In the final scene of "The Godfather," Michael Corleone authoritatively tells his wife, "Don't ask me about my business, Kay."
It appears that the networks that carry National Football League games are playing the role of Kay to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's Michael Corleone. While on-air talent has not been shy about criticizing the replacement referees the NFL has hired while it tries to resolve a labor dispute with its regular officials, the top brass is staying quiet.
Given the billions of dollars CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN and DirecTV shell out for NFL football, one would think that the networks would at least be working behind the scenes to try to put pressure on the league to resolve the situation. On Monday night, the general consensus is that the replacement referees blew a call on the last play of the game that gave the Seattle Seahawks a win over the Green Bay Packers.
But that does not to appear to be the case. In fact, the networks don't even want to go on the record to say anything about the current situation. One executive at a network that holds NFL rights said, "We don't tell business partners how to run their business just as we don't expect them to tell us how to run ours."
