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Afternoon Edition

June 6, 2025

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The Steelers were already one of the NFL’s most-watched teams. The addition of Aaron Rodgers makes them a very hot TV commodity, even as it flies in the face of the organization’s usual values.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Rodgers Signing Defies Steelers Reputation but Further Boosts Team’s Profile [[link removed]]

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Aaron Rodgers is now officially a Steeler, bringing in a significant amount of risk for a notoriously risk-averse organization.

After months of speculation, even confounding Steelers coach Mike Tomlin [[link removed]], Rodgers at last notified the team Thursday [[link removed]] that he would sign, and then officially agreed to a one-year deal on Friday, pending a physical.

In pure football terms, Rodgers and a pedigree built with four Most Valuable Player awards could represent a sizable upgrade for a franchise stuck in a competitive morass. Under Tomlin, the Steelers have not had a losing season since 2003, four years before Tomlin arrived, a remarkable streak in the hypercompetitive NFL. For all that regular-season success, though, the team also hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season, five years before the retirement of franchise icon Ben Roethlisberger.

In a broader sense, though, the arrival of the highly polarizing Rodgers also brings a different type of attention to a Steelers organization that, under the Rooney family ownership, has long prized stability, accountability, and minimizing off-field drama. Even before the deal was struck, Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw called the team’s pursuit of Rodgers “a joke.” [[link removed]] Since then, New York–area media such as the New York Post openly lampooned the signing [[link removed]] and called Rodgers “Pittsburgh’s problem now.”

Must-See TV

One thing is for certain, though, with Rodgers signing with Pittsburgh: The Steelers will be an even more prominent fixture on television this season than the perennially popular team already is. Pittsburgh’s 2025 schedule currently includes four primetime games, including an Oct. 26 clash on NBC’s Sunday Night Football against the Packers, where Rodgers had the vast amount of his prior on-field success.

The Steelers, meanwhile, also begin the regular season at the Jets, Rodgers’s most recent team, and that game is certain to be a key element of the early 1 p.m. ET window on the league’s first Sunday. TickPick also said that an average ticket purchase price of $326 for that opener represented the most expensive Jets regular-season game that the company has tracked.

Other key late-season Steelers games, such as late-afternoon matchups against the Bills and Lions that will be shown nationally by CBS and a Sept. 28 game in Dublin against the Vikings [[link removed]] on the NFL Network, have gained further prominence with the arrival of Rodgers. Other Steelers games later in the season currently slated for afternoon windows could additionally get flexed into broader windows.

NFL officials previously said they were keeping factors such as Rodgers in mind when developing the 2025 schedule, but ultimately released it last month [[link removed]] on the normal timetable with the quarterback still unsigned.

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Silver: NBA Local Media Woes Could Hurt Expansion Momentum [[link removed]]

Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Expansion has been a hot topic for the NBA [[link removed]] in recent years, with a prevailing thought that the league would add two franchises after it settled its media-rights future.

But even with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video starting 11-year, $77 billion deals next season, NBA commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t want to guarantee that the league’s current 30 owners will green-light expansion in the immediate future.

“The current sense is we should be exploring it,” Silver said Thursday night ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. “I don’t think it’s automatic, because it depends on your perspective on the future of the league. Expansion, in a way, is selling equity in the league. And if you believe in the league, you don’t necessarily want to add partners.”

Silver said expansion will be discussed at an owners meeting in July around the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which had long been believed to be a front-runner [[link removed]] for an expansion franchise alongside Seattle.

A formal process for adding teams could begin after that. “There’s been no lack of interest,” Silver said, while noting he has so far not engaged with many “unsolicited calls” from prospective cities interested in a team.

“We recognize there are underserved markets in the United States and elsewhere,” Silver said. “And I think markets that deserve to have NBA teams, probably even, if we were to expand, more than we can serve.”

One issue Silver raised for potential expansion franchises is the uncertain state of local media-rights deals [[link removed]] in the NBA. “Several of our teams’ regional networks have actually shut down,” he said. “Others have recently come out of bankruptcy. Others seem to be teetering. We’re going through a transition in media.”

YouTube Scores Early Win Over Disney in Fight About Exec [[link removed]]

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Round 1 in the Disney-YouTube legal battle involving top executive Justin Connolly clearly goes to the Google-owned streamer.

About two weeks after Disney, the ESPN parent company, filed a lawsuit in California [[link removed]] challenging Connolly’s intent to leave and join YouTube as global head of media and sports, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Disney’s bid for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the executive’s move. Additionally, Judge James Chalfant wrote that he denied the order Disney sought in part because the “plaintiff has not demonstrated a probability of success on the merits.”

Chalfant also cited “lack of showing of emergency” and a “balance of harms” still tilting toward Connolly and not Disney.

That means that, at least for now, Connolly can continue working at the streamer. There, he will look to expand a sports profile [[link removed]] that already includes residential distribution rights for NFL Sunday Ticket and a recent deal to carry the league’s return to Brazil on Sept. 5 [[link removed]] with the Chiefs and Chargers.

Disney said in a statement that it was “disappointed” in the initial ruling “but will continue to pursue our legal remedies.” The company had claimed Connolly signed a three-year employment agreement last November covering all of 2025–27, with a one-time termination right becoming effective March 1, 2027, and had raised claims of breach of contract, tortious interference of contractual relations, and unfair competition.

YouTube TV has a soon-expiring carriage deal with Disney, but YouTube has said in legal filings that it has told Disney that Connolly will not be involved in the renegotiation efforts.

NASCAR Amazon Ratings Down 25% From 2024 Fox Broadcasts [[link removed]]

Austin American-Statesman

The early stages of NASCAR’s new $1 million in-season tournament [[link removed]] will come into focus this weekend as fans continue to get used to the sport’s new media partners.

Over the next three races on new rights-holder Amazon Prime Video, performances will determine the seeding for a 32-driver bracket. Drivers will be seeded by their best finish in the upcoming three races, with the first tiebreaker being the next-best finish.

Amazon has averaged 2.39 million viewers for the first two broadcasts of the streamer’s five-race package this season. As expected, that’s down from last year’s ratings on Fox, which averaged 3.17 million viewers over the same two-race stretch (Charlotte and Nashville). However, Amazon said the median ages of its race audiences (55.8 and 56.8, respectively) are far lower than the 62.8 median age of NASCAR Cup Series races this season on linear networks.

Passing the Torch

When Amazon’s slate of races concludes, TNT Sports will air all five races that encompass the single-elimination portion of the in-season tournament, beginning with the June 28 race in Atlanta.

In addition to the normal race playing out, drivers will advance or be eliminated from the tournament by comparing their head-to-head result against the other driver they are matched up with. The $1 million winner-take-all tournament will crown its champion at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.

TNT Sports is adding NASCAR to its portfolio just as its NBA rights expire. [[link removed]] Other new sports rights for the Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary include the ongoing French Open [[link removed]] and the College Football Playoff [[link removed]].

Amazon, TNT Sports, and The CW (Xfinity Series) became NASCAR media-rights partners this season alongside incumbents Fox and NBC, all of which will collectively pay $7.7 billion over the next seven years [[link removed]].

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY No Clark, No Problem? Sky and Fever Still Aim for Record

FOS illustration

The previous matchup between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky set a ratings record as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese got into it. But even with Clark not suiting up for Indiana this weekend, Chicago still hopes to set an attendance record when it hosts the Fever at the Bulls’ United Center for the rematch. FOS reporter Colin Salao will be at the game and tells Baker Machado and Renee Washington what to anticipate.

Plus, former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland gives advice on the new world of NIL (name, image, and likeness) and how collegiate and professional players can avoid predatory financial situations. We also hear about the importance of data in MLB, and David Beckham receives England’s highest recognition.

Watch the full episode here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Two Up, Two Down

Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images

Stanley Cup Final ⬇ TNT Sports drew 2.42 million viewers for Game 1 of Panthers-Oilers on Wednesday night. That’s down 22% from Game 1 of the same matchup last year, which drew 3.16 million on ABC, and down 12% from Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final (Panthers–Golden Knights), also simulcast on TNT Sports channels, averaging 2.75 million viewers.

Chicago Sports Network ⬆ The regional sports network involving the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as expected, completed a long-awaited carriage deal with Comcast, the dominant cable operator in the Chicago area. The deal gives CHSN a sizable boost in exposure as White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf begins the final chapter of his long run owning the MLB club [[link removed]]. CHSN, however, will remain on Comcast’s more expensive Ultimate TV tier, reviving the company’s long-running efforts to keep RSNs on those premium levels and differing from the YES Network’s recent resistance to that push [[link removed]]. The CHSN-Comcast deal arrived less than two months after Reinsdorf met with FCC chair Brendan Carr [[link removed]].

Pete DeBoer ⬇ The Stars fired their head coach on Friday despite three straight trips to the Western Conference final. Even as the Stars under DeBoer had been one of the NHL’s most consistently competitive teams, the club fell in the past two seasons to the Oilers and in 2023 to the Golden Knights in a bid to reach the Stanley Cup Final. “We believe a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” said Dallas GM Jim Nill.

U.S. Open ⬆ Tickets are sold out for next week’s major championship at Oakmont Country Club just outside Pittsburgh, the USGA announced Friday. This will be Oakmont’s 10th time hosting the U.S. Open, and first since 2016.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS HONORS

Rising 25 Nominations Are in Full Swing

Rising 25 [[link removed]] is back and it’s time to nominate an up-and-coming young professional changing the game in the business of sports.

The Front Office Sports Rising 25 Award celebrates the careers of the brightest young stars in the business of sports. To date, we’ve honored 200 individuals and we’re looking for our next group of young stars.

Know someone who deserves to be recognized? Nominate them now [[link removed]].

Nominations are open through June 22.

Editors’ Picks Trump Immigration Actions Could Ensnare International College Athletes [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Both White House and State Department actions have contributed to the uncertainty. Kalshi’s Momentum Fuels Crypto.com’s Fight Over Sports Markets [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]Crypto.com cited a recent Kalshi court victory in its own fight against Nevada. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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