The NFL’s Greed Never Ceases to Amaze

1. This is good stuff. The NFL prints money and basically runs the sports world, yet, according to Puck’s John Ourand, the league was “irritated” when the NBA signed an 11-year, $27 billion deal with NBC in 2024.

“It makes the executives at the NFL crazy that that happened,” Ourand told Andrew Marchand.

.@Ourand_Puck says NFL executives were irritated by NBC's NBA deal ...

Full pod 👇👇 https://t.co/NWdTgYNIxo pic.twitter.com/Q5ISZ4MmLE
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 12, 2026

NBC pays the NBA roughly $2.4 billion a year.

The NFL’s deal with NBC is for $2 billion a year.

While it would seem preposterous that NBC would pay more for the NBA than the NFL considering the massive ratings gap, tonnage is the issue here. NBC airs 18 regular-season NFL games a year, plus a wild-card game and divisional round game. The current deal, which runs through 2033, also gives NBC three Super Bowls. NBC’s deal with the NBA gives the network and Peacock 100 regular season games, the All-Star Game, playoff games and six conference final series.

It’s not hard to understand that we live in a time when broadcast companies care about their streaming services more than anything. NBC was willing to overpay for its NBA package because it wanted to get a slew of games to air exclusively on Peacock whereas Sunday Night Football airs on NBC and Peacock.

Right now, the NFL is set up to re-open its broadcast deals later this year. The league is currently in the middle of a $110 billion media rights deal. That number will skyrocket before the end of 2026 and will set records for the money it brings in with the new contracts, especially if the league decides now is the time to throw aside broadcast companies such as NBC, CBS and Fox for streamers like Apple, YouTube and Amazon.

Yet, the NFL is jealous and irritated by the NBA over a $2 billion deal versus a $2.4 billion deal. The greed and gluttony is just surreal.

2. A brand-new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped today. This week’s show is an all-Traina Thoughts post-Super Bowl episode with Sal Licata from SNY and The Sal Licata Show.

Topics discussed include Seattle’s win over New England, Bad Bunny’s halftime show, Super Bowl betting, my horrific “bad beat” which ended up getting mentioned on SportsCenter and DraftKings parlays being a total disaster on Super Bowl Sunday.

Non-Super Bowl topics covered include good news for YouTubeTV subscribers, the rise of prediction market platforms and how Mark Wahlberg caused controversy for them last weekend, the Olympics, pricing at sporting events, an apology after a listener complaint, a funny story about my appearance on Richard Deitsch’s podcast, the Scrubs reboot and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

3. In Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts, I told you that the single game parlays promoted by DraftKings on Super Bowl Sunday went 0-12.

Sadly, despite being the ultimate sucker bet, gamblers are more enamored with same game parlays than ever before.

More money was wagered on Same Game Parlays (SPG) on Super Bowl LX than any other single game in @CaesarsSports' history.

The book said that anytime touchdown scorers were included in over 50% of SGPs, more than any other wager type.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) February 11, 2026

I can’t stress this enough. Do not bet single game parlays if you’d like to make money!

4. This was a solid response by Bill Simmons to Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia. Imagine owning an NBA team and using the awful app formerly known as Twitter just to brag to someone on social media about your season? You have to have better things to do with your time.

Congratulations on a very good season so far. I’ve enjoyed watching you guys and think you picked a terrific coach. Fun league pass team,

For the record — I picked the Suns to win 50+ games last season and never heard a peep from you when you went 36-46. So I was wrong twice.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 11, 2026

5. I give James Harden credit for saying loyalty is overrated because I appreciate his honestly since it’s been clear throughout his career that he doesn’t care about loyalty given that he’s on his sixth team.

However, James Harden saying he has to worry about taking care of his family when he has so far made $411 million in his career is just looney.

"The whole quote unquote loyalty thing, I think it's overrated."#Cavs James Harden on why it's become the norm for guys to play on multiple teams throughout their career: pic.twitter.com/fykczB5DZQ
— Leah Doherty (@LeahDohertyTV) February 12, 2026

6. It was brutal to get the news on Wednesday that actor James Van Der Beek had passed at 48 from colon cancer. Obviously, nothing matters besides the fact that he leaves a wife and six kids behind. On a frivolous level, I’ve always said Varsity Blues is the greatest football movie of all time and wrote a Traina Thoughts column about it in 2019 when the filmed turned 20 years old.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of the Olympics, here’s Saturday Night Live’s cold open, with Phil Hartman as the legendary Verne Lundquist, from February of 1992.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.