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NBC “SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” CREATOR NAMED WINNER OF PRESTIGIOUS RADIO-TELEVISION AWARD TO BE HONORED FOR LEGENDARY TELEVISION CAREER

May 14, 2019 - CANTON, OHIO - Dick Ebersol, who was once described as “the most powerful figure ever in Sports TV” has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. The prestigious award, presented annually by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, recognizes “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”

“Dick Ebersol’s creativity, passion, business acumen, determination and leadership paved the way for extraordinary and innovative coverage of the NFL that resulted in enormous growth of viewership for this great game,” Hall of Fame President & CEO David Baker commented. “He is the epitome of the Hall’s values of commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence.”

Ebersol will be honored during the 2019 Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls at the Enshrinees’ Gold Jacket Dinner on Friday, Aug. 2 and presented with the award at the Enshrinement Ceremony for the Class of 2019 – CHAMP BAILEY, PAT BOWLEN, GIL BRANDT, , TY LAW, KEVIN MAWAE, ED REED and JOHNNY ROBINSON – on , Aug. 3 in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

DAYS UNTIL NFL’S 100TH SEASON KICKS OFF AT 7 9 ENSHRINEMENT WEEK POWERED BY JOHNSON CONTROLS Great seats are still available for the kickoff of the NFL’s 100th season in Canton, Ohio. Tickets and Packages for the main events of the 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls are on sale now.

HALL OF FAME GAME - AUG. 1 ENSHRINEMENT CEREMONY - AUG. 3 - AUG. 4

ProFootballHOF.com/Tickets “I can’t begin to thank David Baker and the folks at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enough for this great honor. I look forward to August in Canton more than ever this year.

This is especially meaningful to be recognized in the same year that my dear friend Pat Bowlen earns his rightful place in Canton. I have deep respect for how Pat’s vision so profoundly shaped the NFL’s television landscape as well as giving Denver championship football teams.” -Dick Ebersol

Ebersol’s imprint in television broadcasting included more than 20 years as the head of NBC Sports. He was named the president of the division in 1989, elevated to Chairman of NBC Sports & Olympics in 1998, and assumed the title of Chairman of NBC & Olympics in 2004 when NBC and Universal merged. He became Chairman of NBC Sports Group in 2011, his final year with the network.

Four years after being named the President of NBC Sports in 1989, Ebersol negotiated two historic broadcast contracts when he secured a four-year, $880 million deal for the rights to the NFL’s AFC games and two Super Bowls; and won the right to broadcast the 1996 in with a record-setting bid of $456 million.

In 2005, Ebersol created “Sunday Night Football” (SNF) as NBC returned to covering the NFL. He, along with Bowlen, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Roger Goodell and NFL Executive , worked to land the new Sunday Night package on NBC. It became the first sports series in history to be a Top 10 show since its inception. In 2011, SNF became the first sport series ever to be the most watched prime-time show for an entire television season which began a record, and still active, run of eight consecutive years of earning that distinction.

Ebersol’s iconic career as a television executive spanned more than three decades and included the acquisition or renewal of numerous major sports properties. Under his leadership, he led award-winning coverage of the NFL in addition to the Olympic Games, NBA, NHL, Notre Dame football, the Triple Crown, Wimbledon, NASCAR among others. He guided NBC to a historic milestone when the network became the first to ever broadcast the , Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Summer Olympics in the same television season (1995-96).

In all, Ebersol led the production of six Super Bowls and eight Olympic Games and was involved in an additional four Olympics. Three of the broadcasts were milestone television events at the time when the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 became the most watched event in U.S. television history and the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in 2010 were the second most watched Winter Olympics in history. NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII in February 2009 drew the largest-single audience in U.S. television history with 152 million viewers. At one point of his career, he had produced eight of the top 10 most watched television events in U.S. history. Ebersol has been bestowed a number of prestigious honors for his industry-changing success including in 2009 when he received the Emmy Award of Lifetime Achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Among his many other accolades, he has received the Olympic Order from the International Olympic Committee; inducted in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame; named The Most Powerful Person in Sports in 1996, the Sports Business Journal’s 2009 Sports Executive of the Year, the 2010 Broadcaster of the Year by Broadcasting & Cable, and the received the SportsBusiness Journal Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Ebersol’s career began when he briefly dropped out of , where he earned his degree in 1971, to work for (Pete Rozelle Award Winner, 2001) and ABC as the first-ever Olympics researcher. In addition to his long list of accomplishments in sports, Ebersol conceived and developed “” (SNL) with in 1975, one year after joining NBC as the Director of Weekend Programming. At age 28, he became the NBC’s first vice president under the age of 30. After a brief departure from SNL, he returned in 1981 and served as executive producer until 1985 when the show featured stars like and .

As an independent producer before returning in NBC, he created Emmy Award-winning shows such as “” and “Later with .”

TRIBUTE VIDEO BY HALL OF FAME PRODUCTIONS: https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fprofootballhof.box.com%2Fs%2F0umxnyhvd4dai8tl- ni2ogavq6ozejp5i

PAST WINNERS OF THE PETE ROZELLE RADIO-TV AWARD: 2018 – 2008 – 1998 – 2017 – 2007 – 1997 – Charlie Jones 2016 – James Brown 2006 – 1996 – 2015 – Tom Jackson 2005 – 1995 – 2014 – 2004 – 1994 – 2013 – 2003 – 1993 – 2012 – 2002 – 1992 – 2011 – 2001 – Roone Arledge 1991 – 2010 – 2000 – 1990 – 2009 – 1999 – 1989 – Bill McPhail NFL SEASON KICKS OFF IN CANTON The season kicks off each year in Canton with a spectacular celebration, unlike any other, centered around the Enshrinement of the newest class of enshrinees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival including Enshrinement Week Powered by Johnson Controls features 18 diverse events that attracts 700,000 fans from across the country and the world.

For full details, schedules, and tickets to all of the events, visit: ProFootballHOFEF.com or ProFootballHOF.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Pete Fierle, Chief of Staff & Senior VP of Communications | [email protected]; 330-588-3622 Rachel Gutting, Dir. of Communications & Strategic Initiatives | [email protected]; 330-588-3671