Today’s guest columnist is Laura Gentile, former executive vice president and chief marketing officer at ESPN and founder of LauraGentile.Studio.
The one thing sports fans could always bank on was ESPN being ready to serve—putting the fan first. From its earliest days, ESPN was seemingly ubiquitous, available on cable TV 24 hours a day, then on your computer, across the country’s radio waves, in the form of a magazine, and eventually as a constant companion on your phone.
At its best, it was the friend sitting next to you at the bar, the buddy nudging you on your couch—Did you see that?!—and the pal yelling at the screen along with you. It functioned as the world’s biggest sports fan and the arbiter of what was news. It was the sidekick helping you through your alma mater’s stunning loss and celebrating your favorite player’s record-breaking performance.
As a lifelong sports fan, and someone who made her dream come true by working at the company, I experienced first-hand how ESPN made sports moments feel big, real and personal: from Mo’ne Davis’ emergence at the Little League World Series to Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. We shared such moments with ESPN. We felt validated in our fanaticism as ESPN provided context for us alongside millions of other fans. We grew to trust, and even love, ESPN.
Now ESPN has sold itself to the NFL, once and for all. The NFL enabled ESPN to emerge as the Worldwide Leader in Sports with the advent of Sunday Night Football in the 1980s, long before Faith Hill and Cris Collinsworth on NBC. The original SNF put NFL games on cable TV for the first time, breaking the stranglehold of the broadcast networks, adding a new and prosperous rightsholder to the mix, driving up player salaries and ultimately enabling the NFL to become the dominant sports league in America.
The NFL is propelled by ESPN’s billions, with ESPN often outspending its competitors 3-to-1 for the rights to televise games…
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