ESPN Relationship With NFL Appears Fully Repaired If Week 18 Is Any Indication

The renewed ESPN-NFL partnership is already yielding results, with two division-deciding Week 18 games airing on ESPN and ABC.

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ESPN and the NFL have had a complicated relationship over the years. When the media giant started diving into the concussion issues with football, the NFL didn't hide its disdain for ESPN. 

ESPN's most important live sports property, Monday Night Football, frequently featured terrible teams or unexciting matchups. In addition, for years, ESPN only had one NFL postseason game, and it was always the worst game of Wild Card Weekend and played during the worst time slot (4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday). 

But now the two companies are fully in bed with one another, with ESPN recently acquiring several NFL media properties (including NFL RedZone) in exchange for a 10% stake in the company. 

An ESPN Monday Night Football logo is seen on the side of a scoring pylon.

ESPN’s renewed NFL partnership pays off as ESPN/ABC lands two huge Week 18 matchups with massive postseason implications.

(Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The repaired relationship is already paying major dividends for ESPN, with the NFL awarding two massive Week 18 matchups to ESPN and ABC. On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Carolina Panthers at 4:30 p.m. ET. The winner wins the NFC South and makes the playoffs and the loser sees its season end, making it a de facto playoff game. 

Following that contest, the San Francisco 49ers host the Seattle Seahawks. The winner wins the NFC West and secures the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Both games will air on ESPN and ABC and carry massive playoff implications. 

NBC received arguably the best Week 18 game with the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football. Like the NFC South matchup, the winner wins the division and the loser goes home. 

Given the rabid fan bases of both the Steelers and Ravens, the contest figures to draw the best TV ratings of the weekend. Still, ESPN receiving two of the three Week 18 games with direct and massive postseason implications is something we likely wouldn't have seen five years ago. 

While ESPN makes plenty of mistakes, most of them documented by OutKick, the concerted effort to repair its relationship with the NFL is not one of them. From a sports perspective, nothing compares to the NFL in terms of interest to Americans. Arguably nothing on television compares with the NFL, except political programming during presidential election years. 

ESPN made the smart decision to get back in the good graces of the most important sports league in the United States, and it's paying off right now. 

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to OutKick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named "Brady" because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.