Ken Belson — Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut - with Josh Levin  episode artwork

EPISODE · Nov 28, 2025 · 59 MIN

Ken Belson — Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut - with Josh Levin

from Politics and Prose Presents · host Politics and Prose

On February 11, 2024, NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, & the league’s two most powerful owners, Jerry Jones & Robert Kraft, looked down at the spectacle before them. What they saw was the sport’s championship game, the Super Bowl—now a de facto national holiday—being played in a shiny new $2B stadium, home to the first franchise based in Las Vegas, after the league’s embrace of nationwide gambling. The moment was over 30 years in the making. As one of Goodell’s colleagues said: “Roger doesn’t view the other leagues as competition. He wants to be mentioned with Disney and the Vatican, these massive institutions.” In Every Day is Sunday, Ken Belson traces the evolution of the league from “one of the four US professional sports,” to the superpower it is today. Belson illustrates how the league’s rise coincided with the arrival of Jones & Kraft in the early 90’s. He provides an inside look on how these two men reshaped the league, taking readers into the secretive owner’s meeting, how they decided Goodell was the right man to place as Commissioner, and how the three built, wielded, and held on to their collective power. Perfect for fans of The Dynasty and Big Game, Belson provides a unique peek behind the curtain of how America’s favorite sport achieved its status—and how these three men let nothing stand in their way.Ken Belson rejoined The New York Times's Business section in 2023 to write about the business of sports after spending 14 years in the Sports department, primarily covering the N.F.L. Belson reports on the teams and personalities of the N.F.L., including finances, stadiums, medical issues, lawsuits and more. He lives in New York with his wife. You can follow him @el_belson on X.Belson is in conversation with Josh Levin, a writer based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth, the host of two seasons of the podcast “Slow Burn,” on David Duke and the rise of Fox News, and a former cohost (with Stefan Fatsis) of the sports podcast “Hang Up and List".https://politics-prose.com/book/9781538772553?ic_referral=uYBxmTV02UNXShhO3RkAWVERDYfL-KP4BW1ujinRISMwM5O_gJMGfxLqIC3U5orRd4VkXWrnY8qzpfxBND4fb4SlXc9olfraDdWrEoYDNq5n_PPyF9H80i6ECa3wsgIx11fJQW4

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Ken Belson — Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut - with Josh Levin

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