On Friday afternoon, word began to circulate that NFL Network was laying off a significant number of employees.
Ultimately, the actual number of affected jobs is unclear — and the characterization apparently is relative.
“Due to economic and industry-wide shifts, we have had to evaluate the best way to allocate our resources,” an NFL Network spokesperson told PFT. “As part of that process, we have made the tough decision to separate from a limited number of positions.”
We’re told the cuts affected less than five percent of the full-time employees in L.A. If, as we’ve seen elsewhere, more than 1,000 people work at the network’s campus in Los Angeles, that’s up to 50 or more full-time jobs.
As one source with knowledge of the dynamics tells PFT, some contractual employees simply won’t have their deals renewed. While some might cling to semantics when that occurs and say it’s not a termination (as some did when Jim Trotter was let go), it definitely is a termination if the employee had hoped to get a new deal.
More broadly, it’s hard to buy notion that “times are tough,” because the NFL is doing very well financially. The problem is that NFL Network isn’t a core part of the business. It’s a place where cuts can easily be made (and money saved) because it won’t affect the main product that the league sells.
It’s also easier to do it after the draft, when the league settles into several months of filler and fake lists and reduced need for workers, allowing NFL Network to prepare a reallocated workforce for the realities of a season to come.