BRISTOL, Conn. — While many NFL fans were glued to their screens during the chaotic Week 17 slate, one ESPN employee was watching the scoreboards with a life-changing amount of money on the line. In a stunning display of “putting your money where your mouth is,” an unnamed ESPN researcher and producer has officially claimed a $1 million grand prize after winning a major daily fantasy football (DFS) tournament.
The employee, whose identity has been kept relatively private but is well-known within the halls of the Bristol campus, reportedly entered a high-stakes “Milky Maker” style contest. Leveraging years of experience analyzing player trends, weather reports, and injury updates for the network’s various broadcast segments, the researcher constructed a near-perfect lineup that surged to the top of the leaderboard during the late afternoon games on Sunday.
The win has sent shockwaves through both the fantasy sports community and the ESPN newsroom. While it is common for sports media professionals to participate in casual leagues, a seven-figure victory in a public DFS tournament is almost unprecedented for an active employee of a major sports network.
“Talk about an ultimate resume builder,” one colleague joked on social media. “We spend all day looking at stats, but this guy actually figured out the winning formula. Bristol is going to be buzzing for a while.”
The victory also raises interesting questions regarding network policies. Most major sports media outlets have strict guidelines prohibiting employees from betting on games they cover or using “insider information” for financial gain. However, DFS is often categorized differently than traditional sports betting, and because the employee utilized publicly available stats—albeit with professional-level precision—the win is expected to stand without internal penalty.
Friends of the winner noted that the $1 million payday is a fitting reward for someone who spends 80 hours a week obsessed with the “nitty-gritty” details of the NFL. The winning lineup reportedly featured a “stack” involving a breakout performance from a mid-tier wide receiver, a pick that the researcher had allegedly been “pounding the table” for in production meetings all week.
As the 2025 NFL season draws to a close, this ESPN staffer has secured a victory far more lucrative than any Super Bowl ring. The $1 million windfall serves as a reminder that in the world of modern sports, the people behind the cameras sometimes know the game better than anyone else.
