ESPN NFL schedule release show 2026
ESPN “leveraged” NFL Network’s air to “simulcast its two-hour ‘SportsCenter’ schedule release show” Thursday night -- which was also shown on the ESPN flagship station.ESPN
ESPN “leveraged” NFL Network’s air to “simulcast its two-hour ‘SportsCenter’ schedule release show” Thursday night -- which was also shown on the ESPN flagship station. In the past, NFL Network’s “NFL GameDay Morning” crew -- including anchor Rich Eisen, Pro Football HOFer Kurt Warner and others -- “had done a three-hour broadcast to celebrate the schedule reveal” (USA TODAY, 5/14). The move comes after NFL Network produced and televised its own version of the 2026 NFL Draft, “despite the fact that both ESPN and ABC had their own version of the show.” That decision “created the impression that NFL Network will continue to do its own thing.” But the “decision to strip NFL Network of its schedule-release show underscores the reality that there’s a new reality for NFL Network” as a part of the ESPN conglomerate (PROFOOTBALLTALK, 5/14).