The NFL has one Commissioner, but two caesars.
Little Caesars joins Caesars Sportsbook as official NFL partners. The former, a nationwide chain, supplants Pizza Hut as the official pizza sponsor of the NFL.
It’s one of the many money-for-nothing deals that the NFL enjoys, by virtue of its size and popularity. From pizza to beer to wine to candy bar to soda to soup to overnight delivery services to cars to trucks to tires to motor oil to insurance to headphones to tablets to hot cereal to mattresses to teeth aligners to banks to fast-food restaurants and more, the NFL gives a business with a coast-to-coast footprint credibility by lending the shield to it — and the business gives the NFL money.
Money ends up being the core. And that’s fine; it’s the American way. Four years ago, Pizza Hut replaced Papa John’s. Now, Little Caesars is stepping up with a better offer than Pizza Hut was willing to make.
The challenge for the NFL is that, as nationwide pizza chains go, there really aren’t that many to choose from. Domino’s would be the next stop. Unless Chuck E. Cheese or Sbarro are in play.
Obviously, only pizza proprietors with a national presence benefit from doing a deal with the National Football League. The simple reality is that, in virtually every American community, there’s a local pizza shop or two (or more) that does it far better than any of the chains ever could.