The Dallas Cowboys are good business for media companies.
Consider what we noted earlier this week in that the Cowboys are beginning a run of primetime/big-window games where each of the NFL’s network parters (FOX, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Prime Video, and now Netflix) will all get a piece. That run starts in Week 9 where the Cowboys will play their first of two straight Monday Night Football games on ESPN/ABC (the bye is sandwiched in there for Dallas).
It is often joked about how ESPN goes out of their way to shoehorn the Cowboys into their programming so as to get as many eyeballs on it as possible. These things get said, but this week ESPN sort of pulled back the curtain.
If you are unaware Inside The NBA is new to ESPN this year. It is one of the most-revered sports shows on television and many were worried how being a part of a new network would feel. The crew has done an amazing job of being their usual show and this week they poked fun at how they had yet to talk about the Cowboys since officially joining the worldwide leader. This was a particularly ostentatious joke given that they are an NBA show.
Funny enough, the SportsCenter account on X joked about it with them, sort of proving the general point.
Charles Barkley joked that they were contractually obligated to talk about the Cowboys even though the team’s defense “can’t stop a bloody nose.” He also joked about how they shouldn’t have traded away their best defensive player before whining about how they couldn’t stop anybody.
It was a bit of a meta moment as ESPN almost admitted that shoehorning the Cowboys into their programming is indeed what they do. A bit surreal.
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