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Five NFL games we can’t wait to watch in the 2025 season
The schedule for the 2025 NFL season has been released. Here are a few games on our must-watch list.
ESPN and the NFL are putting a ring on it – let’s hope that means a huge win for viewers.
As originally reported by The Athletic last week, ESPN’s relationship with the league will become even more intertwined in the wake of Tuesday night’s announcement of a non-binding agreement in which it “will acquire NFL Network and certain other media assets owned and controlled by the NFL – including NFL’s linear RedZone Channel, and NFL Fantasy – in exchange for a 10% equity stake in ESPN.” The parties “are also entering into a second non-binding agreement, under which the NFL will license to ESPN certain NFL content and other intellectual property to be used by NFL Network and other assets.”
In addition to making more untold billions, the NFL also essentially divests itself of the costs associated with in-house broadcasting. Concurrently, its product gains even wider distribution and innovative benefits.
Under the agreement, NFL Network will continue to broadcast seven games per season with ESPN reaping the benefits of that – notably to its pending direct-to-consumer service. NFL Fantasy Football and ESPN Fantasy Football will merge.
“This is an exciting day for sports fans,” Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s chairman, said in a statement.
“By combining these NFL media assets with ESPN’s reach and innovation, we’re creating a premier destination for football fans. Together, ESPN and the NFL are redefining how fans engage with the game – anytime, anywhere. This deal helps fuel ESPN’s digital future, laying the foundation for an even more robust offering as we prepare to launch our new direct-to-consumer service.”
The breadcrumbs for this union have been apparent for some time.
NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport is a frequent guest on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” and has even hosted it – certainly an unusual arrangement for entities seemingly set up as something of competitors when the league became the first of the major ones in North America to create its open broadcasting arm with the launch of NFL Network in 2003.
Rich Eisen, the original face of NFLN when he left ESPN to help start it, has already been revealed as basically the new anchor of ESPN Radio – “The Rich Eisen Show”to begin airing there from noon to 3 p.m. ET as well as on Disney+ and ESPN+. Former NFL Network reporter Peter Schrager, a longtime cast member of “Good Morning Football,” NFL Network’s morning show, jumped to ESPN earlier this year.
What does this all mean to the viewer? Hopefully even better and broader coverage of the league.
The entertainment goliaths have essentially been significant others for decades, ESPN broadcasting league games on Sunday nights, Monday nights and, more recently, via select streaming opportunities through the years. “NFL Live” is an hour-long afternoon show that’s a staple of the network’s weekday lineup, and the cable giant’s morning shows typically devote the bulk of their air time to NFL news and analysis.
NFL Network original programming, along with its workforce, has been steadily reduced for years. Despite its new campus adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, “GMFB,” now a two-hour show (it was once four hours) is currently the only regular studio show in the NFLN lineup year-round. The nightly “The Insiders” show replaced “NFL Total Access,” which had been the network’s long-running equivalent of SportsCenter but is essentially aired from the homes of its reporters as the league opted to cut the production costs associated with doing a nightly studio show. During the season, the network does a stripped-down Sunday night highlights show and daily fantasy show.
Yet it didn’t even send Eisen and Hall of Fame analyst Kurt Warner to Canton, Ohio, last weekend to anchor this year’s Hall of Fame induction. And original GMFB cast member Kyle Brandt wore a SportsCenter shirt on Monday’s broadcast.
Per the NFL and ESPN, the “transactions are subject to the parties’ negotiation of definitive agreements, various approvals including by the NFL team owners, and customary closing conditions.”
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