Men in Blazers Media Network Continues To Expand Its Reach With Launch of First-Ever “American Football Awards”
“The American Football Awards” by Men in Blazers Media Network together with NBC Sports is a first for Premier League fans to vote on across the United States with hopes it becomes the equivalent of the prestigious Ballon D’or award presented by France Football magazine since it first began in 1956. The MiB independent soccer media company will expand their platform to showcase the top 2022-23 Premier League player as voted on by the large and growing American fanbase. Leveraging Men in Blazers’ standing as the most successful football media company in North America adds credibility to the also new, “American Player of the Year” award and selection as chosen from a pool of American players in the English Premier League as part of the Season 9 Finale. The Sports Techie community blog hopes you can tune in this weekend and enjoy the American Football Awards show announcement of nominees and winners after Final Match Day.
“For decades, the United States has seemed like the Frontier for Football, like Space was for Captain Kirk,” said Men in Blazers Co-Founder Roger Bennett. “Over the last decade, that has changed. The sport is surging. The audience is passionate and knowledgeable, and this award is both a reflection of their surging interest, and how seriously the Premier League teams and players take our fanbase. It is our hope this award will become the Ballon D’or for a U.S. audience, and are thrilled to partner with NBC Sports who have been such a driver of the growth of football in this nation as we continue to champion the growth of the sport in the U.S. on every level to the biggest audience possible.”
American Football Awards
The inaugural MiB awards show hosted by Robbie Earle, Rebecca Lowe, and Men In Blazers’ Roger Bennett can be seen on NBC this coming Sunday, 05/27 following the Premier League Championship Play-off Final between Luton Town and Coventry City. Award winners are to give acceptance speeches on the live show, directly addressing the American Premier League audience. The finalists and winners were selected by thousands of U.S, based fans.
MiB will also debut the women’s ““American Football Awards” this fall after the World Cup and conclusion of the NWSL season, with a unified, platform coming in 2024.
MiB Sports Business
The “American Football Awards” continues Men in Blazers expansion as a leading pop culture, sports and entertainment platform. In March, MIB significantly added to its content lineup with talent and shows that now include: “Here We Go” with Fabrizio Romano, “The Road to the Cup” with Becky Sauerbrunn, “VAMOS” with Herculez Gomez, and “Men in Blazers Live and Dangerous” with Sam Mewis on Twitch leading the Women’s World Cup 2026 programming, in addition to the widely followed and successful original MiB content.
What started as a weekly TV Show (now in its 9th Season with NBC Sports) and Podcast has become a 24/7 flourishing multi-voiced, digital integrated media network serving every aspect of global football – both men’s and women’s – with a full slate of programming and talent across a variety of channels including a co-production partnership with Twitch.
All of this comes ahead of what will be an even bigger window of exposure for football interest and growth in the U.S., with the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the 2024 Copa America and the 2026 World Cup also held in North America and the continued interest in both the business and consumer engagement with MLS, the NWSL, US Soccer, and other emerging properties. Men in Blazers partnered with Twitch prior to the 2022 Men’s World Cup, executing a strategy that fused “sidecasting” games live with celebrity guests by day, live “theater shows” by night, all streamed LIVE on Twitch, combined with a daily cascade of podcasts. The format nominated for Sports Emmy, had a total of 6M unique viewers across the 44+ hours of live streams throughout the tournament. The content was amplified, cross-platform on social to create a 24/7 narrative accompaniment and drove unprecedented numbers for Men in Blazers and partners — reaching #4 across all Sports podcasts in the USA throughout the time-period.
Sport Techie, if you can’t watch MiB’s awards show on NBC this Sunday, plan on grabbing tickets to the 2023 first-ever Premier League Summer Series from July 22-30, 2023 as six clubs consisting of Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Fulham and Newcastle United head over the pond to play stateside in five East Coast states as they host nine matches. Look for MLS and Atlanta United star Miguel Almiron’s return here in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium when it hosts Brentford vs Brighton and Newcastle vs Chelsea.
Comcast found a media gem with MiB as they did with winning Premier League broadcast rights and acquiring Telemundo Deportes.
The American Football Awards has the right kind of domestic support by American EPL fans to also take off on a similar growth path.
Below are several names and their respective clubs to keep in mind before and during the first award show.
Christian Pulisic, Chelsea
Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Brendon Aaronson, Leeds United
Clint Richards, Crystal Palace
Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson, Fulham
Matt Turner, Arsenal
And the winners are…?
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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