In an interview with The Daily Beast, HBO host Bryant Gumbel describes a 60 Minutes profile of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as “nothing more than a marketing plan.”
Gumbel said the conflict between carrying and promoting sports–and reporting on sports–has left “ESPN…so conflicted, it makes no sense to even discuss them.”
Of the 60 Minutes story, about player safety in the NFL, Gumbel said:
“It was like a big wet kiss, to allow Roger Goodell to sit there and say ‘we care about player safety.’ Does it occur to you at some point to say, ‘excuse me? If you cared so much, why as recently as two years ago were you saying there was no link? As recently as two years ago, were you fighting in court spending zillions of dollars to make sure these guys don’t get anything?’ I have all the respect in the world for 60 Minutes and for Steve Kroft. But when you sit there and watch something like that, you’re inclined to say, boy oh boy, it’s nothing more than a marketing plan.”