NFL COO: Needs to Be 'Ordinary' to See Women in Sports Leadership Roles
*By Conor White*
Though last season's 10 percent [drop in ratings](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanberr/2018/08/28/the-nfls-ratings-probably-will-continue-to-decline/#75a6e8dc6666) has stirred questions about the appeal of football broadcasts in the streaming age, the NFL's COO thinks the internet is a useful learning tool for marketing her league.
"What Netflix and Google taught us is that ubiquity and ease are key," the league's chief operating officer Maryann Turcke said in an interview on Cheddar.
"When I think about my own kids, I have a 23-year-old and an 18-year-old; if they can't find something \[quickly\], they're going to stop looking."
Some leagues might be fazed by the rapid rise of eSports, but in certain ways the NFL, which kicks off its season on September 6, has been part of the movement from the beginning ー largely thanks to the success of the Madden franchise of games.
While last weekend's [deadly attack](https://cheddar.com/videos/social-media-livestreams-face-scrutiny-after-jacksonville-shooting) at a qualifying event for the Madden 19 Championship raised concerns over safety at these tournaments, Turcke said the league is poised to take the next step and embrace the eSports craze.
"What Madden did is they brought football into gaming," Turcke said. "I think we need to bring gaming to the broadcast."
"There's a secret sauce out there somewhere, that someone's going to figure out, around how to gamify what we do." she added.
As for the concern about ratings, the NFL's chief media and business officer Brian Rolapp thinks the issue is being exaggerated.
"I think a lot of other people are more worried than we are," he told Cheddar.
While ratings for NFL games are down, [they're also down for everyone else](https://deadspin.com/for-the-last-time-nfl-ratings-are-not-down-theyre-up-1827378925) ー and not just in sports. NBC and CBS both saw viewership fall by 19 percent in 2017, and broadcast networks overall lost 16 percent of their viewers.
"The television industry and media industry is going through some huge changes," Rolapp said. "No one's immune to that."
And live sports ー the NFL, in particular ー are in a better position than most to attract viewers and actually may become more valuable to advertisers in the long run, Rolapp said.
"There is a premium in this marketplace that will continue for any content that can aggregate large number of audiences at one time," Rolapp said. "They are very few, and they are becoming fewer. Live events works, sports works, and the NFL specifically works."
"Whenever you have a product that aggregates audiences, people will find that valuable."
The 2018-19 NFL season officially starts Thursday, when the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles take on the Atlanta Falcons.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/nfl-gears-up-for-another-season).
Stephen Smith, Founder and CEO of Kitman Labs, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains how his company's intelligence platform is engineering change in how athletes and sports teams prepare for games.
Sportswear giant Adidas is giving student-athletes the opportunity to become partners as affiliate brand ambassadors to help grow their networks as professional athletes. Attorney Darren Heitner, the founder of Heitner Legal, joined Cheddar News to talk about the legalities of the process. "It is absolutely a game-changer because we see a major brand make a big splash, nine months into name image and likeness rights for college athletes," he said. "While it is a paid brand affiliate type of partnership, it will open the door for 50,000-plus athletes across the country to start making some money, even if it's just through other people clicking their links and making purchases."
State and county taxpayers will be asked to commit a record $850 million in public funds toward construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium as part of a 30-year lease agreement.
Saint Peter's University - a small school in New Jersey school - has skyrocketed to the center of the sports world in a 'Cinderella' story for the record books. The ultimate underdog of the men's March Madness tournament is just the third 15-seed to reach the Sweet 16, after beating Murray State and college basketball powerhouse Kentucky. Throughout the university's historic run, Saint Pete's has reportedly been earning what amounts to millions of dollars in publicity. Amanda Christovich, reporter for Front Office Sports, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
ESPN College Gameday LaPhonso Ellis joins Cheddar Bets to break down the NCAA Tournament so far, and who will make noise all the way down to New Orleans.
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BetMGM Host Olivia Harlan Dekker joins Cheddar Bets to talk about lessons learned from this year's NCAA Tournament and to share which teams have the best value going forward.
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Emmanuel Acho joined Cheddar News to talk about his new book "Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits." The former NFL player, current broadcaster, and host is on a mission to help people see beyond the goals that they have set for themselves. “People say 'what is being illogical?'" he said. "To me, it's believing it is so even when it's not so — so that it can be so."
Adidas is now the first major sports brand to create a program for paying college athletes. The new "name, image and likeness" network will allow more than 50,000 students across NCAA Division 1 schools to become paid spokespeople for the brand. Thilo Kunkel, Associate Professor and Director of Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University, tells us why this new program is only the beginning of an exciting time for student athletes.
