More drama than we need in the N.F.L.
By Joe Angelino
Sun Columnist
I am a huge fan of the game of football, especially at the college and high school level. But when it comes to the professional level of the game I’ve lost interest tuning in on Sunday, much less actually attending a game in Buffalo or New Jersey.
At some point professional football changed from a fan based sport into a money making spectacle of a business. And the spectacle continues to grow. This past week our President expressed his opinion about protesting NFL players not standing during the National Anthem.
No one needs to be reminded we have an unconventional President who sometimes speaks and tweets from the hip. The NFL players and owners could have and should have remembered they are paid to play a game and stuck to it by steering clear of the fray. But the players have a huge stage in front of an even larger audience and that wasn’t going to go unused.
The last thing the NFL needs is another controversy to push fans away, yet that’s exactly what they have done. My interest waned during the period of after touch down excessive celebrations that included hip gyrations, snow angels and the Saint’s Joe Horn hiding a cell phone in the goal post padding. Those choreographed dances were too ‘cringe worthy’ for me and many fans. The simple spike of the football was perfect as an instantaneous celebration after crossing the goal. But each succeeding prima donna had to out-do the previous until it was such a distraction the rule banning them was too little and too late. Of course there are the run of the mill cases of spousal abuse, drunk driving and under reported drug abuse suspensions.
It seems each NFL season has multiple ways to drive away a few more viewers and fans. For the past decade, viewership of professional football, both day and night games, has declined steadily. Some years the decline was in the double digits. This makes advertisers very unhappy.
The NFL just can’t shake itself from the bad press. Notwithstanding the recent national anthem divisiveness, last month the NFL backed out of the largest charitable donation they’ve ever made. A few years ago the NFL made a $30 million grant to the National Institutes of Health to fund independent research into football players and their brain injuries. The NIH study results were not favorable for the NFL, so the grant money stopped in August with less than 50% being spent. The studies found there was indeed a connection with 90% of tested player brains having CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). In defense of the NFL, the study of the sample brain organs all came from families who already believed there to be injury to a loved one’s head. This was not a random sampling.
There are other factors that are driving a wedge between pro football and the fan base. Start with the price of a ticket to attend a game. The average price of an end zone ticket in the nose bleed section is over $50. Add to that the price of transportation, parking, food and beverage and pretty soon you and a friend are in over $300.00. If you can afford them, seats between the 40 yard line markers will set you back on average of $400 – each. The last time I went to a Bills game at Rich Stadium, or whatever they call it now, the atmosphere was mostly drunk, fighting patrons and overworked security and police. It was not exactly family friendly, but that’s what you get in the cheap seats.
The NFL continues to grab at the quick money instead of having a long range plan to sustain this business. In order to self-fund this tax exempt money machine, the NFL marketing people work overtime thinking of ways to generate revenue. Remember Monday Night Football on ABC? After three decades it was decided more money could be made by moving the Monday night games from free over the airwaves ABC, to the pay to watch cable station ESPN. Then there’s the added night of football on Thursday. This Thursday night game is disliked by the players because of the short turn for rest and potential for player injury. The NFL marketing people like the Thursday night games because of the “Color Rush” special uniforms. These uniforms allow for the possibility of fans buying another licensed jersey product to add to their collection.
There is yet another hurdle for the NFL in the race to keep and cultivate their fan base. Right now studies show the newest adult generation doesn’t watch all that much television. Entertainment for the new adults is a hand-held device, either a tablet or a mobile phone, neither of which is user friendly for watching football with a group of friends. Adding to this decline in fan base is the next adult generation in the pipeline isn’t playing football at all, at least not American football. Parents of today’s youth are encouraging and requiring their children to play soccer because of fear of permanent injuries. In attempts to gain the attention of the video gamer generation, the NFL has infused their broadcasts with all sorts of on-screen colorful graphics and pop-up factoid bubbles that is only a distraction to me and my contemporaries.
This business disguised as a sport needs to do something to turn around its image quickly. Allowing NFL employees, I mean the players, to ignore the National Anthem isn’t helping. I find it hard to believe the contract between the players union and the NFL dictates what shoes, socks and wrist bands can be worn, but says nothing about protecting the reputation of the organization by public displays of protest while in uniform. If trying to use words to talk sense into these folks doesn’t work, maybe they’ll listen to dollars. Someone in NFL marketing must have noticed Pittsburg Steelers jersey number 78 has sold out in less than 48 hours. That’s the jersey worn by Afghanistan Army veteran and Steeler offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva. During Sunday’s Chicago versus Pittsburg game, he’s the lone Steeler player who exited the player’s tunnel onto the aptly named Soldier Field during the National Anthem. Public sentiment sold out Villanueva’s jersey in record time, surely some smart guy in the NFL front office knows what this means.
Sun Columnist
I am a huge fan of the game of football, especially at the college and high school level. But when it comes to the professional level of the game I’ve lost interest tuning in on Sunday, much less actually attending a game in Buffalo or New Jersey.
At some point professional football changed from a fan based sport into a money making spectacle of a business. And the spectacle continues to grow. This past week our President expressed his opinion about protesting NFL players not standing during the National Anthem.
No one needs to be reminded we have an unconventional President who sometimes speaks and tweets from the hip. The NFL players and owners could have and should have remembered they are paid to play a game and stuck to it by steering clear of the fray. But the players have a huge stage in front of an even larger audience and that wasn’t going to go unused.
The last thing the NFL needs is another controversy to push fans away, yet that’s exactly what they have done. My interest waned during the period of after touch down excessive celebrations that included hip gyrations, snow angels and the Saint’s Joe Horn hiding a cell phone in the goal post padding. Those choreographed dances were too ‘cringe worthy’ for me and many fans. The simple spike of the football was perfect as an instantaneous celebration after crossing the goal. But each succeeding prima donna had to out-do the previous until it was such a distraction the rule banning them was too little and too late. Of course there are the run of the mill cases of spousal abuse, drunk driving and under reported drug abuse suspensions.
It seems each NFL season has multiple ways to drive away a few more viewers and fans. For the past decade, viewership of professional football, both day and night games, has declined steadily. Some years the decline was in the double digits. This makes advertisers very unhappy.
The NFL just can’t shake itself from the bad press. Notwithstanding the recent national anthem divisiveness, last month the NFL backed out of the largest charitable donation they’ve ever made. A few years ago the NFL made a $30 million grant to the National Institutes of Health to fund independent research into football players and their brain injuries. The NIH study results were not favorable for the NFL, so the grant money stopped in August with less than 50% being spent. The studies found there was indeed a connection with 90% of tested player brains having CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). In defense of the NFL, the study of the sample brain organs all came from families who already believed there to be injury to a loved one’s head. This was not a random sampling.
There are other factors that are driving a wedge between pro football and the fan base. Start with the price of a ticket to attend a game. The average price of an end zone ticket in the nose bleed section is over $50. Add to that the price of transportation, parking, food and beverage and pretty soon you and a friend are in over $300.00. If you can afford them, seats between the 40 yard line markers will set you back on average of $400 – each. The last time I went to a Bills game at Rich Stadium, or whatever they call it now, the atmosphere was mostly drunk, fighting patrons and overworked security and police. It was not exactly family friendly, but that’s what you get in the cheap seats.
The NFL continues to grab at the quick money instead of having a long range plan to sustain this business. In order to self-fund this tax exempt money machine, the NFL marketing people work overtime thinking of ways to generate revenue. Remember Monday Night Football on ABC? After three decades it was decided more money could be made by moving the Monday night games from free over the airwaves ABC, to the pay to watch cable station ESPN. Then there’s the added night of football on Thursday. This Thursday night game is disliked by the players because of the short turn for rest and potential for player injury. The NFL marketing people like the Thursday night games because of the “Color Rush” special uniforms. These uniforms allow for the possibility of fans buying another licensed jersey product to add to their collection.
There is yet another hurdle for the NFL in the race to keep and cultivate their fan base. Right now studies show the newest adult generation doesn’t watch all that much television. Entertainment for the new adults is a hand-held device, either a tablet or a mobile phone, neither of which is user friendly for watching football with a group of friends. Adding to this decline in fan base is the next adult generation in the pipeline isn’t playing football at all, at least not American football. Parents of today’s youth are encouraging and requiring their children to play soccer because of fear of permanent injuries. In attempts to gain the attention of the video gamer generation, the NFL has infused their broadcasts with all sorts of on-screen colorful graphics and pop-up factoid bubbles that is only a distraction to me and my contemporaries.
This business disguised as a sport needs to do something to turn around its image quickly. Allowing NFL employees, I mean the players, to ignore the National Anthem isn’t helping. I find it hard to believe the contract between the players union and the NFL dictates what shoes, socks and wrist bands can be worn, but says nothing about protecting the reputation of the organization by public displays of protest while in uniform. If trying to use words to talk sense into these folks doesn’t work, maybe they’ll listen to dollars. Someone in NFL marketing must have noticed Pittsburg Steelers jersey number 78 has sold out in less than 48 hours. That’s the jersey worn by Afghanistan Army veteran and Steeler offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva. During Sunday’s Chicago versus Pittsburg game, he’s the lone Steeler player who exited the player’s tunnel onto the aptly named Soldier Field during the National Anthem. Public sentiment sold out Villanueva’s jersey in record time, surely some smart guy in the NFL front office knows what this means.
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