ESPN Denies Being Pressured by NFL to Pull Out of Documentary

This article written by Ronald DeRosa.

ESPN took a beating in the news last week when news broke that the sports networked pulled out of a collaborative PBS documentary on head injuries.

But ESPN, which is based in Bristol, is denying that its decision was influenced by National Football League pressure, the New York Times reported.

ESPN announced in 2012 it would collaborate with PBS' in-depth documentary program, Frontline, to work on a two-part investigative piece on concussions among football players in the NFL,MediaBistro reported last year.

The documentary, League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis, was slated to debut this fall, however ESPN announced just last week it was dropping out of the project and removing its logo from the documentary.

ESPN then told The Hartford Courant the network ended its association with Frontline due to a lack of editorial control on the material.

But, citing anonymous sources, The New York Times reported that NFL officials express displeasure in recent weeks, with league heads arguing with ESPN's executives on the direction of the documentary.

The Courant noted that ESPN signed a multi-billion dollar deal with the NFL in 2011 to exclusively broadcast Monday Night Football programming.

Click here to read PBS' statement on the issue.