The NFL Is Red Hot Once Again and Ready to Score a Huge Payday
- Two years ago, critics wondered if the league had peaked
- The NFL is nearing its goal of $25 billion in revenue by 2027
Photographer: Abbie Parr/Getty Images
Two years ago, the National Football League was a hot topic of conversation in America for all the wrong reasons.
The furor over quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick and President Donald Trump’s acid Twitter comments had turned the sport into the latest culture war skirmish. TV ratings were collapsing. And gruesome accounts of concussions shocked viewers and prompted parents to push their kids away from football. One expert, Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College, declared the end of an era, giving voice to what was a popular refrain at the time -- is football the next boxing?