PLAYMAKERS IS BACK
Apparently, the decision to pay the NFL $1.1 billion a year for eight seasons allows the Boys in Bristol to take a few liberties.
For starters, Playmakers is back on the air.
Okay, so it's not being televised on the "main" ESPN channel. But the show is making a November 20 debut on the "Pacific Rim" version of the network.
Hmmm. Did Tags get the memo on this? After all, the Commish is trying to sell the NFL globally, and we'd guess that he considers the image of the players to be as important in developing markets as it is in the U.S. of A.
After Playmakers made its debut on ESPN in 2003, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue voiced his displeasure with the show, and he suggested that the NFL might re-think its business arrangement with ESPN if the show continues to be aired.
"[M]y concern was that this show was one-dimensional and traded in racial stereotypes and I didn't think that was either appropriate for ESPN or right for our players," Tagliabue told Bob Costas at the time.
"I think society's expectations as to the standards that athletes meet are higher today than they were 20 years ago when it comes to what we expect of our role models for kids," Tagliabue added. "And so whatever might have been OK 30 years ago, whether it was 'Animal House' or anything else, I didn't feel it was OK today. We had to meet a higher standard."
Apparently, this higher standard doesn't apply in Australia or other nations served by ESPN Pacific Rim.
As we see it, there's also a strong chance that folks in these other countries will assume that the show, while technically fictional, is rooted in reality. Indeed, ESPN Pacific Rim broadcasts both the ESPN Sunday night game and the ABC Monday night contest. Clearly, kids in Australia and other points Pacific will assume that ESPN knows a thing or two about real life in the NFL.
So we're going to keep a close eye on whether Playmakers keeps its spot on the lineup, since our guess is that the NFL doesn't know that it's back on the air. If the league office was advised of the intended re-broadcast of the show, we can't imagine the powers-that-be giving it the thumbs up.
If they did, then a permissible inference is that Tagliabue doesn't yet care about the quality of the role models that ESPN or the NFL provides to kids in other countries.
link 
ESPN: Blow me Tagliabue
to the show being back
to it not being on regular ESPN channels, and 
Linear Mode
