Gambling, the NFL’s boogeyman, is why league got $3B for despised ‘Thursday Night Football’

The Supreme Court will decide if sports wagering
can occur outside of Nevada. (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS – Roger Goodell and the NFL continue to say they are opposed to legalized sports wagering, battling it all the way to the Supreme Court and usually trotting out some tripe about the “integrity of the game” or “protecting” their fans.

In reality, the league and Fox Sports agreed to a five-year, $3 billion-plus deal to broadcast a mere 11 Thursday night games per season. According to a CNBC report, that is an average of about $60 million per game, up from an average of $45 million last season. That’s a 33.3 percent increase for a short week contest that many fans and virtually all players detest. It doesn’t include early season games, Thanksgiving or even the digital rights, which reportedly fetched $50 million for the season from Amazon in 2016.

This occurred despite a ratings decline for NFL games in general and Thursday night games this season. It occurred despite both NBC and CBS, which shared the Thursday night package over two seasons, having reportedly lost money on that deal.

By Dan Wetzel.

Full story at Yahoo News.