Many people watched with schadenfreude, thinking Duke and his Los Angeles Raiders deserved their punishment, but Duke had exerted enormous pressure on the NFL officials through the media and other channels.
"If the league cannot find conclusive evidence proving that we deflated the balls during the game, I hope the league can apologize to our entire team, especially Tom Brady. The way the league handled this matter, as well as the public opinion surrounding it, has been very upsetting. I just want to reiterate: I firmly believe the Raiders did absolutely nothing wrong!"
At a Warner Bros. press conference, Duke's words were even harsher.
Meanwhile, the NFL's largest officially licensed sports merchandise sponsor reported that, since the release of the investigation report, Tom Brady's personal product sales had surged, doubling in volume.
The NFL sponsor explained, "We believe this is because fans want to rally together to support Brady and the Raiders."
North America is a land of extremely strong commercial interests, and in the face of sufficient commercial benefits, many problems are not really problems.
As Duke said, compromise is not necessarily weakness. Under various pressures, the NFL still issued a fine, but the penalty was very light.
The Los Angeles Raiders were fined $500,000, and Tom Brady was fined $250,000 personally.
And then that was it…
This enraged many who were waiting to watch the spectacle, including the famously meddlesome Dallas Cowboys owner Mark Cuban.
"Perhaps this is the so-called 'cover-up is a bigger crime than the crime itself.' You can ruin a phone, you can break game rules, but 'as long as you fool the commissioner, you get away with it.' But you cannot argue whether this fine is enough for messing with the NFL commissioner. The NFL cannot let players, agents, and lawyers think that when you do something wrong, as long as you destroy the evidence, it's fine."
"This undermines the integrity of the league. If this happened in the NBA, I believe at least a quarter-season suspension would be issued. So even though I understand that Raiders fans would not agree with me, I still think that for attempting to destroy evidence, a fine is far too light."
Duke did not even bother responding; they were not on the same level.
The NFL has enormous influence in North America. Naturally, "Deflategate" became a hot topic. Even O'Hanlon joked at a routine White House press briefing that White House policies would not be like those in deflated football games.
Before the NFL season began, "Deflategate" had basically reached a conclusion. Duke had essentially obtained the result he wanted, and the Raiders would not worry about this small fine.
Last season, the NFL's total revenue reached $9.5 billion, while the Los Angeles Raiders' revenue exceeded $500 million, with a net profit over $100 million. This was not only far above the league average for 32 teams, but also the highest-earning team in the world.
Perhaps this money was insignificant to Duke, but for 10% shareholder Leonardo DiCaprio, it was a huge surprise. After all, tens of millions in dividends are by no means trivial for him.
This also indirectly demonstrates the terrifying influence of the NFL.
By any standard, the NFL is the most successful sports league in history.
In fact, when mentioning North America's "big four" professional sports leagues, professional football is usually mentioned first.
Undoubtedly, over the years, the most popular television program in North America has been the annual Super Bowl. The NFL leaves a deep impression on the public; just the annual playoff TV coverage achieves much higher ratings than the NBA or MLB championship series.
Even the NFL's spring announcements for the new season can become news highlights, and even the most popular Premier League matches generate only half the revenue of the NFL.
However, the NFL's success was not always so pronounced. From the 1960s to the 1990s, the NFL was popular, but not to this level.
In the 1990s and the new century, the NFL adopted aggressive marketing strategies, producing phenomena like "casual fans turning into fans," "ordinary fans becoming loyal," and "die-hard fans turning into fervent fans."
During the football season, the most-watched television programs are the Sunday NFL games. NFL stadiums attract an average of 70,000 fans per game, making the NFL the sports league with the highest live attendance in the world, outside of motorsports.
However, for an NFL team, ticket revenue is only a small fraction of the income statement. The dominant factor is television broadcasting, with over 90% of NFL fans never attending a live game.
But high sales do not always equal high revenue.
Compared with competitors, the NFL itself is a league. Compared with other commercial capital, the NFL is only a medium-sized enterprise, roughly the size of a regional tool and mold manufacturer. Last season, the NFL's total revenue was about $9.5 billion.
Walmart earns more in five hours than an NFL team does in a year.
In fact, in the Los Angeles area, the revenue of a single Walmart store is comparable to that of the Los Angeles Raiders.
Yet the NFL and its teams can exert enormous influence, especially in North America. This was a primary reason Duke purchased the Los Angeles Raiders.
The NFL prohibits corporations from holding the majority of team shares. This means team owners are a group of prominent billionaire individuals like Duke, who know how to cater to public preferences.
As Duke said, more than half of team owners inherited their teams, while a few others, having operated teams for a short time, cannot pass them to the next generation.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who Duke put in the spotlight, is often criticized by media and the public.
In reality, these criticisms do not overshadow his two outstanding achievements: one, greatly increasing NFL revenue; two, keeping 17 major owners satisfied.
By these standards, he easily qualifies as the best commissioner in sports. Before Goodell took office in 2005, the NFL's annual revenue was only $6.5 billion.
Why has the NFL's revenue skyrocketed in recent years? After Duke bought the Raiders, he analyzed the situation and found it was mainly due to rising television broadcast fees.
Two-thirds of NFL revenue comes from TV broadcasts, and every few years, the NFL renegotiates its broadcasting agreements.
Thus, NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC's ESPN began a fierce bidding war: whoever pays more gets the broadcasting rights.
From the NFL's brilliant history, this is undoubtedly a successful sports marketing case. This year's Super Bowl drew 114 million TV viewers across the United States, once again breaking the previous year's record and continuing to claim the title of the most-watched television program in history.
Compared with the capacity of the Lande Stadium, most of the Los Angeles Raiders' fans watch from their living rooms, so Duke's operational goal for the team was simple: create the most consumer-friendly product.
In other words, the Los Angeles Raiders must satisfy the desire of audiences to watch the game from their sofas and consume the experience.
This was also an important reason why the team achieved $500 million in revenue last season.
After "Deflategate" gradually subsided, Duke no longer focused on the Los Angeles Raiders, directing all his energy toward preparing The Dark Knight Rises.
The cast was confirmed with the final actor: Sienna Miller, who played the Baroness in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, had joined ICM a few years earlier. On the recommendation of Nancy Josephson, Duke decided to cast her as Miranda Tate.
In addition, Christian Bale, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson began rehearsing some action scenes.
As everyone knows, Batman dislikes weapons and prefers hand-to-hand combat. To compensate, action coordinator Jimmy Carter designed a set of mixed martial arts tailored to Batman's own abilities and adaptable to opponents at any moment.
As a counterbalance, Duke also carefully prepared Bane with extraordinary combat skills, allowing him to effortlessly decide to snap anyone's neck or even beat Batman mercilessly, leaving him looking like a slaughtered pig.
This close-quarters physical confrontation required Christian Bale and Dwayne Johnson to dedicate a great deal of effort to rehearsals. Bale had the experience from the previous two films, while Johnson, practically a professional-level action actor, encountered far fewer difficulties than expected.
Additionally, Margot Robbie was included in the action training, although her role remained confidential. Aside from Duke, Robbie herself, and a few others like Tina Fey and Anna, very few knew her character.
Following Duke's instructions, Jimmy Carter's action team designed a combat sequence for Margot Robbie using a baseball bat as her weapon.
Duke understood clearly that to attract audiences, the action sequences were crucial. He was no longer the previous director; having started his career making action films, he was most skilled in design, filming, and editing in this regard.
In the earlier film, the action scenes were far from impressive; without a strong industrial system supporting them, the action sequences might not have even passed. Especially the police-versus-thug fights were unbearable to watch—not only poorly executed but also defying normal logic.
Of course, some of the thugs released from prison may have been mentally impaired.
After all, some were confined in mental hospitals, and in terms of the story world, there was also a Joker; being "infected" by him was possible.
These were all idle thoughts of Duke. The Dark Knight Rises, due to its setup, did not surpass The Dark Knight, but it was still a rather outstanding film. Just as he was not good at comedy, every director has flaws; the previous director was genuinely not skilled at action scenes.
By the end of September, the production preparations were basically complete. Some unfinished work, such as the long-begun computer visual effects, could continue concurrently with filming.
...
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