Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports. The cold heart truth
Speaker 1: about the Olympic journey is not really been financially incentivize
Speaker 1: in the same way that many of the confession sports
Speaker 1: are business. The basketball involved in NBA glbals are life
Speaker 1: losing arm think for fifty. All of those things will
Speaker 1: make up what that looks like money in sports. It's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I enjoy being on Money
Speaker 1: Night Countdown and talk about some of the more interesting
Speaker 1: aspects of business of sports. When you talk in sports,
Speaker 1: discipline is the bridge from being good to ultimately being
Speaker 1: great at whatever it is that you're trying to be
Speaker 1: your accomplished as your profession. Bloomberg Business of Sports from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show
Speaker 1: where we explore the big money issues in the world
Speaker 1: of sports. I'm Scarlet Foo and I'm Mike Lynch coming
Speaker 1: up today. We've got a lot to talk about Lynchy
Speaker 1: and this is something that has dominated the headlines, and
Speaker 1: it's all about Tom Brady. He's still an active football player,
Speaker 1: right that that's the latest is one ye left in
Speaker 1: his contract with Tampa Bay. So when he decides to
Speaker 1: retire from football, He's already got his next gig lined up.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a very lucrative deal gig at
Speaker 1: Fox Sports three seventy five million dollar, ten year contract.
Speaker 1: That is the richest deal in sports broadcasting history. And
Speaker 1: by the way, this is all according to the New
Speaker 1: York Post. This will double the deal that Tony Romo
Speaker 1: signed in March for ten years, one hundred eighty million dollars.
Speaker 1: And Troy Aikman has a five year, ninety million dollar
Speaker 1: to do Monday Night Football with Joe Buck. When I
Speaker 1: first saw this story, I said, Okay, maybe Fox is
Speaker 1: acting like, let's grab him now before somebody else does.
Speaker 1: And it reminds me of nineteen seventy nine when Larry
Speaker 1: Bird was a junior in Indiana State and Red hour
Speaker 1: Back of the Celtics drafted him, even though he was
Speaker 1: coming back to play his senior year. He said, I'll
Speaker 1: sacrifice one year without Larry Bird to have him for
Speaker 1: his entire career in the Celtics uniform. And that's the
Speaker 1: move that Fox made. But they're paying a ton of money.
Speaker 1: I mean they're thirty three hundred seventy five million dollars
Speaker 1: over ten years. I know it's pretty incredible. And by
Speaker 1: the way, Fox officially said that what has been reported
Speaker 1: is not an accurate description of the deal. We have
Speaker 1: not released details beyond what was disclosed in their quarterly
Speaker 1: earnings called. But then they also did not bother to
Speaker 1: clarify what was inaccurate about that million ten year contracts,
Speaker 1: so it remains to be seen. Tom Brady also tweeted
Speaker 1: out that he's excited about the deal, but says there's
Speaker 1: a lot of unfinished business on the field with the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: You think he's going to play his last year of
Speaker 1: the contract and then that's it, or is he going
Speaker 1: to continue to play? You know, if I'm looking at
Speaker 1: from Fox perspective, they would probably say, okay, Tom play
Speaker 1: one year, then come into the broadcast spooth. But if
Speaker 1: Tom has an indefinite time limit on his playing career,
Speaker 1: I can't see them just making this commitment to him.
Speaker 1: So I just think that there's some type of agreement
Speaker 1: between the two of them that this will be it
Speaker 1: one more shot to win another Super Bowl, uh to
Speaker 1: to to set some more records that will set them
Speaker 1: apart from everybody else, and then jump into the broadcast booth.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think that it's also some lingering
Speaker 1: questions what kind of an analyst will would be in
Speaker 1: the booth? Yes, I think this is such a good
Speaker 1: point because, I mean, Lynch, you know from interviewing athletes
Speaker 1: all the time that when they are being interviewed by
Speaker 1: the media, oftentimes their goal is not to make news
Speaker 1: or make waves. But it's just too often give platitudes
Speaker 1: and you know, say the right things like, oh, give
Speaker 1: a hundred and ten percent. You know, we're trying hard.
Speaker 1: It's not about um end resolve, but or whatever cliche
Speaker 1: you want to throw in there, how do you make
Speaker 1: that transition into a really colorful, interesting lead analyst talking
Speaker 1: about the NFL. We all remember Joe Nameth Broadway. Joe
Speaker 1: one of the more colorful athletes. He said everything, and
Speaker 1: he was a reporter's dream. He was a walking sound bite.
Speaker 1: But when he got on the broadcast booth, he was
Speaker 1: a completely different guy and he didn't last very long.
Speaker 1: He was with Monday Night Football, did a little bit
Speaker 1: with NBC, and that was it was ignoring. What was
Speaker 1: it was? He he was kind of boring. He just said, wow, wow,
Speaker 1: will you look at that? What a nice looking past
Speaker 1: that was? You know, Wow. Wow, that was a great
Speaker 1: tackle by May and over there number fifty four and
Speaker 1: you know we can see that, Joe, you know, tell
Speaker 1: me why this is a this is a stadium that's
Speaker 1: hard to play. And tell me why when you get
Speaker 1: down to this end zone they have some fans there
Speaker 1: and you can never hear yourself calling the signals. You
Speaker 1: have to use hand signals. Give me take me inside
Speaker 1: and and Tony Romo does that as well as anybody
Speaker 1: with Jim Nance on CBS. He says, oh oh, he's
Speaker 1: changing the play right here. Watch this. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be a screen down the bottom of the screen. Here
Speaker 1: comes the screen pass and boom, there it happens. Chris
Speaker 1: Collinsworth is very good at that. And the standard I
Speaker 1: think is pretty high for Tom Brady right now. The
Speaker 1: expectations are gonna be very very high for him. And remember,
Speaker 1: very few fans tune in to watch a game because
Speaker 1: of the broadcasters. The only one I can think of
Speaker 1: was Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: am happy when I when if the game I've chosen
Speaker 1: to watch that day does have Tony Romo in the
Speaker 1: booth or Chris Collinsworth I'm very happy about that. So
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a little bit of pressure
Speaker 1: on Tom. He's made friends with so many people. I
Speaker 1: covered his entire career with the New England Patriots. I
Speaker 1: know him personally and professionally, and he's just I think
Speaker 1: he's just too nice of a guy to be up
Speaker 1: in the booth and just slicing and dicing and criticizing
Speaker 1: some of the players on the field. So I think
Speaker 1: the pressure is going to be on the lead play
Speaker 1: by play announcer for Fox Sports UM for the NFL,
Speaker 1: which is Kevin Brookhart, because he's going to have to
Speaker 1: bring it the best in Tom. Yeah, but exactly, but
Speaker 1: not overwhelm him, right, not dominate him either, and just
Speaker 1: be partner in crime and also maybe compensate and and
Speaker 1: train him as well. Yeah. They what they will do
Speaker 1: is when he decides to retire, and maybe even before that,
Speaker 1: they'll go into a studio and they'll put a game
Speaker 1: on a big, gigantic screen and they'll put headsets on
Speaker 1: and they will just do an exact replica of a broadcast.
Speaker 1: It'll be three three and a half hours, it'll be
Speaker 1: commercial breaks and they'll have replace and we'll sit and
Speaker 1: and there'll be a lot of coaching. There'll be a
Speaker 1: lot of producers there because they want this to work.
Speaker 1: They'll be such a big splash with Brady. You know,
Speaker 1: Fox does not want this thing to go wrong. There
Speaker 1: will be a lot of teaching, a lot of coaching
Speaker 1: of Tom. There's gonna be all a lot of riffing.
Speaker 1: They'll have to create chemistry. Hopefully there will be some chemistry,
Speaker 1: because that's also really difficult to just do um on command.
Speaker 1: You have to make sure that it's already there. Brickot
Speaker 1: is very, very good. He's very versatile, and he's a
Speaker 1: great broadcaster, and I think he'll bring out the best
Speaker 1: in Tom. I'd love to see Tom with a Jim
Speaker 1: Nance or at Joe Buck or at Al Michael's. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that would be absolutely fantastic. But I think Brady,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not convinced that he's going to be a
Speaker 1: star in the booth, but I could and I hope,
Speaker 1: and I hope I'm wrong. I really do, because I
Speaker 1: like him a lot personally professionally. You said Tony Romo
Speaker 1: is really one of the best. What does he do
Speaker 1: so well that others haven't figured out. He doesn't state
Speaker 1: the obvious, and a lot of a lot like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's say they hand on the ball off to um
Speaker 1: so and so he runs around the right side and
Speaker 1: oh he didn't have any room. He had to run
Speaker 1: out of bounds to stop the clock. Well, I can
Speaker 1: see that, and always says, well, here's Tony Romo can
Speaker 1: tell you what's going to happen before it happens, he said,
Speaker 1: he said, if I'm if I'm on defense right now,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of full blitz on this play right here,
Speaker 1: and boom it happened. Because he's I'm standing that staring
Speaker 1: at his entire career, think something. Could you tell that
Speaker 1: as a football player he would make a good NFL broadcaster?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that we're not hearing him talk
Speaker 1: in the same way and thinking about how he might
Speaker 1: interpret the plays. But does your quarterbacking ability, your success
Speaker 1: on the field have any bearing whatsoever on what happens
Speaker 1: in the broadcasting booth? You know where people discover where
Speaker 1: executives discovered people like Tony Romo. On Friday afternoon, when
Speaker 1: or sometimes it's on Saturday, the broadcast crew arrives in town.
Speaker 1: Let's say they're doing the the New York Giants against
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys. So they will go into a room
Speaker 1: in the team hotel and they'll meet with the head coach,
Speaker 1: they'll meet with the quarterback, they'll meet with maybe maybe
Speaker 1: one player on the defense. You know what are we
Speaker 1: gonna be looking for about da? Da da? And during
Speaker 1: those conversations some of the and I've been in a
Speaker 1: ton of them, someone will come in and just give
Speaker 1: it yup, Nope, I don't know, Maybe we'll see I
Speaker 1: don't know. You know, it's game time and some guys
Speaker 1: have just just open up and the conversation could go
Speaker 1: for hours, just talking about all kinds of aspects of
Speaker 1: the play. So the producers and the broadcasters were there
Speaker 1: and said, hey, this guy Romo is really good when
Speaker 1: when it's playing days or over. This guy has great
Speaker 1: insight and he's he loves the business. He's a student
Speaker 1: of the game. He knows everything and everything about it,
Speaker 1: and he's articulate. Yes, that's how a lot of these
Speaker 1: things happen. Got it. I love the behind the scenes
Speaker 1: intel on this um. The other story that we want
Speaker 1: to mention, and this is a good segue from Tom
Speaker 1: Brady as well, is we have a list of the
Speaker 1: one hundred highest paid athletes in the world for two.
Speaker 1: This is from Sportico and a lot of the names
Speaker 1: on there, you know, you kind of expect to see. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a spoiler alert by saying
Speaker 1: that Lebron James comes out on top. He's the highest
Speaker 1: paid athlete in the world, with thirty six point nine
Speaker 1: million dollars in salary and ninety million dollars in endorsements
Speaker 1: for grand total of one point nine so just under
Speaker 1: one seven million dollars in compensation for two, just slightly
Speaker 1: are than than the next highest paid player. And then
Speaker 1: in the next three are actually soccer players, Lionel Messi,
Speaker 1: Cristiano Ronaldo and neymar all with between a hundred and
Speaker 1: three and a hundred and twenty two million dollars. And
Speaker 1: we're always talking on this show about why we're always
Speaker 1: marveling at the price that owners will pay to own
Speaker 1: a team in the English Premier League, on the Italian
Speaker 1: League of eventually, etcetera, etcetera. And now we know why
Speaker 1: because it's very very lucrative. I mean, some of these
Speaker 1: salaries seventy two million, sixty millions, sixty five million for
Speaker 1: the three soccer players and their endorsements all arranged from
Speaker 1: thirty eight to fifty million dollars. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: money to be had in the game of football across
Speaker 1: the pond. Yeah, but they're the only top three. They're
Speaker 1: the only footballers in the top twenty, which I found surprising.
Speaker 1: After that, you won't see anyone until number twenty five
Speaker 1: killion pop of Paris and Druman at number twenty five,
Speaker 1: So that's that's interesting. The other thing, Lebron, of course,
Speaker 1: is in good company because a lot of NBA players
Speaker 1: on this list. Yeah. I did a quick breakdown. There
Speaker 1: were twelve of the top hundred, twelve soccer players, thirty
Speaker 1: six basketball players, twenty three football players, twelve baseball players,
Speaker 1: four golfers, and one cricket player who I looked up,
Speaker 1: Virat Cohley from India. He makes two point nine million
Speaker 1: dollars in salary and thirty one million dollars in endorsements
Speaker 1: for a total of thirty three point nine million. He's told,
Speaker 1: I'm told he's the best cricketer cricketer of all time
Speaker 1: and has one of the best, one of the best
Speaker 1: batsmen around. And I had heard of his name once before,
Speaker 1: but I looked at his endorsements and that's incredible. To
Speaker 1: get him on. I think we need to get him
Speaker 1: on to talk to us. Yeah, he's got a great personality,
Speaker 1: being highly compensated for for his skills and his personality
Speaker 1: as well given the the endorsement deals. The sad part
Speaker 1: of this list of the highest paid athletes is how
Speaker 1: few women there are on their nameo Saka and Serena Williams.
Speaker 1: And guess what number. Naomi comes in at. Yeah, one
Speaker 1: point two million in salary and fifty two million in endorsements.
Speaker 1: That's quite the ratio. Yeah, and Serena comes into two
Speaker 1: d seventy thousand in salary and thirty five million in endorsements.
Speaker 1: And it is kind of sad that the only two
Speaker 1: of the top hundred in the world are women. And
Speaker 1: that has to change. Yeah, it's pretty stark right there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's not going to change in the next year or
Speaker 1: so unless there's some wholesale, uh structural changes. But of
Speaker 1: course we were talking about the NFL earlier and Tom Brady. Um,
Speaker 1: when you look at the NFL and the top twenty
Speaker 1: highest paid athletes, Matt Stafford, Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 1: What do they have in common? Quarterbacks? They are quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: They are the difference makers for their teams, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons Tom Brady finally left
Speaker 1: New England. He looked at guy like Matthew Stafford until
Speaker 1: he was traded to the Rams and won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: He was making much more money than Tom Brady and
Speaker 1: never even won a single playoff game, and guys like
Speaker 1: Josh Allen and Deshaun Watson making more money than him,
Speaker 1: and Brady was always taking taking pay cuts, and he's
Speaker 1: wanted to go someplace where he could flourish on and
Speaker 1: off the field, make some money, get a lot of endorsements,
Speaker 1: and he's extremely happy right now down in Tampa. He
Speaker 1: wasn't making enough money with New England. They wouldn't extend
Speaker 1: and guarantee his contract and make him a Patriot for life,
Speaker 1: and that's why he was very unhappy. He was constantly
Speaker 1: restructuring his contracts so they could have enough room to
Speaker 1: go out and sign free agents or retain players who
Speaker 1: are who were potential for He was part of a
Speaker 1: dynasty lunch. Yeah, Well, you know, Bill Belichick is Uh,
Speaker 1: he rips his heart out when he makes his decisions.
Speaker 1: Emotion is never part of it. It's always a joke
Speaker 1: that you know, he would trade a member of his
Speaker 1: family away if would help them win one more football game.
Speaker 1: He was willing to let Tom Brady go. Um. And
Speaker 1: by the way, tom salary is eighteen point four million
Speaker 1: and of course forty million in endorsements, so for total
Speaker 1: earnings of fifty eight point four million. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: you know it's uh, that's gonna change when he retires,
Speaker 1: because he's going to have a package of three d
Speaker 1: and seventy five million. Yeah, that that number will go
Speaker 1: way up. Lebron James currently in the lead with ninety
Speaker 1: million dollars in endorsements. UM. Number two, by the way
Speaker 1: in endorsements is Roger Federer, even though he only has
Speaker 1: seven thousand dollars in salary or in winnings. Uh million
Speaker 1: dollars in endorsements. One of the great competitors and one
Speaker 1: of the nicest people of all time. Roger Federer and
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods who when was the last time we saw
Speaker 1: him play at the Master's Briefly, yep, yep. He played
Speaker 1: all four rounds. He played all four rounds. So this
Speaker 1: this year at the at the Master's his endorsements sixty
Speaker 1: five million dollars. He's number ten on the list. Do
Speaker 1: you think the athletes look at this list and and
Speaker 1: and say I want to be number one, or I
Speaker 1: want to be I want to get in the top five.
Speaker 1: I can tell you that. I bet there's at this
Speaker 1: list right here. I bet today at least a dozen
Speaker 1: guys have picked up their phones and called their agents say,
Speaker 1: what did you see what James Harden is making? You
Speaker 1: tell me I thought you told me he was only
Speaker 1: making this. I want something else. Get me a watch deal,
Speaker 1: give me a coffee deal, give me a card deal,
Speaker 1: give me a crypto deal. Yeah, the crypto deals are
Speaker 1: what's paying the most. James Harden, by the way, forty
Speaker 1: million dollars in salary or winnings and thirty six million
Speaker 1: an endorsement. So yeah, there's room too for his endorsements
Speaker 1: to go up. If you're James Harden's agent, Lewis Hamilton's
Speaker 1: forty two million in salary, forty two million in salary.
Speaker 1: I don't see hockey on here at all. No, there's
Speaker 1: nobody on there. A couple of defensive players. T J.
Speaker 1: Watt von Miller. Guess who the highest paid baseball player is?
Speaker 1: Is it Mike Trout Yeah, yeah, forty nine and a
Speaker 1: half million. Yeah, he's he's quite a ball player. And
Speaker 1: then his teammate Trevor Bauer is the second. Yeah, who's
Speaker 1: just been suspended for two years by Major League Baseball. Um,
Speaker 1: his endorsements keep coming in. Yep, they will stop, trust me. Um.
Speaker 1: Jordan's speed is on there. He's got twenty two million.
Speaker 1: He's a big a T and T guy and a
Speaker 1: big under rum guy. Jason Tatum of the Celtics five
Speaker 1: million indorsements. Yeah. The nbah, let's just keeps going on
Speaker 1: and on. Yeah, well they's they have the smallest roster.
Speaker 1: They only have twelve players on the team, so you
Speaker 1: know they're not paying fifty three players like football, they're
Speaker 1: paying a dozen players. So there's the salary cap is
Speaker 1: is so much higher in the NBA and in the
Speaker 1: amount of the max contracts that they're allowed to sign
Speaker 1: for Like Kyrie Irving, let me just slide down and
Speaker 1: see him. I know he's got a big one coming up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like Currie then making forty one, Durant making thirty sorry.
Speaker 1: Irving has thirteen million in endorsements, thirty two million in salary,
Speaker 1: and he's up for a big max contract. He could
Speaker 1: be making forty million next year, all right, So he's
Speaker 1: looking at this list and saying, yeah, just watch and
Speaker 1: we should mention as well. Connor McGregor coming in at
Speaker 1: number twenty two, Um, the mixed martial arts fighter. Two
Speaker 1: million in earnings overall yea, and twenty million indorsements. So
Speaker 1: that's that's you know, We've had a number of people
Speaker 1: on in the business of sports in our conversation with
Speaker 1: the UFC, and Connor is the biggest name and he
Speaker 1: makes the most noise. Um. He's he's a he's a character.
Speaker 1: He really drums up business. He knows how I mean,
Speaker 1: he's an old fashioned Carnival barker, the ultimate showman. Yes,
Speaker 1: and he's great for the sport and he's done wonders
Speaker 1: for its for its exposure and if it's a notoriety
Speaker 1: and its popularity. You know who's salary or winnings is
Speaker 1: the highest. Just is surprising. You're a faster reader than
Speaker 1: I am, Scarlett. I just saw it. I just saw
Speaker 1: it under the different headings. Canello Alvaraz, the Mexican boxer,
Speaker 1: really four million dollars in winnings, yeah, tops everyone. His
Speaker 1: endorsements are five millions, so his total earnings eighty nine million.
Speaker 1: But there's a guy who's earned every bit of his
Speaker 1: his pay. Boxers do, and that pay per view is
Speaker 1: the most is so lucrative for these fighters and these wrestlers.
Speaker 1: It's just it came out and I don't know that
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen seventies and people were a gast
Speaker 1: I'm never going to pay to go to it, and
Speaker 1: and you had to go to a movie theater first
Speaker 1: to watch it on pay per view before it was
Speaker 1: able to be streamed of or cabled into your own
Speaker 1: home home. And it's the way to go and every
Speaker 1: you'll never see a fight on television for free again anymore.
Speaker 1: And this is why these guys and the promoters make
Speaker 1: a ton of money. Lynchi, It's a shame that Michael
Speaker 1: Barr's on here, because I'd love to hear what he
Speaker 1: has to say about a lot of these highly paid athletes.
Speaker 1: He'd be great. I could hear his booming voice right now.
Speaker 1: Holy smokes. So look at that that guy's I never
Speaker 1: knew he was making that much money. Are there any
Speaker 1: Detroit players on here? I don't think so. Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: used to play for Detroit. Maggie, Oh yeah. The number
Speaker 1: eighty three to thirty point seven million dollars in salary
Speaker 1: and seven fifty endorsements for total earnings of thirty one
Speaker 1: point four million. Beautiful. There we go. There's a shout
Speaker 1: out for to Michael Barr. Thanks for listening to the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports. Be sure to follow us. I'm
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Scarlett Foo and I'm lynch in. The
Speaker 1: message today is Mama, let your babies grow up to
Speaker 1: be athletes. They could make this top one hundred list.
Speaker 1: I'm Mike Lynch had Lynch w CDBE And of course
Speaker 1: don't forget to catch our podcast Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursdays
Speaker 1: on all your different podcast platforms, and of course right
Speaker 1: here on Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio