SBJ Unpacks: NBC Sports' Leigh Diffey drops the hammer

This week’s Sports Media Podcast digs into NASCAR (and hot dogs) with NBC Sports’ Leigh Diffey, who drops in to talk about last week’s thrilling race at Martinsville and this week’s championship at Phoenix Raceway with SBJ’s Austin Karp. Highlights from their chat include:

• On his first visit to Martinsville: “I've gone into fan mode before. I've had to go into work mode on these weekends, where I just walk around and eyes wide open, ears wide open and be a true fan, before I have to go into work mode. And I've really, really loved that experience. I've loved just interacting with the fans, and then even for Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, my booth brothers, they've even said, ‘Having you come in with fresh eyes has reminded us of things that we've forgotten about because we've been to these places so long.’ So that's been great. And then add on the dramatic finish with Ryan Blaney doing what he did in the shadows of Homestead Miami Speedway where he had that gut-wrenching defeat. What a comeback!”

• On 23XI Racing: “Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin had a five-year plan that this team would be in championship contention within that timeframe. So, this is Year Four, and for an organization to start out, and obviously they're well-funded, well-resourced, but that collaboration with Toyota, choosing the drivers they have, and then being able to go to the Championship 4, is pretty remarkable. The new facility here in Charlotte -- it really is impressive.”

• On being a versatile and busy broadcaster: “It's been a really busy year, but it's fun. Definitely the best year I've had professionally. ... What has been really refreshing in this NASCAR passage is having a singular focus, and this is a 12-week, three-month block for me, and it's nice just knowing that next week I'm doing NASCAR. The following week, I'm doing NASCAR. And so that helps, to your question, with my prep. I have loved getting to know people that I've only ever seen on TV, crew chiefs and drivers alike. So, I've been forcing myself each weekend to try and get around to meet as many different and new people within the NASCAR garage as I can, which is part of the preparation. My teenaged boys are always asking me, ‘Dad, we need to do this. Why are you in the office again?’ I'm like, ‘Because I'm doing more homework now than I did when I was at college,’ but it's part of the job, and it's been fun ... and it's going to finish off strong next weekend.”

The Cardinals will remain with Diamond Sports Group after the parties agreed today to a multiyear rights deal.

The deal includes the franchise’s linear rights as well as direct-to-consumer rights to deliver St. Louis games via the newly branded FanDuel Sports Network .

Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III told SBJ that the franchise will “probably be a little bit north of 20% in terms of the haircut of what our rights fees might otherwise have been in an undisrupted world.”

As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis was owed approximately $78M for 2025 by Diamond’s FanDuel Sports Network but the operator approached the team about a renegotiated deal at a reduced rate for the upcoming year. Diamond is currently going through a bankruptcy hearing, which has left some teams in limbo over the future of their RSNs.

“We have to factor in a big reduction in revenue. That’s just the reality of it,” DeWitt replied when asked how it would impact the team for 2025. “We also are facing some challenges with respect to our attendance, which has always been great, and is still very good. But with team performance not having been great the last couple years, we’re in a bit of uncharted territory for us. We’ve been at it 29 years, and I mean probably all but 5-6 of those years we’ve drawn over three million people and had great teams. But we feel like we’re pretty close to getting a handle on what our revenues might look like.”

RELATED:  Revenue uncertainty causing Cardinals to seek 'flexibility' with 2025 budget

DeWitt said the Cardinals “don’t set payroll to the dollar on a revenue relationship. There’s always a toggle there. But the reality is, and we’ve communicated it to our fans, that we need to focus on player development and the youth movement. ... We’re not like that one free agent away from being a Vegas odds pick to get to the World Series. We’ve tried to be realistic about where we are.”

The team’s TV ratings have dropped 20% in 2024, and 47% over the last two years.

“It’s hard to decipher the ratings data right this second, because you don’t know how much of it is because of team performance and how much of it might be related to distribution problems,” DeWitt said. “And so one of the things I’m really excited about is regardless of the disruption factor for us and our revenues, from a fan standpoint, next year is going to be better regardless.”

The Cardinals will be on both linear cable -- via the bundle -- while also adding a direct-to-consumer product. 

“If you are a Cardinals fan and have always enjoyed watching the team, you might not be getting the games for one of two reasons: A. You might’ve cut the cord or B. You might still be on the bundle, but your distributor has dropped the channel. Dish (Network) is a good example of a distributor in our market who probably has a lot of Cardinal fans,” DeWitt said. “So both of those groups of people will have an option to get the Cardinals again, and that’s something that we’ve been disappointed not to be able to deliver to our fans the last couple years but finally will be able to this year.

DeWitt added: “I think our reach will instantly improve because of that, but the overall category of local media as we’ve talked about is going down. The direct-to-consumer product will generate some revenue to replace some of that decline, but it certainly doesn’t make up for it. But I think what’s important is that issue relative to the customer experience and the reach. Which is more important than the revenue piece.”

Kansas hosts North Carolina on Friday night in an early season clash of men’s college basketball blue bloods that will also show off improvements to KU’s Phog Allen Fieldhouse in its 70th season. The venue underwent a $50M offseason renovation designed by Lawrence, Kans.-based Multistudio that included a new center-hung scoreboard from Daktronics and a new food and beverage program from KU’s new provider, Oak View Group.

Multistudio designed several premium areas for alums and key stakeholders, including the new Banners Pub that offers lower-tier donors a vibrant gathering space with food and drink options. Existing donor spaces were also modernized, including the Naismith Room, and 1,100 chairbacks were added to the seating bowl. The renovation -- built by Turner Construction -- incorporated new wayfinding throughout expanded concourses that united the historic facility with the updated renovation. The bigger concourses feature new concessions, as well as interactive seating zones, lounges, and merchandise retail locations. Tributes to KU’s basketball history include glass walls etched with the fieldhouse’s original blueprints and graphics showcasing the evolution of the Jayhawk mascot.

RELATED: KU to implement per-seat donation model for ticketing in 2025-26

Daktronics put 27 new LED displays, including the center-hung board, which combines four main and four corner displays, into the building this past offseason. And the fieldhouse is now equipped with an on-site kitchen for the first time as OVG takes over F&B provision; they also doubled the number of F&B points-of-sale, including four grab-and-go areas and a marketplace on the third level of the venue. A focus on local providers is evident in the arena’s new menu, which features at least half a dozen local businesses.

Verizon, normally referenced within these pages as one of the largest, if not the biggest, spender on sports media, has quietly redistributed its agency assignments across a handful of the leading sports shops. For some time, IPG’s Momentum Worldwide had most of that business, and it retained a chunk.

From a more elevated viewpoint, the wireless category represents the biggest aggregate marketing spenders per se, and across sports. So, this reshuffling will reverberate across the nexus of U.S. sports and sponsorship.

That comes into even sharper focus considering Verizon’s portfolio of top-shelf sponsorship rights, which include the FIFA World Cup, NFL, NHL and NASCAR, along with scores of team and venue deals. "We wanted each agency doing what they do best, so we created these 'pillars of excellence' within which each one is doing what we think they do best," said Verizon sponsorship chief Nick Kelly.

Under the new arrangement, independent agency Genesco receives two assignments. One is the NFL, where Verizon has been a corporate sponsor since 2010 and more recently has splashed its brand on coaches’ headsets . Genesco also will handle FIFA, with whom Verizon started a deal in September designating it the "official telecommunication services sponsor" for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Verizon also got U.S. rights as a “tournament supporter" the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

Around 13 months after losing longtime telecom client T-Mobile, Genesco looks like a winner in this reshuffle. Duly noted here is the overlap in FIFA and NFL sponsors now serviced by Genesco (Frito-Lay and Anheuser-Busch InBev) and the fact that each of the 11 FIFA World Cup host cities in the U.S. will be staging games at NFL stadia.

Excel Sports Management also garnered some impressive business, as it will handle NBA, NHL and MLB business, and most of Verizon’s athlete-marketing deals.

Horizon Sports & Experiences' assignments include Verizon’s motorsports strategy and activation assignments, which encompass the sponsorship of Penske’s IndyCar team, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR league rights for the Straight Talk Wireless brand.

Momentum retained broad experiential/activation responsibilities for Verizon, and it will also take charge of sponsorship-based frequency/loyalty programs.

Another intriguing aspect of this “anti-consolidation": with premium event hospitality at premium events becoming preeminent, Verizon has now centralized those responsibilities with an unnamed startup shop. "Those made more sense to centralize,” said Kelly.

These agency moves come some around 10 months after Verizon brought on a new CMO in Leslie Berland.

NASCAR will crown its 2024 series champions this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, and the AI boost from the NASCAR Tracks app will upgrade the race experiences for those in attendance.

Patrick Carroll, NASCAR’s managing director/technology, shared his excitement about the trio of AI innovations his team created throughout the season:

• Generative AI lap updates and periodic race summaries

• The Leader camera, an AI-powered viewing experience

• Another camera view called Most Popular, which takes in race context and fan interest.

The real-time lap notes and race summaries will be available for all three finales: the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series. The Track App Live Video, which houses the two AI-enhanced views, will be used for Cup and Xfinity. The Cup Series experience will also include a Championship 4 Multiview view for fans to watch in the Tracks app.

“We have such a large amount of data,” Carroll said. "And we've just historically struggled to find ways to present that to fans in ways that could make it so that they're able to digest it and learn from it and really get closer to the sport.”

No longer.

This year’s Chicago Street Race served as a trial for these innovations, Carroll said, with the AI cameras joining the Track App Live Video experience. The Gen AI updates were tested on the backend and were soft-launched for the playoffs.

Track App Live Video enables fans to use the Tracks app as a hub to follow from the in-car views of racers or another camera around the track. The AI-powered views effectively become automated digital production engines. The Leader cam ingests different data points such as driver average speed, lap times and position changes.

Through those, the camera uses a predictive passing model that can take viewers to a new race angle for a quick move on the outside or when two drivers trade paint for the lead. The Most Popular camera accounts for information from fan engagement data, compelling storylines (such as the Championship 4 drivers) and recognizes the random events (like large-scale wrecks) that warrant a quick pivot to a particular turn at the raceway.

The journey with generative AI race updates started earlier this year. Following the Daytona 500, Carroll said NASCAR began leaning into the effort for meaningful, on-the-spot content to keep fans engaged. NASCAR created this feature with a combination of AWS Bedrock (Gen AI), S3 (storage) and CloudFront (content delivery). Those initial attempts in Chicago revolved around lap updates. Phoenix will show more snapshot views with clearer groupings of driver updates and subheads to break out information into different trends.

"We're taking telemetry data, we're taking optical data, we're taking leaderboard data, and we're fine tuning the model and saying, ‘all right, predict not only what we think is going to happen in the next few laps based on the trends, but give me a good summary of what has happened up to now and why so-and-so is in X position,’” Carroll said.

Input from the editorial and social teams during the Gen AI content review process became instrumental to the experience, Carroll added. That back-and-forth has yielded a writing style that now has a tone more reflective of stock car racing.

The learnings in 2024 will set up more AI enhancements next season, Carroll said. NASCAR hopes to build more personalized features for the Tracks app, like feeding info to fans on their favorite drivers as part of their individual race updates.

“With AI and advanced user segments, we can now directly determine if this is going to be a useful push for somebody or not,” Carroll said. “Going into 2025, there is a road map item to say, ‘How do we push people to these new features in the Tracks app, knowing that they are there and they’re interested in that piece of content?’”

NFL players are at an increased risk for mental health concerns.  A 2019 study   found that nearly a quarter of NFL players (24%) experienced depression, while 26% experienced symptoms of anxiety. The study also found that career length influenced the risk for depression, with every five seasons elevating the risk by 9%.

These concerns are set against the backdrop of a blockbuster year for the NFL. Crowd sizes are getting larger, and NFL contracts are growing in value — variables that will undoubtedly increase the pressure on NFL players.

This pressure, if unaddressed, may have long-term consequences for players, on and off the field.

One of the most daunting situations NFL athletes face in their careers is the potential of getting cut. It is common for a player to go from making millions to losing their position on the team. This situation can be difficult to recover from, especially if the player lacks the social or financial support to get back on their feet. 

Research shows mental health and physical health are linked. According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress overexposes the body to cortisol and other stress hormones, disrupting almost all the body’s processes and increasing the risk of a variety of physical problems, including digestive issues, headaches, muscle tension, and pain, heart disease, heart attack and more. 

Psychological stress not only affects the body physically but can also negatively affect an athlete’s ability to perform. A study of athletes’ performance during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics found that increased psychological stress resulted in poorer athletic performance. For the NFL, this can mean the difference between ending the season early and making it to the playoffs. 

A decade ago, mental health was far down the list of top concerns for the NFL. But recent changes, such as the NFL and NFLPA’s establishment of a Comprehensive Mental Health and Wellness Committee in 2019, have helped normalize seeking mental health care in professional sports. 

Several NFL players have even opened up about their mental health struggles to chip away at some of the stigma around mental illness. These players include Tennessee Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown and Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Dak Prescott, who have both spoken publicly about their battles with depression. 

Given the stakes for everyone involved, we need to do more to support our athletes — ensuring their mental health needs are prioritized along with their physical needs. This will require significant investment and buy-in from athletes and stakeholders, including general managers, investors, and sports organizations.  

Agents must help clients navigate all aspects of their NFL career — pre-, during, and post-. We should also connect them to licensed psychiatrists, who can help them build the social and emotional resilience needed to reenter the workforce with confidence.

While we undertake certain measures to ensure our clients’ mental health needs are being met, what we do is only part of the equation. Currently, the NFL has a variety of programs to support players’ mental health and well-being, along with the requirement that each team have a licensed behavioral health team clinician on staff at least eight to 12 hours per week. 

While this requirement is a great start, it may not go far enough to provide athletes with the care they need as they face new pressures from larger crowd sizes and shorter, higher dollar-value contracts. Compounding the issue, there is currently no requirement for licensed behavioral health team clinicians to have a background in sports. 

To ensure continuity of care and that providers are equipped to deal with the unique mental health care needs of professional football players, the NFL and NFLPA may consider increasing the on-staff requirement from eight to 12 hours per week to 40 hours per week, the average hours of a full-time employee. The NFL and NFLPA could also offer tuition assistance to licensed behavioral health team clinicians to help them get Board Certified in Sports Psychology (BCSP). 

By building on our existing resources and continuing to spread awareness about mental health, we can help NFL players grow into the best versions of themselves and excel, on and off the field. 

Bryan Ehrlich is a partner and certified NFL agent at Generation Sports Group.

• The PGA of America elected Don Rea Jr. as its next president, with Rea set to serve a two-year term, reports SBJ's Josh Carpenter.

• Wilton Rancheria, a federally recognized Native American tribe based in Sacramento County, Calif., is the new majority owner of USL Championship club Sacramento Republic FC, writes SBJ's Alex Silverman.

• UFC President and CEO Dana White said he harbors no political aspirations amid questions about whether he could have a role with the forthcoming administration of Donald Trump in the wake of his appearance with the president-elect on election night, notes SBJ's Adam Stern.

• The PWHL rolled out the first home and away jersey designs for its six clubs following the introduction of their brand identities in September, reports Silverman.

• Online car retailer Carvana crafted a marketing campaign with NASCAR luminary Jimmie Johnson that promotes its same-day vehicle delivery service, writes Stern.

• Tubi will expand its coverage of the NBA G League this season by streaming four playoff games and the league’s version of an all-star weekend known as “Up Next," notes SBJ's Tom Friend.

• It's earnings season, with Endeavor, Warner Bros. Discovery, Vivid Seats and Sportradar all publishing their Q3 reports.