Some Friday afternoon NFL media news.

According to John Ourand at the Sports Business Journal, Disney is very close to an agreement with the NFL on a new rights deal, one that would see Monday Night Football renewed on ESPN while ABC re-enters the Super Bowl rotation.

He writes:

Sources said Disney is expected to pay an increase of up to 30% from its current deal, which based on an average of $2B per year would equate to around $2.6B. An agreement comes after news leaked last week of a stalemate between the two sides, which initially were so far apart in price that some ESPNers questioned whether to cut a deal.

The increase that Disney will pay is far below the other networks — as Fox, CBS and NBC all are seeing the average annual value of their contracts double. ESPN is paying the highest rights fee in the current deal and the increase aligns Disney’s NFL package closer to its broadcast competitors.

I guess that NFL ratings decline wasn’t much of anything at all. Obviously cash rules everything around the NFL, CREAM, get the money.

As for us, we’ll get to see some games simulcast on ABC. The salary cap will very likely increase. That’s great for the Eagles, who need some wiggle room. Maybe old fashioned Capitalism will save the day. Let’s backload those deals baby.

Also, it’s cool to see ABC back in the Super Bowl rotation. They haven’t had the game since 2006, when Lofa Tatupu was still in the league and the Rolling Stones performed at halftime. Feels like that was 500 years ago.