The Great NFL Heist: How Fox Paid for and Changed Football Forever

Very long article.

An oral history of the most important deal in sports TV history, when Rupert Murdoch and Fox stole the NFL and John Madden out from under the Big Three networks, created the modern pregame show, invented a new way to see football, and launched a television empire

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The Great NFL Heist: How Fox Paid for and Changed Football Forever

"... and launched a television empire"

'Empires' just aren't what they used to be...

This wa a great piece. Thank you for linking it because I would have never seen it otherwise. I’ve been saying for years this was the seminal moment of the past half century not only in the NFL but across the sports landscape. When people argue about which commissioner deserves the most credit for the NFL's success, I always state that nobody contributed more to the NFL dynasty than Rupert Murdoch.

The naivete of the early 90's is hilarious. The whole "how will they ever fill an hour pregame show with material?" silliness. LOL! It's incredible people used to think that way....

Fox has always thought outside the box, taking more advantage of social media and other innovations and technology than any other network.

FOX made football worse. It was X's and O's before them. What would you prefer, that or a bunch of bad jokes and horsing around?

The pregame show with Brent, Phyllis George, and The Greek was watched by every male across the country. Different era. Good for FOX for figuring out how to water things down.

This article is insanely long! I just finished part 1. I'm going to take a break lol

That was a very interesting article, in spite of it's length.

It helped explain how the NYFL has become a clown show instead of a sports show. Oh how I long for the days when a one hour football show was 15 minutes of talk and 45 minutes of football highlights.

I watch football for what happens on the field, not so I can hear barely audible ramblings from gasbags who think they're the show instead.

I'm not at all surprised that the brains behind the changes to football coverage is a soccer guy. God knows that sport needs some sprucing up.

Family said:

FOX made football worse. It was X's and O's before them. What would you prefer, that or a bunch of bad jokes and horsing around?

The pregame show with Brent, Phyllis George, and The Greek was watched by every male across the country. Different era. Good for FOX for figuring out how to water things down.

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The 30 for 30 on Jimmy the Greek is must watch TV.

And according to that article, we also have Jerry Jones and Pat Bowlen to thank. Greaaaaaaaaat. And this deal also helped 'make' Fox an important player. Also greaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

They’ve destroyed football