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Morning Edition

February 5, 2025

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Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters that the NFL is looking into starting team-branded flag football leagues—for both men and women. What’s the reasoning, and what could the leagues look like? We break it down for you right here in New Orleans.

If you have questions, tips, or ideas, send them our way by replying to this email.

— Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]], with Colin Salao [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Chiefs Owner: NFL Flag Teams Possible, Stadium Talks Progressing [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NEW ORLEANS — Could NFL teams one day each own professional flag football teams, sharing branding and operations between the parent clubs and the new franchises?

That’s a possibility, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters Tuesday at the team hotel in downtown New Orleans. Commissioner Roger Goodell disclosed Monday the league is looking into starting professional men’s and women’s flag leagues.

“I certainly could envision on both the men’s and women’s side, if you wanted to sort of think into the future, every NFL team has their own men’s and women’s flag team that perhaps plays in the offseason and uses some of the branding of the parent team,” Hunt said.

Over time, the leagues could have NFL in their names, he added.

“On the domestic side, both men’s and women’s, I think it is a little bit more organic and I think having more players [operators and investors] is a good thing in the short term. … I think long-term, it might make sense to have something that’s NFL branded.”

The NFL is plowing resources into flag football, which is an Olympic sport in the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, in part to market to girls and women by helping them play a version of the sport.

Stadium Talks: Kansas Move Possible?

Hunt also said the Chiefs are making progress on their stadium talks with local authorities, which took a hit last year when voters rejected a renewal of the local sales tax to fund venues for the Chiefs and MLB’s Royals.

“We’re having really good discussions on both sides of the state line, and we’re going to have some really good options, and we’re going to have to make a decision on that in the fairly near future, just because we’re now down to six years left on our lease at GEHA Field at Arrowhead.” The comment means a move across the state border to Kansas from Missouri remains a possibility.

Hunt largely ruled out selling stakes in the team to private equity to raise the stadium funds. He spearheaded the NFL approving teams to sell private equity last year, and two teams—the Dolphins and Bills—have sold PE stakes. It’s too small a sample size for the NFL to draw conclusions on how the league’s decision is playing out, Hunt said. But he added he expected the league in years to come to change the number of PE firms allowed to buy into teams and the percentage of ownership allowed.

On a personal note, Hunt observed that the Chiefs won their last Super Bowl in New Orleans, Super Bowl IV, at Tulane Stadium. Hunt was 5 at the time (his father, Lamar Hunt, founded the team), and he did attend the Chiefs victory, which until Patrick Mahomes came along was the team’s only NFL championship.

Coincidentally, the Chiefs are practicing at Tulane Stadium, though it’s not the one that hosted the Chiefs over five decades ago. That’s been torn down. Still, Hunt is ready to step back into history.

“I’m really looking forward to going to practice later this week and sort of being right there,” he said, “where Super Bowl Four happened.”

From Parking to Parties: Superdome’s Super Bowl Transformation [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NEW ORLEANS — Twelve years ago when the Super Bowl last graced New Orleans, the Superdome complex’s seven parking garages lay largely fallow, wasted space for an event drivers couldn’t get to because of the security perimeter.

Sunday, they will be brimming with activity, but not the vehicular type. The spaces will be transformed into high-end hospitality spaces, underscoring the explosion of pre-event spectacles and parties. And the adjacent Smoothie King Center will host its own pregame party, with musical acts Ludacris and The Revivalists.

“The biggest change is the presence of on-site hospitality,” said Superdome GM Evan Holmes, of the difference between Sunday’s game and the 2013 iteration. “It wouldn’t be too far out of bounds to say it’s ten times bigger now than what it was then. I know that because there are parts of the building that they’re using that they didn’t use in 2013, mainly our parking garages here that are attached to the building. … Now it’s all shut down, and it’s used for hospitality.”

Fewer Tickets, Bigger Price Tags

The Super Bowl has long attracted a corporate crowd willing to pay thousands of dollars for a ticket, helping drive up the cost for ordinary fans. To meet corporate expectations, events like the Super Bowl have been in an arms race to add more experiences packaged with a ticket. The NFL funnels tens of thousands of Super Bowl tickets to the company managing hospitality, On Location, meaning a good share of inventory is already scooped up for these elite packages. That means there are fewer general tickets available to average fans than there would have been in 2013.

As for worries about a reprise of the partial blackout that afflicted the 2013 game, Holmes said not to worry. The recent $550 million renovation of the Superdome addressed electrical infrastructure.

To modernize the 49-year-old building, the renovation “enhanced electrical systems, be it transformers, be it LED lights, be it boilers and chillers and all those things you do when you upgrade,” Holmes said. “So we’re in a really good place in the building.”

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Parenting, Sports, and Social Media

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Watch the full Redefined episode here [[link removed]].

Luka Dončić Joins the Lakers: What’s Next for L.A. and Its New Star? [[link removed]]

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

It is real: Luka Dončić is a Laker.

Dončić was introduced as a member of the Lakers at a press conference Tuesday [[link removed]] alongside GM Rob Pelinka and head coach JJ Redick. The five-time All-Star was dealt to Los Angeles for a package centered on Anthony Davis [[link removed]] in a deal that ESPN’s Shams Charania broke late Saturday night.

The deal was so shocking that Charania had to clarify that the trade was real [[link removed]]. Dončić admitted Tuesday that even he thought it may have been a trick.

“I was almost asleep when I got a call. I had to check if it was April 1st. I didn’t really believe it at first,” Dončić said.

The 25-year-old had played all six and a half seasons of his career with Dallas after the team traded up to get him on draft night in 2018. He thought he’d spend his entire career with the Mavericks. “Loyalty is a big word for me, and I was trying to stand by that,” Dončić said.

He had “no comment” on the decision of Mavericks GM Nico Harrison to deal him to Los Angeles. “They made their decision. I don’t know why, but that’s their decision so I can’t do nothing about it,” Dončić said.

Dončić, who has made first-team All-NBA five times in his first six seasons, was also asked whether he gave any signs that he would not sign a supermax extension worth $345 million over five years with the Mavericks, to which he said, “Absolutely not.”

He also referred to concerns about his conditioning and durability as a “motive” from the Mavericks. “I know it’s not true,” Dončić said.

When Will He Debut?

The Lakers play the Clippers on Tuesday at the Intuit Dome, but Dončić will not be available as he is still dealing with a calf injury that has kept him out since Christmas. Pelinka said his new star is “day-to-day.”

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently said that Dončić is “ramping up” and may return before the All-Star break. NBA correspondent Marc Stein reported that before the trade, Dončić was eyeing a return Saturday [[link removed]]. The Lakers host the Pacers, but that game is not scheduled to air nationally.

On Thursday, Los Angeles will face the Warriors on TNT. The Lakers will not play another national game until a Feb. 22 tilt against the Nuggets on ABC.

Three days later, the Mavericks will visit Los Angeles, in a game that is scheduled to air on TNT. The two teams play one other time: April 9 in Dallas, one week before the end of the regular season.

Premier League Says No to U.S. Regular-Season Games [[link removed]]

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

While every major U.S. men’s pro sports league is pushing to play as many international games as possible, England’s Premier League wants nothing of the sort.

Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes said Tuesday there is “no interest in playing [regular-season] games abroad,” including in the U.S. That sentiment arrives despite a legal settlement last year [[link removed]] in which FIFA will no longer block domestic games being played in the territories of other federations.

LaLiga, which battles the Premier League for global supremacy in pro soccer, has long sought to have matches in the U.S., particularly its famed El Clásico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Premier League, however, has no plans to play in the U.S. beyond offseason friendlies.

“We don’t feel the need to come play in the U.S. during the season proper, and you’ll understand the challenges that would present in the U.K. as well,” Scholes said in response to a Front Office Sports question during a midseason briefing with U.S. media outlets.

Contrasting Strategies

The Premier League’s sentiment directly counters an accelerating global push across many major U.S. leagues to play regular-season games outside of North America. Among the recent efforts:

The NFL will expand beyond the five international games played in 2024 [[link removed]], with further announcements for the 2025 season arriving as soon as Wednesday. MLB has developed a multiyear “World Tour,” [[link removed]] which will start the 2025 season in Tokyo [[link removed]] with two games between the Cubs and defending champion Dodgers, who feature Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki. The NBA just played its 2025 Paris Games, in part featuring the Spurs and native French star Victor Wembanyama [[link removed]]. The NHL started the season in Prague [[link removed]] with games between the Sabres and Devils.

“[Playing internationally] is not on our agenda, and no discussions are taking place,” Scholes said.

Rising Parity

Scholes, meanwhile, lauded the current competitive state of the Premier League, which is showing considerably more balance than it has in many years. After Manchester City won the last four league titles in unprecedented fashion, and six of the last seven, that club now stands in fifth place, 15 points behind first-place Liverpool.

More notable is the ongoing rise of third-place Nottingham Forest, playing in just its third season back in the Premier League after a quarter-century in lower tiers of competition. Bournemouth, meanwhile, is in seventh place, and pushing for a potential spot in the Champions League after previously falling to as low as the fourth tier of England’s soccer pyramid.

“Who would have predicted at this stage of the season, more than halfway through, that Nottingham Forest would be in third place, being realistic challengers if not for the title but for the Champions League?” Scholes said.

Scholes credited a number of factors for the rising parity, including better coaching and player development, and a somewhat more even revenue distribution within the Premier League compared to other entities in the sport.

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Would you follow an NFL-affiliated flag football league?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Tuesday’s result: 47% of respondents think Super Bowl LIX will set a TV ratings record.

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