With NBC limiting the amount of Olympics other networks can show, ESPN will air 28 straight hours of fantasy football during the Olympic Games.
NBC has a strangle hold on other networks during the Olympics, severely limiting how much of the Games they can show. To combat this –or try to– ESPN will hone in on their fantasy football coverage.
According to Business Insider, ESPN will be having a fantasy football marathon. The coverage will run for 28 straight hours, and started at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, August 15. It will be ending on Tuesday, August 16 at 11 p.m ET.
I mean, I would go as far as calling myself a fantasy football stan. But 28 straight hours? That is a lot of fantasy football, perhaps too much to handle.
Football season is just right around the corner, and fantasy football is awful popular this time of year. So it is hard to critique ESPN here, because they will definitely have viewers. There probably aren’t many other things they could cover that would draw Olympic viewers away.
But the Olympics is here for such a short time, and fantasy football is something we will have for the rest of the calendar year.
Nonetheless, if you are interested, here is Business Insider’s run down of how the 28 hours will go:
"A five-hour special edition of “SportsCenter” that will rank fantasy football players. FIVE HOURS (7 p.m. Monday on ESPN2).A four-hour special edition of “SportsCenter” during which ESPN commentators and celebrities will conduct a fantasy football draft (7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN). Those expected to participate include Darius Rucker, Bobby Flay, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Frank Caliendo, and former NFL wide receivers Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens.There will be a three-hour “Fantasy Football Now,” hosted by Sara Walsh (12 a.m. Tuesday on ESPN2).Jalen Rose and David Jacoby will host a three-hour “Fantasy Football Kickoff” (3 a.m. on ESPN).There will be fantasy football segments during all regularly scheduled “SportsCenters” on ESPN.There will also be fantasy-football-themed editions of other ESPN shows, including “First Take,” “Mike & Mike,” “His & Hers,” “Sportsnation,” and “NFL Live.”Fantasy sports analyst Matthew Berry and NFL insider Adam Schefter will make appearances “throughout the entire 28 hours” of programming.ESPN Radio’s Mike Golic Jr. and Jon “Stugotz” Weiner will be tracking ESPN fantasy football signups with “telethon-style updates and a digital tote board.”And last, but not least, DJ Rob Swift and DJ Blue will be “spinning” live music in-studio in Bristol throughout the 28-hour marathon."
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Kudos to ESPN for thinking outside the box, but I’m not sure they will be able to draw enough viewers from the Olympics to really make NBC flinch.