Less than two weeks before NFL Network’s signature morning show goes dark for months, the long-running evening show on the league-owned channel has disappeared from the lineup.
Total Access, NFLN’s first studio show, typically lands in the 7:00 p.m. ET slot. This week, a one-hour edition of Good Morning Football airs in its place. (Which apparently makes it Good Morning Football Evening.)
It’s strange, to say the least, that the league would press pause on the show in the week between the start of free agency and the annual meetings in Florida. A network spokesperson has not respond to multiple requests for comment.
One source with knowledge of the network’s current dynamics suggests it’s just another effort to cut costs at a time when the entire NFL Network/NFL.com operation remains in limbo regarding a potential sale. Coverage for the Super Bowl and the Scouting Combine was, in the source’s view, dramatically reduced. There also have been (and apparently will be) more remote contributions, all in a perceived effort to cut costs.
Total Access does indeed return to the lineup next week, the same week that GMFB concludes its New York run before exiting the lineup until it re-launches in L.A., possibly with one or more new cast members who elected not to move themselves and their families across the country. (They can say it will be the “same show” all they want. For now, the only thing that will definitely be the same is the name.)
The entire approach does indeed seem to be nothing more than an effort by the league to tighten the belt at a time when the league is otherwise bursting at the seams with cash.
That’s not to say the league should waste money simply because it’s making a lot of it. But it’s one thing to trim excess fat, and it’s quite another to pinch necessary pennies. As it relates to the league office and NFL Media/NFL Films, the league seems to be acting like a booming business is smack dab in the middle of a recession or depression.
