NFL Refuses to Give Fans and Media Access to “All-22” Footage
Despite receiving approximately $4 billion every year from the sale of broadcast rights, the NFL refuses to release high-angle video that shows the entire playing field to fans or media outlets for fear that it would open up coaches and players to criticism. The video, known as All-22 footage because it shows the actions of all 22 players on the field during each play, is sought by both fans and media members in an effort to get a better idea why certain plays work or don’t work during games. See, The Wall Street Journal.
“No one gets that,” according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. The footage, added another NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, “is regarded at this point as proprietary NFL coaching information.”
Charley Casserly, a former NFL general manager, voted against releasing the All-22 footage as a member of the league’s competition committee, because he feared it would only fuel the criticism players and coaches receive on sports talk radio and television shows.
“I was concerned about misinformation being spread about players and coaches and their ability to do their job,” said Casserly. “It becomes a distraction that you have to deal with.”
Well, too bad. That’s a distraction NFL general managers, coaches and players should have to deal with. As taxpayers, fans have helped build the massive sports palaces across the country that NFL games are played in and televised from. As such, they are in effect league partners. Fans also indirectly pay the NFL the $4 billion or so that the NFL gets every year from the sale of its broadcast rights (via subscriber fees — which are hidden in cable bills — for networks like ESPN and through being hammered by ads from NFL advertisers).
The time is now for the NFL to make the All-22 footage available to fans, both directly and indirectly via the sports media.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
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Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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