Fans are consuming pro football games at “record levels,” according to the president of the San Francisco 49ers.
But with ratings for NFL games sliding amid the changing media landscape, Al Guido says the league needs to better job of reaching viewers.
“If you look at the deal we did with Amazon, if you look at the Verizon-Oath deal, the Thursday night deal -- for us, we gotta get to a point where we have content in every single fan’s hand,” he told Cheddar in an interview. “And we’ve removed some of the exclusivities, which I think will lead to better ratings moving forward.”
Guido was referencing the deal struck between the league and Fox this week to carry Thursday Night Football games for the next five seasons.
The $3 billion price tag raised some eyebrows in light of ratings numbers -- research firm MoffettNathanson found viewership was down 13 percent during the regular season this year, and as much as 20 percent for the playoffs. Whether those declines continue into this weekend’s Super Bowl remains to be seen.
The New England Patriots will face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, February 4th.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-the-san-francisco-49ers-are-taking-advantage-of-silicon-valley).
Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish soccer federation, announced his resignation in an interview with Piers Morgan after he faced backlash over a kiss he gave to Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso following the team's World Cup final win.
Michigan State University suspended football Mel Tucker without pay after reports he allegedly sexually harassed an activist last year.
Novak Djokovic has won the U.S. Open for his 24th Grand Slam title by using every ounce of his energy and some serve-and-volley guile to get past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final in New York.
Diede de Groot has won her 12th straight Grand Slam wheelchair singles title. She beat Yui Kamiji on Sunday in the U.S. Open women’s final.
Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. The player said it was without her consent.
Gauff is the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999.
The Lions walked into roaring Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night, where the Kansas City Chiefs are nearly unbeatable and were trying to open their latest Super Bowl title defense with a win, and proved what Detroit coach Dan Campbell has come to know in turning around the long downtrodden franchise.
Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso said a kiss from federation president Luis Rubiales after the team's World Cup win was sexual assault.
Because tennis balls are extremely hard to recycle and the industry has yet to develop a ball to make that easier, nearly all of the 330 million balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, with most ending up in landfills.
“You cannot imagine," he said. "One player (is) gonna die, and they’re gonna see.”
