Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneWolf
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.
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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.