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There’s a big National Football League game going on right now.
Wait, it’s not even football season, you say.
True. But there’s plenty at stake in this game, especially how consumers consume this immensely popular product. And it even has major political and business implications involving big names like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Fox founder Rupert Murdoch and even President Donald Trump.
Let’s start here: There is nothing more popular on American television than the NFL. It’s not even close.
Of the top 50 most-watched television telecasts in 2025, 46 were NFL games — led by Super Bowl LIX (in February 2025), which attracted 127.7 million viewers. Of the top 100 shows, 83 were NFL games. This year’s Super Bowl averaged 125.6 million viewers.
Americans love football. But there’s a major downside, too, and it’s playing out from New York to Washington to Los Angeles. And everywhere in between.
NFL fans have to spend a lot of money if they want access to every NFL game on TV.
You need access to local stations (CBS, Fox, NBC), as well as cable stations ESPN and NFL Network. Then there are streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Peacock.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel and Dana Mattioli broke the story that the Justice Department was investigating the NFL to see if the league had engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers. Seeing as how massive the NFL has become, it’s good to see the government looking out for consumers.
On Sunday’s “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson,” Trump once again complained about what has become an obsession (the NFL kickoff rule that has reduced injuries) and then talked about the cost for fans to watch games.
Trump said, “There’s something very sad when they take football away from many, many people. Very sad. I don’t like it. … They’re making a lot of money. They could make a little bit less. They could let the people see. You have people that live for Sunday. They live. They can’t think about anything else, and then all of a sudden they’re gonna have to pay $1,000 a game. It’s crazy, so I’m not happy about it.”
OK, $1,000 a game is not quite accurate. Obviously.
So where did Trump get that number? Well, he got it a little twisted.
Back in February, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, wrote a letter to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. He asked them to review the league’s antitrust exemption, writing, “To watch every NFL game during the past season, football fans spent almost $1,000 on cable and streaming subscriptions.”
If fans are smart by subscribing to streaming services during football season and then unsubscribing after, they can cut that price down to probably around $700 or so. But you get the point.
And it’s not just the fans who have something at stake here.
The Wall Street Journal, in a story with five bylines, wrote that Murdoch had dinner at the White House in February to talk about this issue.
The Journal wrote, “At the dinner, Murdoch warned Trump that if streamers gained rights to more games, it would kill broadcast networks, a person familiar with the evening’s events said. Trump listened to the concerns and asked questions about the business, the person said. It was a bold play call, even for a media titan known for making them. Fox’s fear of losing games created a highly unusual situation where Murdoch was seeking to stir up trouble for a partner it pays billions, fraying a relationship that has lasted for decades.”
So while Trump might be fighting on behalf of the fans, he also might be sticking up for Murdoch, who has helped Trump as much as anyone associated with the media. For Murdoch to take his pleas to the White House shows just how critical this is for Fox — and surely the other major networks (CBS and NBC) would say the same. Speaking of which, let’s not forget that CBS’s parent company, Paramount, is run by Trump ally David Ellison.
The NFL, however, is standing up for itself. It constantly reminds everyone that 87% of games last season aired on free over-the-air broadcast television — more than any other major sport. And fans do have free over-the-air access to their local teams.
The Journal wrote, “The league has launched a political blitz of its own. Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in April, according to people with knowledge of the call. He expressed concerns over the new investigation and said the league was happy to show that its media model is the fairest among major sports leagues, one of these people said. Trump has also spoken to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in recent weeks, a senior White House official said.”
This game is not even at halftime, but already it’s shaping up to be hotly contested.
President Donald Trump was back at it again last week, denigrating a female reporter because of a question he didn’t like. Trump seems to dislike all journalists — men and women — who don’t kiss up to him and lather him with praise, but he especially seems to have a problem with women who have the temerity to ask him tough questions. Or, in other words, do their jobs.
The latest was last week, when ABC reporter Rachel Scott asked Trump about often focusing on refurbishing national monuments instead of worrying about more pressing matters that face Americans.
Scott asked Trump, “Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now, especially with gas prices soaring?”
Trump answered, “You know why? Because I want to keep our country beautiful and safe.” Then he addressed others in the room by saying, “This is one of the worst reporters. She’s with ABC fake news, and she’s a horror show.”
As pointed out in a story by Mediaite’s Jennifer Bowers Bahney, MS NOW compiled clips of other times Trump has mistreated female journalists.
It included calling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “stupid” and the “worst reporter,” and telling Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey, “Quiet, piggy.”
And this isn’t the first time Trump has gone after Scott. He once said she was “the most obnoxious” reporter at an event and has suggested that she should be “embarrassed” by her reporting.
As Bowers Bahney also noted, MS NOW political analyst Molly Jong-Fast said this has gotten worse as Trump has gotten older. In the past, Trump has said misogynistic things about political opponents such as Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. But, Jong-Fast notes that Trump seems to “lash out” in ways that seem emotional, and not calculated.
Jong-Fast said, “And I think this is meaningful because, you know, he’s 79, he’s about to be 80. And as you get older, sometimes you see people who start to slow down are less able to control their … behavior and speech. And it does strike me that the fact that he can’t prevent himself from getting angry at these women reporters and lashing out is new.”
Jong-Fast also said this about Trump: “But I also think that part of his situation is that he’s a person who likes the people who vote for him and doesn’t like the people who don’t vote for him. And he said as much. And, you know, he’s never really been able to sort of keep up with women voters the way he has with men. And part of the MAHA movement was about trying to get those women voters, so you could see how him lashing out at women voters is also somewhat narcissistic.”
NOTUS, the nonprofit news site founded by former Politico owner Robert Allbritton, has an interesting new piece: “16 Washington Post veterans on what they would change about D.C. journalism.”
Veteran media columnist Margaret Sullivan, who now has her own newsletter (“American Crisis”) and writes for The Guardian US, offered her thoughts on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which was abruptly cut short this year after a gunman tried to force his way into the event. Even before that, there have been issues with the dinner — with journalists hobnobbing at a glitzy party with those they cover. It became even more problematic this year because of the attendance of Trump, who has done more than any president ever to undercut the free press in this country.
Sullivan wrote, “The disruption of this year’s event provides a perfect moment to move away from this flawed tradition into something that truly expresses its stated purpose — to celebrate the First Amendment and raise money for journalism causes. I’m not sure exactly what this would look like, but the smart, resourceful journalists in the correspondents’ association should do some brainstorming and be open to radical change. It shouldn’t be hard to come up with something better.”
NOTUS, by the way, is changing its name to The Washington Star next month and will stretch beyond politics by covering local news and sports. It is adding staff, as well, all in hopes of filling the void left by The Washington Post following massive layoffs earlier this year.
The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell with “Inside Ben Shapiro’s MAGA meltdown.”
Steve Kerr, who has established himself as one of the best coaches in NBA history with the Golden State Warriors, just signed a new two-year contract extension to remain with Golden State. But the deal came only after ESPN made a big pitch to get him to become an NBA analyst, according to one report. The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami wrote, “Kerr can walk into a top analyst’s job anytime he wants; ESPN was especially aggressive about the chase, probably offering up to $7 million per, and I heard was willing to meet almost any possible condition of his, including staying away from all hot-take panel shows.”
But wait, there’s more. After Awful Announcing wrote about Kawakami’s reporting, ESPN content president Burke Magnus reached out to them to say, “We have too much respect for Coach Kerr. We were not even going to engage until he made a decision on coaching.”
Another solid “Saturday Night Live” cold open skewering the Trump administration with Colin Jost continuing his hilarious impression of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Aziz Ansari returning as FBI director Kash Patel and host Matt Damon doing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
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