Will Vera Lynn be playing in the background for all of this?

I don't like the conspiracy talk, either, and maybe I shouldn't have included it in the discussion since it tends to dominate. I included it because it's a logical next step as football transitions from sport to entertainment, and it's a little squishy as to how far they've moved toward that step.

My intended main theme is that there are no football people running football any more, and I think the sport is suffering as a result. I don't think the current NFL is acting as a steward of the game, and the league is more interested in profit. I mentioned in an earlier post that this might be a natural destiny, and that anything becomes a business when it hits ten digits in revenues. But for me, that's when I start checking out and finding something else to be my passion.

Here's the rub. Football and all professional sports have always been businesses. Football fans are paying customers and teams exist and have always existed to turn a profit. Lamar Hunt was a businessman. It just seems different because the numbers are bigger, but if these teams never made money the league would no longer exist.

Sack up, dude .

I noticed the differences starting with the Tuck rule and letting the Patriots clear an area for the kicker. Most people had never heard of the Tuck rule before that play. Most teams would have been penalized for clearing the snow for the kicker.
9/11 happens and all the sudden the Patriots win the SB.

Lets also keep in mind that the NFL is considered Sports Entertainment as well.

Ahhhh yes...

I call this the plight of modernity: living without illusions without becoming disillusioned.

No easy task.

Their very name and what happened. Patriot...Patriotic....Patriotism....You know those things that this country was built on.

The raiders called time out. There isn't any rule against clearing snow.

What does that mean and why keep it in mind?

The 9/11-Patriots thing is sadly ridiculous. Exactly why does the team name matter? This whole conspiracy revolves around the TEAM NAME.

Did people really tune in because the PATRIOTS were playing? Did people really rally around the PATRIOTS just because of the team name and 9/11?

It's childish nonsense.

That's true. In the days of the old AFL those guys were literally fighting for their existence. And when I say "those guys" I mean owners, coaches and players alike. As a result, the marketing was grass roots. The players were real people who genuinely inter-acted with the fans. Every team had its own distinct personality. It was a world of innovative football, especially in the AFL. And the game of football itself really wasn't distinguished from the business/marketing side - it was one and the same. And real, spontaneous things tended to happen back then - who can forget the famous Jets-Raiders Heidi game? Not even the brightest NFL marketing person could ever design such a stunt these days.

Some time around the late 80's/early 90's, the game started to become homogenized and then, later, sterilized. Instead of marketing being what comes naturally to entreprenuers, the so-called professionals took over. Marketing people love a story. But, the stories have to either be generated spontaneously or they're just re-cycled. I suspect that's the source of some of the OP's frustration. Like the re-cycled stories of the infirm/disabled children. The first few make for "feel good" stories, but after that become a bit obnoxious.

That's why I kind of enjoyed that Steelers coach jumping out on the field the other day. It may or may not have been rehearsed in the guy's mind, but it reminded me of something you might have seen in the old days. Of course, the fines and such imposed by the NFL were kind of over the top...should have just thrown an unsportsmanlike flag and called it a day.

Wrestling is Sports Entertainment. Sports Entertainment focuses on the Entertainment aspect of the business not the Sports part of it.

Stakeholder vs shareholder... or specifically for the NFL, the product and fans vs money. Yeah, there's always the business side of it and they have to make their money, but it can make a HUGE difference whether your focus is in the right place or solely on the money.

And actually, if the focus had only been about money back then, it probably wouldn't exist today. Like ciaomichael said, they were just fighting for relevance... and when you're fighting for customers, that's where your focus is at. You're just trying to make the product the best it can be and attract fans.

Well, now that they have all the customers they'll ever need and make eleventy billion dollars a year, they could focus on the game and fans, but they choose to focus on making 5% more money next year.

It's nothing new... maybe Lamar dreamed of making millions, but back then his passion had to be football, not money. Just look at the differences between Sporting's ownership and any NFL team, or most any (relatively) small company vs most any huge company.

You left out the part about the compass in the stock and a thing that tells time. That would have made it better.