Brian Rolapp, one of the most powerful executives in the media industry, is leaving a pivotal role at the National Football League, where he has helped navigate rights deals and a major expansion into streaming, to head up the PGA Tour as its first CEO, according to a person familiar with the matter.
PGA Tour, which began a search for its new top executive in December, declined to comment. The NFL declined to make executives available for comment.
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Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, has exerted a great deal of influence over where the NFL’s games are seen, experimenting with new venues like Netflix and YouTube even while maintaining traditional ties to CBS, Fox, NBC and Disney’s ESPN. Under his aegis, the football league set up an opt-out clause for its current long-term deals with the big traditional media companies and Amazon that allows for a redrawing of terms after the 2029 season. The deal would allow the NFL, presumably, to wring even more revenue out of media outlets in an era when sports is the biggest driver of economics, given its ability to generate the large, simultaneous viewing that advertisers continue to crave.
Under Rolapp, the NFL has never stopped looking for ways to expand its presence, whether it be with continued backing of “Thursday Night Football” across CBS, NBC, Fox and now Amazon, or setting up a new “Black Friday” game at Amazon or putting a Christmas game on Netflix. “If there’s a saturation point, we haven’t seen it. It’s something we think a lot about,” Rolapp told Variety in 2026. Look, we measure our business very simply: Is consumption going up, and are the economics for our partners and us going up? As long as those things are true, we are not at a saturation point.”
Rolapp has for several years been seen as a potential successor for Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner. The new job may not take him out of that consideration set. Goodell’s current deal expires in 2027, but there has been recent speculation that team owners could be willing to extend his term before the end date is in sight. Rolapp would get new experience at the top level of a sports entity that could still make him an attractive candidate in the future.
PGA Tour has been looking to develop its offering in recent years, particularly as it has grappled with new competition from the Saudi-backed rival league LIV Golf. PGA Tour has set up a for-profit arm that would give golfers more incentives and pay, and has accepted an investment from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of big sports owners, to fund that initiative. In June, PGA Tour unveiled a new effort to produce and distribute more of its own content, conscious of growing fan demand for behind-the-scenes footage and documentary programming tied to favorite sports.
Rolapp began his career as a media-and-entertainment industry analyst for a Wall Street firm, CIBC World Markets. In 2000, he joined NBC eventually working to develop the business of the cable networks the company acquired as part of its merger with Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Three years later, he joined the NFL Network, and worked his way up the field.
His exit may pressure Goodell to develop a more formal line of succession, but the league will be left in an enviable position in regards to its relationship with the media outlets that show its games. Of course, one question remains: Will the traditional media companies that need the NFL to draw big audiences in the streaming era have the financial wherewithal to pay higher rights fees as they struggle to keep advertising and distribution revenue flowing through the door? The answer will have to be determined by someone other than Brian Rolapp.
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