will probably be that but tenfold.

Trying to put this in a delicate way.

With the Trump administration's policies, tourism has gone down in the United States.

Is the FIFA World Cup the difference, the one off that's like, look, this is the product to bring tourists in.

Will that be the case for for the US?

And and will Canada say Okay, I'm gonna come and see this.

Yeah.

I mean I think I think it's it's not even just Canada, it's Mexico.

It's it's it's you know, you know, people around the world.

I was going through the list, the very long list of who Trump has either posed harrison or or or threatened to and that's you know, some of the bigger teams, so that Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Japan, the UK, South Korea, so you know, and these are a lot of fans that are you know, hoping to come here and stay here for a long time, and you know, go to cities that they probably never otherwise would like Kansas City or you know, Atlanta or Miami or you know, a bunch of these.

This the World Cup should be a very rare, large opportunity for the US to kind of regain its good standing with the rest of the world.

And I do think that, you know, depending on how it goes, depending on how Trump kind of positioned himself leading up to the Games in this last year, you know, it could either make or break the Games.

About twenty six thousand jobs are going to be created by this.

And yes, we all know restaurants and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm talking about the guy who owns the food truck.

He's like, hey, let me back this thing up.

In here so I can get part of this money that's coming in.

And it's it's the people like that are really going to benefit from this.

Yeah.

Absolutely, And you know, this is a great opportunity for a lot of those folks who kind of rely on that mini ecosystem around these stadiums when they're huge, you know, game events, and you know football and the Super Bowl and and you know obviously the smaller soccer tournaments like the World Cup club and and you know basketball games and stuff like that.

So a lot of these like smaller vendors will you know, reap a lot of benefits from this.

But I guess my concern when I was talking to some analysts that are looking closely at this, they were like, well, a lot of this will be one time jobs and then they will lose them and their contractors and then so.

You know, these jobs will be generated.

It's a lot of jobs twenty six thousand, but you know they're temp they're temporary, a lot of them are.

So we will see.

It's definitely good for the time being, but not to be a not to be a necnive.

Dancy Vanessa, you get your tickets.

Yet, Listen, I'm going for work okay, and.

That's well struck.

Vanessa Perdow, I'm going to the World Cup for work.

I've heard it all our thanks to Bloomberg News reporters Reet Taylor for joining us.

Coming up next week, turn to the world of sailing with the CEO and co owner of Red Bull Italy, Jimmy Spithill.

For my colleagues Damien Sassawur and Vanessa Perdomo.

I'm Michael Barr.

You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberger Radio around the world.

This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explored the big money issues in the world of sports.

Michael are along with Damian Zassauer and Vanessa Berdomo.

Our next guest is one of the greatest athletes in the history of competitive sailing and is the subject of a new docu series called Unchartered Saale GP.

We're talking about Jimmy Spithill.

He is the youngest skipper ever to win the America's Cup and is now team CEO of Red Bull Italy.

Jimmy is here to talk with us about the team, the Roleleck sale GP Championship and the State of Sailing.

Jimmy, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

Oh hi, guys, thanks for much for having me.

People keep calling it a niche sport.

I'm not so sure anymore because people are starting to get to know this sport.

And one thing that has helped is that you have been the subject of a documentary that is out right now.

Yeah.

Look, I think sailing was a nice sport, you know, and it was definitely viewed as something probably.

For the elite.

You know, you needed quite a lot of equipment, and so let's say the barrier to entry was generally not open for everyone.

I think as technology has gone along, and I think just as the sport's evolved, that's you know, that narrative is well and truly out the window.

And certainly now if you look at where SLGP is or the top end of the sport, it's you know, bo it's doing over one hundred kilometers an hour.

They're powered by nature.

There's real risks, so it's a lot more like I guess auto racing.

Yet the team functions like any other high level sporting team, you know, like a football or a rugby team.

You know, they've got certain playbooks, they've got to work together, and so.

Yeah, it's it's fascinating to see it.

And i'd even say.

On to to get into the sport now at a lower level, the barrier is even lower because of technology and foiling.

You can now go and get a foiling surfboard and essentially an inflatable bat wing and when you're out there, so gone to the days of having to have a trailer and boats and all this sort of gear.

It's this sort of.

Whole you know, advancement and quantum leap in technology and construction and carp and fiber, et cetera has really changed the game, I think, from the very bottom to the very top to.

Have this sort of team based thing that a lot of people understand how that works.

Do you think that's what changed the game kind of for sailing, is this team format that everyone kind of understands and can follow along with.

Yeah, I think you're right, because it is from the outside, it's a very let's a confusing sport to understand, you know, like where are the boats going?

What is the course?

There was a whole lot of rules.

And then even the sort of technical jargon I mean, I just to confuse myself, and I'm a professional sailor, so I think a big part of it was really trying to simplify it.

The other thing, I think that the top of let's say, the top end of the sport before Sales GP was probably the America's Cup, and that was something that was really every four years the rules would constantly change they still do, and you didn't have that regular season.

The other thing was that the boats for a big part of the America's Cup were, Man, I can tell you it was a little bit like watching paint, right.

I mean, while it was okay to sail them, but to watch them, it was just it wasn't like there was you could look away and have a conversation and look back and it didn't look like a whole it had changed.

The third thing is probably let's say stadium, you know, having a stadium and fans there in the bleachers and watching and being able to hear that crowd, and that's you know, notoriously in Sale we're racing, it's been oh, let's take the course as far away from land as we can, let's get it perfect, and let's not let anyone get too close.

Well, sojpas the opposite, very tight racetracks.

When we just recently raced in the Hudson in Manhattan.

There the races are twelve to thirty minutes long, twelve boats, very tight racetrack with sideline boundaries.

One sideline is literally the spectator stands and they can almost reach out and high five the athletes.

I think.

You know.

The other thing is having a very very tight and squared away broadcast.

You know where fans when they turn it on, they can't get an understanding.

They get educated, and all the athletes a Mike Live.

It's one of the very few sports where men and women compete together in the teams.

And so yeah, we're starting to, let's say, have the right ingredients to produce something that I believe, well, we're already seeing it in terms of our TV and media numbers, but starting to get out of let's say, what was thought a niche sport and for people that are just interested in sailing to more mainstream.

And when you look at the audience, I think it's about twenty or thirty percent are actually just sailing audience.

The rest are non sailors and a lot of racing fans Actually.

I admire you so much and I want to bring up an extreme positive, but I have to start out, unfortunately with the negative that happened.

You were ousted from the Oracle Team USA when new ownership came in, and then you established Red Bull Italy and you're just kicking butt and I admire you for establishing the team.

Can you take us through that process?

Yeah?

Well sure, I mean, look, I got involved with solgeot Penn season two.

During season one, I was involved in the America's Cup campaign and sort of finishing that off, and Larry Ellison approached me and Russell cous to come and lead the American team.

At that stage, they just finished last in season one, had no sponsors, and so we immediately took the team to the final.

We had a bunch of fantastic commercial partners.

But anyway, I was thinking at that point, look, I'll probably this is my long term plan here with the team, and I had an ownership option on the team.

Now we while looking for partners, were received what was then a record offer for the team to be purchased by a guy named Ray McKillen was one of the early Uber guys and a consortium he'd put together.

Now at that point, I had an option.

There was one catch in that.

One catching that that oper and that was that, well, they wanted to field their own team so really start again, and they wanted a full American team.

I was born in Australia, I'm a wife and kids are American, but so they wanted to go all American and run it their own way.

So yeah, it was an interesting process because it was either well, do you know, how do I treat this?

You know, I could stock and block the deal and just stay here and keep looking to build it up.

But at the same time, I'd been competing with an Italian team in the America's Cup, and I thought, oh, what an incredible opportunity to now one go through the process of a sale of a team, but essentially start again and start from scratch, as opposed to taking over an existing team like I did with the American team.

And that's really what led to Repulsugupeaterly And it's just been such an amazing ride to get here.

We're the newest team, We've got the least amount of hours, but we've just got a fantastic lineup of guys and girls in our roster, huge fan base.

I mean, if you've ever watched you know Italian fans, there's some of the most passionate out there and also a very let's say educated marketplace as well in terms of commercially and audience.

So yeah, it was just a great opportunity.

It was a win win.

It was a win facality to bring someone like Ryan and the group you brought in to take over the American team, and the same time for me it was it was just I mean, how many athletes get the opportunity to one even get involved in the ownership of the team, but to be able to do it twice and with a completely new group, different culture, etc.

I just thought, Wow, what an opportunity.

The whole idea of an athlete, you know who's done the whole sport, done it from the top to bottom, and then going into a CEO role, but also still competing.

You know, you're still skipper and things like that, and then you co owner CEO.

How you wear all those hats tell us about how that informs you in a unique way in running the team.

I think it's like a lot of businesses, and even when you look around at other successful sporting franchises.

I believe that some of the most successful and valuable are the ones that are ultimately influenced or run by ex athletes, because it's a little bit like armies or generals.

Generals in the army or admiralson in a navy.

The guys that have been in the trenches, have been out in the water, been there on the ground, and then work that way up.

They really know what has been going on in the whole process.

Now I'm not saying that's the only way, because clearly there's examples of well admirals and generals that haven't gone that way, and in people that run these teams, all sorts of sporting teams and franchises.

But I believe if you really.

Want to have a full understanding of what it's like, and they really gain the respect of people on and off the water.

If you've got that sort of background and knowledge, there's no shortcut to that.

You don't just get that by clicking your fingers and reading about it.

If you've lived and breathed that, you've made, had mistakes and had the growth, that's that's that's a different level of education.

And I believe I've always been inspired by athletes that have been successful on the field to play, but then the ability to go out of their comfort zone, you know, and be successful off the field to play almost like a second career.

And at the same time benefit I'm also finding has been able to impact and now help and provide something for the next generation.

That's in itself something really rewarding.

But at the time when I was competing, to be quite honestly, I never that was never really something on the back of my mind that you know, when you're competing, all you're thinking about is the game and to win.

But now when I look at all of the ingredients, I yeah, it's been it's been fascinating just to be able to play the different roles and get a let's say, a full full circle picture.

One of the investors in sale GP a very famous name, and Hathaway tell us about that, because now you're attracting some really big names involved in this that people instantly know.

Yeah, well, that's that's true.

I mean, and I think if you look at the group that we've assembled in the team, it's just I mean, as the founder of the team, if I could have just drawn up a wish list, I'm not sure I would have had the courage to say.

The names we've got it's unbelievable.

I mean, we've got some incredible entrepreneurs, businessmen and women.

We've got some amazing from all walks of you know, We've got amazing actresses, athletes, and ultimately what that means is we just have such an awesome group to go back and call on their own experiences and their lessons learned to apply to our let's say, sports and entertainment product that we're growing together.

And so and if you look at all the other teams, theres some incredible names as well, like you know, some of the business and some of the funds, some of the Mark Lazarie's with the US team, athletes, kill Him Abati, Sebastian Battle, you know, actors, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman.

I mean, the list just goes on and on, and so I think when it's all good and well for me to come and tell you how good sale GP is or what I think the teams are worth.

And it's a little bit like selling your own house.

You can think it's worth a billion dollars, but at the end of the day, the market will tell you what it's worth and here we are again.

You know, the market will tell us from an investment point of view, well is this investible and what's our market value?

Now?

If you look at the growth we've had in just five seasons, especially starting out when when COVID and what people thought was a NWE sport, well we've got a pretty big range of sophisticated men and women investors.

You look at the valuations now, you look at the TV numbers and even getting feedback from the hospitality and the racing experience.

It's live again.

You will think I'm boss.

I am boss.

But you only have to now look at the diet of the results and the people that are investing in those teams.

They're not the majority of them.

Again, they're not sounding fans.

They really say the value.

Here our thanks to Jimmy Spitthill, team CEO of Red Bull Italy, for joining us up.

Next, we turned to the NFL and a controversy that has shaken up the NFL Players Association.

For Damien Sasawer and Vanessa Bernomo.

I'm Michael Barr.

You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberg Radio around the world.

This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

We explore the big money issues in the world of sports Michael Barr along with Damian Sasauer and Vanessa Bernomo.

The NFL's Players Association recently found itself embroiled in controversy that led to NFLPA Executive Director of Lloyd Howell, as well as at least one other executive being out of the NFLPA.

There are several key developments here and we wanted to get to the bottom of it with an old friend of the show.

Joining us now is Marty Eedle.

He's Gulston and Stewart's Sports law practice co chair and adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Marty, welcome back to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

Thank you for having me.

Man.

There is so much NFL news to talk about, and I guess I want to start off with the NFLPA, where it was kind of a meltdown.

What has happened The NFLPA Executive director Lloyd Howell and President JC Treader resigned earlier this month.

What in the world happened?

Marty?

Well, we have a confluence of two events that have been disclosed.

I can't tell you what else is behind the scenes because I don't know.

But the two big events here are one that the NFL and NFLPA entered into a confidentiality agreement to hold confidential the decision which found that there was collusion by the NFL owners.

Why would anyone withhold that from their constituency, in this case the players.

The second issue, of course, was that the executive director was found to have a conflict of interest.

He was working for the Carlisle Group of private equity group while he was the executive director of the NFLPA.

Surprise in the mean of it, right, I mean the grievance itself, as I understand it was accusations that team owners were colluding to suppress the pay the guarantee pay sorry for quarterbacks in the wake of the Cleveland Brown's decision to sign to Sean Watson to someone godly two hundred thirty million dollar.

Some talk to us a little bit about that.

I mean, is there going to be any sort of potential blowback, any damages to you know, quarterbacks who you know, maybe weren't given a fair deal because of this.

Yeah, so let's start off with that, but it's far broader than the was it three quarterbacks Kyler, Murray, Lamar Jackson, and Russell Wilson who claimed that they were deprived of guaranteed dollars because the owners colluded after paying Deshaun Watson this ungodly some damien that you pointed out two undred thirty million in guaranteed compensation over five years, but it affected a lot more.

There were also five hundred and ninety four veteran players who claimed that they were deprived of some amounts of guaranteed compensation because of this owner's collusion.

And the concept of owner's collusion is that the owners got together and somehow agreed to hold down guaranteed compensation.

There was an arbitration before a very respected arbitrator who happens to be the NFL NFLPA Collective Bargaining System arbitrator, and that was Chris Droni, who was a former judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

He rendered a sixty one page decision which promptly was buried because of a confidentiality agreement between the NFLPA and the NFL only because of leaks through the media, and thank goodness, we have a vigorous media to ferret out the truth.

But because of leaks in the media, it came out that Droni found there was collusion among the owners.

He didn't find that the NFL had colluded in a way that resulted in damages.

I can get into that later if you want, because he set forth three questions and answered two of them in the negative.

But he found clearly there was collusion, and he based that on Commissioner Goodell and Jeff Pass the General Council talking to the owners and saying, you know, we have this problem.

Our revenues have declined since COVID, and you guys are still giving out lots and lots of guaranteed dollars.

That's obviously a paraphrase, and exhorted them to be more careful about it.

And the arbitrator found that there was collusion, and then it got buried.

Apparently.

There were also a series of text messages between the owner for the Arizona Cardinals and the chargers.

I mean, is that just the first I mean, how are they getting access to text messages between owners?

I mean, is that part of disclosure?

I just find that so fascinating.

I mean, is there are there text you know, chats out there that might come to light in lieu of all.

This, So the answer should be a decided yes.

They would.

In terms of the arbitration itself, the NFLPA, which which was prosecuting the claims on behalf of Kyler Murray Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson, would have had an opportunity to get disclosure of texts, emails, documents which go to their claim of unlawful collusion, and they would have gotten those emails, those texts there should have.

There may be others out there, we simply don't know.

They're all under confidentiality agreement.

Uh.

And no one has seen fit to disclose everything to the public yet.

Uh.

You know, maybe Bloomberg Business on Sports will issue a subpoena or freedom of the press for your request to try to get that info.

Well, I'm sure former nfl PA executive director Demorris Smith is saying, you miss me now, because there's more to this with how it apparently he expends multiple strip club trips on the nflpa's dime, and that also came out.

I didn't even hear about that part until much later, So I don't know where to go with this.

Marty Well, I had not heard about that particular one.

But this is quite a tangled web, as you point out.

You know, we have the NFLPA technically losing the arbitration, having the right to appeal, which according to its collective bargaining Agreement, it has ten days to appeal.

That appeal time ran starting in late January of twenty twenty five when Arbitrator Dronian to down his decision.

The NFLPA did nothing.

Only after Pablo Torres finds out podcasts was there pressure put on the NFLPA to say, maybe you guys ought to appeal the loss here, and they filed this appeal in July.

Well, that's more than ten days.

There's a good chance that they're barred from fun.

You know, they'll put in all sorts of special circumstances which I haven't seen yet, but there's a good chance their appeal will be barred because it was not timely.

Then you have the issues which are coming out now of the executive director Lloyd Howell expensing chargers for which there's no reasonable explanation having been given yet being paid by the Carlisle Group to explore the investment of private equity in the NFL.

You know, you got to keep your nose clean.

I heard this is this is a New York Post.

To take it from, take it and stride here.

But apparently Lloyd Howell he ordered the facilities department in Washington, DC headquarters to merge two spaces in the parking garage into one over concern of potential door dings on his poor Kayen Turbo.

And he numbered the spot thirty two in honor of OJ Simpson, just saying this is the New York Post reporting.

So it sounds like Lloyd Howell has some explaining to do in the eyes of you know, the media and more importantly, his constituents amongst the NFL, I mean, the players themselves.

This is just kind of outrageous.

No, yeah, And you know one of the great parts of that outrage is they use number thirty two, which not only refers to OJ Simpson, who has a less than stellar reputation, but also all those great players who use number thirty two.

Jim Brown who was number thirty two, Sandy Kofax in baseball, Elston Howard in baseball, all numbers thirty two, and yet he's using it now.

I'm just making light of that way again.

I mean, Michael, to confirm what you said.

Yes, in the same you know kind of article they talk about.

You know, the strip clubs they talk about, you know how previously been accused of sexual discrimination back in twenty eleven while he was an employee at Booz Allen another you know, management consulting firm of repute, you know.

And so it's just it's just amazing that the NFL even had him representing their interests, and for this to happen so quickly into his tenure, to your point, shows just how challenging that position truly is.

Well, I think that's right.

But you know, as we've seen a whole bunch of executive directors of players associations who have kept their noses clean, who have represented very well the interests of the players, you know, to the some owners may say they represent that the executive directors represented the player's interest too zealously.

This is just the opposite.

Did he represent the player's interests well enough?

You're right, he has a lot of explaining, but don't count on that happening since he's no longer part of the NFLPA.

Can we talk about in a little more uplifting if you want to call it that.

CNBC we first reported this.

The NFL is in talks to buy a ten percent stake in ESPN for some NFL media assets, and according to CNBC, the stake size is still a moving target.

Now what does that mean for ESPN and what does that mean for the NFL.

Well, legally at least and probably financially, it's a boondoggle for the NFL.

It gets to have an outlet for more and more for increasing amounts of its content.

It will have a network which has a wide, wide audience to watch whatever the NFL will come up with to be appropriate.

It may not only be NFL games, but it may be documentaries, It may be interviews with experts all Lah, Martini, Dell.

You never could tell.

But it will have a It's a good vertical integration for the NFL.

For ESPN, it depends how much it's giving up other than the equity part of it to acquire rights to NFL licenses.

I think it.

Could be a win win our thanks to Marty Edel for joining us.

He is adjunct professor at Columbia University and co chair at Gulston and Stores Law Practice, and thank you for joining us.

Make sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode from my colleagues Damien Sasaur and Vanessa Verdommo.

I'm Michael Barr.

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