“NFL logo” by Matt McGee is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
On March 18, 2021, the NAACP released an official statement on its website encouraging the NFL to “rethink its relationship with Fox.”
Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, directed the statement at Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, urging him to not allow Fox to use the NFL as a bargaining chip for their own political and financial gains. This statement was actually released shortly after Fox Sports announced that it was entering into an 11-year media rights deal with the NFL that would run from the 2022 season to 2033. This would allow Fox to cover “premier NFC games, creates new and exclusive holiday games on FOX, and expands FOX’s digital rights to enable future direct-to-consumer opportunities as well as NFL programming on FOX’s AVOD streaming service Tubi.”
What has Derrick Johnson and the NAACP so concerned is that Fox News is known for having a very right-wing leaning platform that promotes more conservative values, and the platform has been called out numerous times for its racism, race baiting and promoting ignorance amongst its viewers. Tucker Carlson, a regular spokesperson on Fox News, has even recently come under fire by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) for dog whistling the “Great Replacement” theory, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that states that white people are slowly being replaced by immigrants. Carlson denied parroting this theory and insisted that it was more of a “voting rights question.”
Regardless of whether Carlson was trying to promote an old white supremacist dog whistle or not, the fact remains that Fox News has repeatedly come under fire and into question about some of the ideals it promotes and the consequences that has had on viewers. In the NAACP’s statement, it even went as far as to say that Fox as a media platform has attempted to “spread misinformation, and promote conspiracy theories that ultimately led to an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol.”
It’s very clear why the NAACP is urging the NFL to separate itself from the deal with Fox, especially since around 70 percent of NFL players are African-American. Johnson even reaffirmed his statement to USA TODAY Sports, saying, “It is immensely perturbing that the NFL would consider extending its relationship with Fox, especially after the January 6th insurrection on our Capitol. The NFL should not be used as a bargaining tool to help fund Fox News’ racist and dangerous programming.”
Though the NFL did not release a direct response to this statement, the NFL did announce that it was also entering long-term agreements with CBS, NBC, ESPN/ABC and Amazon to broadcast all of its games to a variety of media platforms. Since the main goal of basically every company is to make money, it doesn’t look like the NFL will be distancing itself from FOX anytime soon.
