SBJ Football: David Hill’s impact on NFL coverage

Tonight, we revisit the excellent profile of longtime Fox Sports chief David Hill in this week’s SBJ by my colleague Bill King, with a special focus on his lasting influence on the NFL. I also take a look back at the life of NFL agent Jeff Sperbeck with some help from Adam Schefter and longtime Broncos Chief Commercial Officer Mac Freeman.

David Hill is SBJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner this year, and my colleague Bill King profiled the longtime Fox Sports chief this week, with numerous ties to Hill’s work with the NFL.

As King writes, Hill was getting ready for a week of Premier League matches at the start of December 1993 when Rupert Murdoch summoned him to L.A. to prepare a pitch to convince the NFL’s broadcast committee that Fox had the bandwidth to not only deliver, but also elevate, a full slate of Sunday games.

Hill readied for the meeting at Fox’s L.A. broadcast studios, producing a 3-minute reel that highlighted Sky’s overhaul of Premier League packaging. He showed them a take on soccer they hadn’t seen before, shot from all angles of the field, with close-ups highlighting players’ grit and athleticism.

Hill told the committee back then that the other networks were using seven cameras on the NFL’s two biggest games each week, but only five on the rest. He intended to use a dozen on the big games, and never fewer than seven. He would double the length of the pregame show to an hour and conclude each Sunday with a highlights package that led in to prime time.

That ended up being the beginning of the NFL on Fox.

Hill’s inspiration for the Fox NFL theme music? That would be Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain in the early ‘90s.

Among the tech innovations under Hill that came on NFL coverage were the Fox Box in 1994 and the debut of the CGI robot Cleatus in 2005.

Hill will be honored at the Sports Business Awards on May 21.

In the days leading up to the 1997 NFL Draft, then-Denver Post reporter Adam Schefter drove to Boulder for an interview with top Colorado prospect Rae Carruth. At the front door to Carruth’s apartment, Schefter met his contact for the meeting, Carruth’s agent Jeff Sperbeck.

They knocked and waited. And waited some more. Several hours went by before Carruth finally appeared. With no Wi-Fi or cellphones, there was no way to find Carruth -- or even work -- while they waited. Really, the whole day was shot. Eventually, Carruth showed up, but it was clear he’d completely forgotten the interview.

For many powerful NFL agents, an A-List prospect dropping the ball that badly in front of the media would be grounds for a dressing down. But Sperbeck never even raised his voice, Schefter said, instead passing the time with light conversation.

“We just laughed about what a large waste of time it was,” Schefter recalled. “He was incredibly gracious and friendly. There aren’t many I’d feel more comfortable with standing outside an apartment in Boulder for the afternoon than Jeff Sperbeck.”

In the days following Sperbeck’s tragic death April 30, former co-workers and friends recalled an unusually patient, friendly and funny man who succeeded in a hard-charging agency world by keeping his head on his shoulders and a smile on his face.

“That’s the whole thing -- he was a California guy, and he never got worked up about it at all,” Schefter said. “He was very calm, cool, collected and poised about the whole thing. He handled it the way he handled everything.”

Mike Sullivan, Sperbeck’s business partner, said he doesn’t recall “a single heated argument” in 15 years of daily cooperation, both as a freestanding agency and then later as co-directors of football at Octagon after acquisition in 2000.

“The term for Jeff is just ‘likeable,’ he was liked by everybody,” Sullivan said. “He was what I would call a soft personality, and it contrasted nicely with my more difficult personality. I was the technician, and he was the people person, and I think that’s why our relationship worked so well.”

Longtime Broncos Chief Commercial Officer Mac Freeman first met Sperbeck through his most famous client, John Elway, and they later handled a series of deals together. But they became close friends, socializing at first and later vacationing together with their families.

Freeman tells one story of a trip to the Bahamas with Sperbeck during peak COVID protocols in 2020. They were isolated in separate quarantine rooms upon arrival, waiting for COVID tests. Freeman’s phone started going off -- it was Sperbeck from the next room, texting selfies of himself dressed in all the medical equipment.

“He’s just the guy that made everything fun, even COVID tests,” Freeman said. That genial nature and a deep commitment to his clients and business partners’ happiness shined through, making him the quintessential “people person” that makes the sports industry work.

“Every member of my staff who ever interacted with Jeff inevitably made a comment back to me about what a great guy he was, or how much fun he made it,” Freeman said. “He was one of those bright lights in the world, and today it feels a little darker.”

• The Rams will take their June mandatory minicamp to Maui as part of a new sponsorship deal with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, believed to be the first time a team has turned offseason practice into a revenue-generating asset.
• Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co., the developer behind Canton’s HOF Village, entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by HOFV Holdings, LLC and become a privately held company.
• Fitch Ratings issued an “A” rating to $150 million in additional debt taken out by unknown NFL teams in February, citing the league’s strong present-day finances, long-term contracts and conservative debt policies.