With most of the NFL media currently gathered in Indianapolis to focus on the Scouting Combine, we welcome the opportunity to give them a chance to chase a story not relating to grown men in UnderArmour who are participating in the various events of the Underwear Olympics.
So here it goes.
A strong rumor has reached PFT headquarters that the NFL recently tried to buy the UFL.
The specific rumor is that the NFL offered within the past few days payment of $50 million for 51 percent of the one-year-old minor league. The second part of the rumor is that the UFL responded by offering 49 percent for $49 million.
The NFL surely wants to take control of the UFL, for reasons directly related to the protracted game of part-chess, part-chicken unfolding between the NFL and the players’ union. With the NFL at a minimum trying to make the NFLPA believe that a lockout is coming and at worst planning to padlock the gates of team facilities throughout the league in 2011, 51-percent ownership of the UFL would give the NFL control of the primary alternative source of American pro football tournament during the 2011 season -- for players, NFL employees, and most importantly fans.
The rumor currently is unconfirmed (and I can hear the dialing of the Sprint phones at the Scouting Combine from here). We’ve requested a response from the NFL and we’ll be communicating with the NFLPA and the UFL on this issue as well.
The acquisition would raise plenty of issues, especially with the UFL broadcasting games during the Friday-Saturday window that, when done from September through early December, nullifies antitrust exemptions.
Remember for now that it’s a rumor. And, as a rumor, there might be nothing to it. But it’s definitely being talked about by people in pro football, and thus the topic falls squarely within the purview of the address you typed or the bookmark you clicked to get to this page.
We’ll leave it to the actual journalists out there who often confuse the coverage of sports with the coverage of politics and other truly important matters that people don’t follow for entertainment to debate whether we should have published the existence of a rumor before determining whether or not the rumor was accurate. We’re moving on, but not moving out.
UPDATE: NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says via e-mail that the rumor is “flat wrong” and that “no such offer was made,” based on his information from people who have “had discussions with the UFL.”