The NFL is currently embroiled in about 100 different scandals and media brouhahas at the moment, and it has led some owners -- most notably including, but not necessarily limited to Jerry Jones of the Cowboys -- to consider replacements for commissioner Roger Goodell. This isn't something any of them other than Jones are thinking about making happen right away, but further down the line. (They all want Goodell's help on the 2021 CBA negotiations.)
Within a fairly explosive story detailing the relationship between Jones, Goodell, and the other NFL owners, ESPN's Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham reported that one owner had somebody reach out to NBA commissioner Adam Silver to see if he would be interested in stepping into Goodell's seat whenever it's vacated. Likely to their surprise, Silver immediately said no to the overture.
It's interesting that the NFL would turn to the NBA for leadership, especially because, elsewhere in the story, Van Natta and Wickersham reported that this happened last year:
Last year, TV ratings declined and anxiety mounted. Many owners concluded that former Pepsi executive Dawn Hudson, whom Goodell hired as the league's chief marketing officer, was providing analysis that was too optimistic. At an October 2016 league meeting in Houston, Hudson and Lockhart presented a slide that showed different variables measuring the popularity of the major sports leagues. At the top was the NFL. Various others, including Major League Soccer, were labeled "up-and-coming." At the bottom, under the category of "eroding," was the NBA, which had just signed a $24 billion TV deal with ESPN and TNT and was coming off its most watched Finals since 1998.
The idea that the NBA is eroding and the NFL is unimpeachable at the top of the food chain sounded like bunk to at least one owner, who asked another, "Do you buy this bulls--t?" Maybe the rise in the league's popularity and explosion of its TV money is part of what motivated an owner to reach out to Silver.
