• July 30, 2003

Esquire magazine has partnered with fledgling cable channel The Football Network (TFN) to create a section commemorating the first-ever Division I-AA All-Star Game. The game is scheduled for December 30 in Fort Lauderdale; the section will run in Esquire's January 2004 issue, which hits newsstands on December 10. TFN will sell advertising for the section, which will feature stories and analysis from writers and TFN personalities, including Pat Summerall. The network has commitments from 13 conferences to provide players for the game. "The association with this prestigious magazine is a solid opportunity for us to tell our story and let readers know about this exciting All-Star Game," said TFN president and chief executive officer Jerry Solomon in a press release. "We look at this as an exploratory step between Esquire and ourselves to develop ideas that will allow us to work together on a broader basis in an effort to reach the male target audience." TFN will begin broadcasting in the fall. It plans to provide live coverage of a number of Division I-AA conferences, including the Big South, the Southern Conference, and the Atlantic-10.