The Walt Disney Co.’s creation of a separate NFL Draft broadcast on ABC helped ESPN fight off rival Fox Sports. It’s not about to mess with success. 

For the third year in a row, Kirk Herbstreit’s “College GameDay” crew will lead ABC’s inside-out coverage of the draft. Herbstreit outlined some of the differences between ABC and ESPN’s coverage, and how their complementary approaches will help Disney dominate the draft.

More NFL insight: ABC’s coverage focuses on the journeys of top draft picks; ESPN focuses on the needs of NFL GMs. This year, viewers will still get the collegiate “storytelling,” per Herbstreit. But ABC won’t hesitate to dissect the needs of NFL clubs. 

More female viewers: ABC helps the NFL attract more women and casual viewers. Last year, ABC drew more women than ESPN for both Round 1 (2.4 million vs. 2.1 million) and Rounds 2-3 (1.4 million vs. 1 million).

New show: Leading into Draft Day in Cleveland, Herbstreit will interview six top prospects on his new “QB21 with Kirk Herbstreit” show premiering April 17.

“Our Mel”: ESPN draft guru Todd McShay couldn’t contribute last year due to COVID-19. Herbstreit predicts McShay will be the “MVP” of ABC’s coverage. “Todd lives it like Mel [Kiper Jr.]. Todd is going to be our Mel.”

The 2020 “virtual draft” was the most-watched draft ever, reaching over 55 million viewers over three days across ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and NFL Network. There will still be virtual elements this year. Projected No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence, for example, won’t attend in person.

Nearly everything that could go wrong seemingly has so far for the Tokyo Olympics, and the threat that they might not even happen still lingers.

A powerful politician, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, floated the possibility that the games could still be canceled — three months before they are set to begin.

Asked if cancelation is still on the table, Nikai was unambiguous: “Of course. If the Olympics are going to be the factor causing COVID to spread extensively, then what are we holding the Games for?”

Canceling the games appears to have broad public support in Japan.

• 40% of the population favors canceling the games, and another 33% thinks they should be postponed, according to a recent poll by Kyodo News. 
• COVID-19 cases have risen to around 3,200 per day, up from around 1,000 per day in early March.
• Only about 1.4% of the population has been vaccinated, according to official figures — one of the lowest rates in the developed world.

Postponing the games, originally scheduled for 2020, cost the International Olympic Committee an estimated $800 million, and the total cost of the games could be around $25 billion.

“I want the games to succeed, but to do so there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved,” Nikai said. “If it seems impossible, it needs to be stopped.”

A group of Serie A teams have asked the president of the league to step down.

Paolo Dal Pino has been called by seven of the league’s 20 clubs to resign, but the dissenting group will need at least one more organization to back the motion. If an eighth team steps in, the issue will be added to an official meeting agenda.

The request follows Dal Pino’s proposed deal with a private consortium that would have taken a 10% stake in the league’s media company for $2 billion. The consortium included private equity groups CVC Capital Partners, Advent International, and Fondo FSI.

The deal needed approval from 14 of 20 teams, but seven voiced their opposition. 

“The term sheet submitted to the clubs belonging to the league has not reached a qualified consensus needed for the approval… as things stand, this development opportunity is not viable anymore,” a letter to Dal Pino said in February.

There hasn’t been active work toward the private consortium transaction since then, though Dal Pino remains interested. Now teams are taking a stronger stance, saying there is no longer enough support for the deal to pass.

The most recent letter to Dal Pino, who is also CEO of telecoms group Telit Communications, said his actions regarding the deal “led to the need to represent to you our irrevocable no-confidence with regards to your role, conduct, and management as president of the League.”

Dal Pino was elected as president in January 2020. Last month, the vast majority of Serie A clubs approved a three-year, $2.95 billion broadcast rights deal with DAZN.