Football and My Crisis of Faith.

[Rain Man]

I have been a football fan for more than forty years, and it has been one of the foundational interests of my life. I’ve played the sport since childhood, I’ve traveled to games, I’ve purchased jerseys, and I’ve been an unceasing student of statistics and strategies.

I’m now experiencing a crisis of faith, though, and I fear that football’s time is coming to an end for me. The catalyst was something really stupid, but it opened the door to a greater awareness that is quite disturbing and disillusioning.

The initial catalyst was the NFL’s “Together We Make Football” contest. I read about it and thought, “Wow, a nice celebration of football, and Super Bowl tickets would be a great prize”. So I wrote an essay and felt pretty good about it, and sent it in. I loved football.

The entries were posted on the site, and I read a few of them, and frankly, most of the essays and videos were pretty weak. People didn’t follow the rules or think about why a judge would pick them to win. Many of them were just pictures of people in jerseys saying, “We like football. Send us to the Super Bowl!”

But I saw another pattern, too, and it got me to thinking. There seemed to be a lot of people using disabilities or illness as an argument, particularly among their kids. “I had a lung infection. Send me to the Super Bowl!” “My son has spina bifida. Send us to the Super Bowl!” For the most part, they were not well-written or well-produced. They were requests for pity, and frankly I found them kind of off-putting. They seemed almost more like panhandling than an essay about why those people love football.

As I skimmed through, them, though, I found myself getting agitated. I’m a market research guy, and I found myself starting to read them from a marketing standpoint. I would find myself thinking that some NFL public-relations person would probably like this angle or that angle. “Hey, a disabled kid. Wouldn’t that be a great winner to use for marketing?” (Sorry if that’s insensitive, but it’s how p.r. people think.)

I looked through some more entries, and thought, “If I was a callous, cynical s.o.b., I’d bet that the five winners of this contest will be a disabled kid, an attractive woman, an inner-city African American, a veteran or active duty soldier, and then whoever writes the best essay." And then I immediately felt bad for being a callous, cynical s.o.b. and I submitted my essay.

The NFL announced the ten finalists recently. Three of the ten stories are interesting and speak to football. Three. The other seven are incredibly lame and contrived, and I think one is actually insulting to any longtime football fan. My cynical side picked wrong on the military guy, but if you look at the videos it’s pretty clear that this contest was not about celebrating football. We are not hearing the ten best essays about how football shapes and impacts people’s lives, and how they love football. We are hearing manufactured stories that are nothing more than a cynical marketing ploy to reach pre-defined target markets and serve as a p.r. tool.

Now, I mean no offense against the people in those videos when I say that. I have no doubt that nearly all of them like football, and that most of them love football. It’s not about them, or the fact that I wrote an epic, soul-shattering, thought-inspiring essay that was not selected since I don’t fit the any of the NFL’s market expansion segments.

What it really drove home was that the NFL is a business these days, and nothing more. I wanted a contest where I could write about football and how it has shaped my life, and where I could read about what it has done for others. That was what I was sold. Instead, I was used as a pawn so the NFL could sell its business.

Now, that thing is just a contest. I lose contests all the time. My years of playing and watching football have taught me to lose with grace, and I hope the winners of that contest have a great time. But it really made me think about who’s running the NFL now. I wanted the judges of that contest to be people who love football themselves, people who got into the business because they grew up passing and catching and tackling. I wanted the judges to be people who know who Otto Graham is. Who know Johnny Robinson and Doug Buffone and even John Jefferson, and who can tell you about the Sneaker Game or Christmas Day of 1971. I wanted the judges to be football people who understand what the story of football is about.

The judges of this contest were not football people. It is clear and obvious that they were p.r. people who said, “Okay, give me a person in this market segment and a person in that market segment and two more from that one, and let’s build stories around them." Those people probably don’t know Lawrence Taylor from Opie Taylor.

The NFL is run by businesspeople now. Lamar Hunt is gone. Bud Adams is gone. George Halas is gone. The league is run by lawyers and marketing people and advertisers. You could take them out of the NFL and exchange them with the industry leaders of soft drinks or smart phones, and it wouldn’t make a darn bit of difference. They’re selling a product, and I don’t think they really care what that product is.

And then I look at the games I am watching these days. I see rules changes that are designed for marketing value rather than sport. They’ve done the marketing analysis. If there’s more scoring, more casual fans will watch. If there are more passes, quarterbacks will become bigger celebrities. The games are cartoonish now, unbalanced scoring orgies because scoring lets casual fans know when to cheer. Defenses are being made irrelevant and quarterbacks are merely playing catch on their way to another 400 or 500 yards of showmanship. P.T. Barnum loves the aerial circus even as students of the game cringe.

And I am finally seeing the more sinister side of the business plan. I see blatant phantom penalties against the opponents of quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, two of the highest-visibility products that the league sells, penalties that are critical in letting their teams win and continue playing as the TV audiences surge in January. If you’re running a business, you act to maximize your revenues, and Peyton Manning holding a Super Bowl trophy will do that a lot more than Alex Smith or Nick Foles doing so.

I don’t think the players rig games. It’s realistically impossible to do that in a high-level sport on a leaguewide basis. But Tom Brady is good. If Tom Brady gets four extra downs to win a game because of a pass interference call, he’s probably going to win. You can’t rig games, but you can tilt odds with just a few critical officiating decisions.

Maybe I’m waxing nostalgic, but I don’t think the NFL always had this attitude. Back when Hunt and Adams and Halas were around, the league was a competitive sport. Those owners loved the game and they wanted to win. The money was big, but it wasn’t insane. Look at the ownership and league management today. Are they football fans who want to win, or are they businesspeople who want to maximize profit? The cash flows are enormous.

I have been a Chiefs fan my whole life. In the modern world, that is naïve and Quixotic. The Chiefs are a small-market team and none of the players do national commercials. From a marketing perspective they support a middle-class fan base that is much smaller than most other markets. There’s not much marketing value in Alex Smith holding aloft a Lombardi trophy, and in fact there’s a huge opportunity cost if it’s him and not Peyton Manning. The league’s management team does not want Alex Smith or Jay Cutler or Jake Locker to win. Maybe they’ll do it, because a football field remains a chaotic place, but if so it will be against the wishes of the marketing braintrust of the NFL, and therefore against odds that have become more steep than one team in 32.

Sometime in the past twenty or thirty years, football evolved, and not in a good way. Any given game is still fun to watch. The players still try hard to win. On a tactical basis I enjoy the show and the athletes. But on a higher level I have reluctantly concluded that professional football has ceased to be a competitive sport. It’s an entertainment conglomerate, and just like the tables in Vegas the odds are stacked in the house’s favor. The house exists to make money.

I’ll probably continue to watch football. It’s a tradition. The games are fun. But at this point I’m reluctantly going to go into it knowing that it’s not what it appears. It’s a TV show. I’m not going to buy merchandise to support a TV show, and I’m not going to pay hundreds of dollars to watch a TV show live. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll go out and live life a little more on Sunday afternoons.

There’s a semi-famous internet clip of an audience member at a professional wrestling show. He’s given the microphone and thanks the wrestlers for the “all they’ve done to their bodies”, and then tearfully says, “It’s still real to me, dammit!” Well, I’d like to thank NFL players like Johnny Robinson and Doug Buffone and John Jefferson for all they’ve done to their bodies to entertain me. I have loved football and it’s been a great run. But it’s not real to me any more.

[The Franchise]

It's getting harder and harder to watch football with other "fans". I'm not a "know it all"....but when people tell me that he couldn't have caught it because the WR was "double blocked" or complain every time the offense runs the ball because "the run never works!". .....I want to kill someone.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by BossChief

The worst is when the refs are openly swinging games one way or another.

Sure was a great story to have "The Patriots" winning the superbowl after 9-11.

There was a clip during Bill Billicheats show where he walks up to the refs and they are like "don't worry, we'll protect your guy" or something of the sort.

The purity of the sport has most definitely been compromised.

Not more than having a New York team win it.

As a Patriots fan, I hear this crap all the time, but believe me, you see PLENTY of terrible calls go against you. I think people who are highly attuned or suspicious of it tend to remember every little thing that supports their premise, and forget everything that doesn't.

These calls tend to even out over time, so I try not to get too agitated. The non-call against Gronk was, in my view, at least very, very close, and if there's a "get the Pats to the SB" conspiracy, that's an easy one for the refs to call. Instead they pick up the flag.

Yesterday there was, in my view, a pretty chintzy PI call against the Browns that was very helpful in giving the Pats the win. I wonder more about pandering to the HOME team (the Carolina non-call was in Carolina, the PI call yesterday in Foxborough) than "let's figure out how to give the Pats a win."

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

So which team do you choose?The Patriots were the perfect team for a "feel good story".

Why not the Jets or Giants?

It's all crap. A conspiracy on that level would've come out by now.

[Ace Gunner]

Originally Posted by T-post Tom

Welcome to a brave not-so-new world. This is a microcosm of modern society. Only one thing can revive you...

such an infectious smile

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

No,because if you recall the Patriots were introduced before that Superbowl as a team instead of individual players.So here's a team called the Patriots in red,white and blue being introduced as one because "united they stand,divided they fall." What greater story for a nation that had just experienced the worst terrorism attack in its history.

That was Belichick's idea, and if you think some marketing guru told him how to have his team introduced at the SB, you're completely out of your mind.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

It's getting harder and harder to watch football with other "fans". I'm not a "know it all"....but when people tell me that he couldn't have caught it because the WR was "double blocked" or complain every time the offense runs the ball because "the run never works!". .....I want to kill someone.

What? Who are you watching with?

On a hilarious (perhaps only to me) side note I went to the bar with my buddies in Sidney. I believe the NU game was on PPV. Anyway, they went to watch the game I went to drink. Well they got beat down and some old crusty bastard piped up and informed the bar that they should get a coach that runs the triple option and get some of those Nebraska farm kids on the line.

I laughed. Hard.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Not more than having a New York team win it.

As a Patriots fan, I hear this crap all the time, but believe me, you see PLENTY of terrible calls go against you. I think people who are highly attuned or suspicious of it tend to remember every little thing that supports their premise, and forget everything that doesn't.

I hate to go against my fellow Chiefs fans, but I usually spend a little time on the game thread during the game. When there's a questionable call or non-call against the Chiefs, people go nuts. When there's one of those in the Chiefs favor, nothing.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

What? Who are you watching with?

On a hilarious (perhaps only to me) side note I went to the bar with my buddies in Sidney. I believe the NU game was on PPV. Anyway, they went to watch the game I went to drink. Well they got beat down and some old crusty bastard piped up and informed the bar that they should get a coach that runs the triple option and get some of those Nebraska farm kids on the line.

I laughed. Hard.

The double blocked comment came from my wife. I had to stop watching football with her.

[Direckshun]

You want to get really depressed?

The Kansas City Chiefs are not a grassroots team that is supported by the community and runs to represent it. It's a corporation built to make money off the community and is supported by a conglomerate of corporations who are all doing the same thing.

And that's what you're rooting for every Sunday.

Kind of takes the magic away from it, does it not?

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Why not the Jets or Giants?

It's all crap. A conspiracy on that level would've come out by now.

I don't really believe it, but if there was a conspiracy, I don't think they would need to influence it that much. The Giants didn't make the playoffs that year. The Jets did as a wildcard, so you could have the NYC team or a team named the Patriots win it all. And it's not like it's the end of the world if one of them doesn't make it, but a small influence (maybe a big call in the conference championship game ) could go a long way.

Far too much stuff has to happen to really rig seasons, but stressing certain things (hey refs, in this Manning vs shittyQB match up, we really need to concentrate on protecting the QB) can definitely influence the outcome. And just because the NFL wants it to happen, doesn't mean it will or that it's the end of the world if it doesn't... but there are definitely outcomes that favor the NFL as a business (which is indisputable), it's just whether they act on the urge to push their agenda.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

I hate to go against my fellow Chiefs fans, but I usually spend a little time on the game thread during the game. When there's a questionable call or non-call against the Chiefs, people go nuts. When there's one of those in the Chiefs favor, nothing.

Yeah, I think it's like that for a lot of fan bases... it's really hard for people to be objective in that regard.

[Rain Man]

A few responses that I would add to the discussion:

First, teams are welcome to make their own mistakes, and are independently managed. The Chiefs can make the bonehead decision to not draft a quarterback for 30 years, and that's their call. The league doesn't care about that stuff, and it's an independent issue.

Second, I don't think that refs are explicitly told to rig games for one team or another, though it wouldn't surprise me at this point. But I have no doubt that they're told to "keep things close" within the context of the game, and if you "keep things close" then that's going to favor the teams with the big quarterback stars since they're more likely to get a bolt of lightning score. Then, voila! Instant drama! And atop that of course you have rules that are tilted toward the attributes that make stars. We want star quarterbacks in this league, so you can't touch a receiver. If you touch a receiver, the quarterback gets four more chances.

Having said that, take a look at the Patriots call yesterday, or the personal foul call on Bernard Pollard in the Broncos game. Do you really want to watch a football game where Bernard Pollard's shoulder bump on Eric Decker warrants four more downs for Peyton Manning? I don't. It's not a sport any more if that's the way things work. Like I said, I don't think that the refs are explicitly told to rig games, but some of these calls that always seem to favor the stars really make me wonder when they produce more short-term revenue for the league.

Third, bearcat's earlier post hit it right on the spot. The league is a business, and the management team is being given orders to increase revenues and profits by XX percent per year. They're going to do that. If the sport of football gets in the way, then that's too bad. They're going to make the changes and do the things that will keep the multi-billion dollar business growing, per their orders. That's what really bothered me about their writing contest. It was a contest about people's love of football, and there was clearly no one in the judging room who loved football and protected the integrity of the game.

Fourth, I stand by my casino example. The league doesn't know in Week 1 who's going to win the Super Bowl. There's too much chaos on the field for that. But they know who they want to position for it from a revenue perspective, and they're going to tweak the odds here and there as they're able. Can the Chiefs win a Super Bowl? Yeah, if a whole bunch of stuff falls right and they can stop Manning and Brady on eight or nine downs when it should be three or four. Or maybe in the long run they can win if they blunder into drafting a media star. But the latter's not going to happen in flyover country.

Fifth, maybe this is just destiny. The league started small and it was a sport. It blew up into a national phenomenon and the dollars exploded and all of a sudden it was a multi-billion dollar business. At that point you have to start treating it like a multi-billion dollar business, and that's when the lawyers and the marketers and the p.r. people come in and the football people leave. But at this point they're just companies, not teams. I'm not going to buy a Medtronics shirt or a Boeing shirt and cheer loudly and high-five when their earnings reports come out. Why should I do that when an NFL company has success?

[lazepoo]

I completely understand how you feel. The notion of everything being a calculated production has extended itself past football for me though. I think that most major products are designed to appeal to the broadest market of groups even when that is at the expense of the groups that originally popularized whatever that product was. It's a slow creep towards ensuring that everything mainstream is completely accessible for casual enjoyment regardless of what that does to the integrity of the original product as the rough edges are sanded smooth and all the corners are padded.

The same thing has happened to mainstream music and literature. Most music is slickly produced and easily consumable without a substantive message, most books are written with a focus on accessibility to reading groups and casual readers (and familiar, formulaic plots) without regard for the literary characteristics of classic works. Look at movies: to paraphrase your original post, blockbusters today are an orgy of special effects. It's all in pursuit of the almighty dollar rather than the pursuit of a goal or artistic ideal.

Our world has been sapped of authenticity by commerce, and I would argue that this extends to our jobs as well. Businesses exist to make money first and provide a service second, and their focus is on doing what's right for them right now, not on the long term or the greater good.

So, what's happening in the NFL is just a reflection of what's happening in the world at large, we just didn't notice until it seeped into football, an area we'd believed was shielded from that sort of insidious effect by virtue of it being a game rather than a business, a fact that is no longer true.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Not more than having a New York team win it.

As a Patriots fan, I hear this crap all the time, but believe me, you see PLENTY of terrible calls go against you. I think people who are highly attuned or suspicious of it tend to remember every little thing that supports their premise, and forget everything that doesn't.

These calls tend to even out over time, so I try not to get too agitated. The non-call against Gronk was, in my view, at least very, very close, and if there's a "get the Pats to the SB" conspiracy, that's an easy one for the refs to call. Instead they pick up the flag.

Yesterday there was, in my view, a pretty chintzy PI call against the Browns that was very helpful in giving the Pats the win. I wonder more about pandering to the HOME team (the Carolina non-call was in Carolina, the PI call yesterday in Foxborough) than "let's figure out how to give the Pats a win."

I should note that my comments are not intended to disrespect the Patriots or even the Broncos. As an older fan, I know that the Patriots were an unsuccessful franchise for decades. It's not like the league particularly wants the Patriots or the Broncos to win because they're the Patriots or Broncos. They're just the teams that have the stars and thus the most revenue potential at this point in time. If fortunes shift and another team gets the stars (and hopefully a team in a big market), the Patriots may sink back into the pack. However, given that they represent a big market, they'll do it slower than a Carolina team or a Cincinnati team. The modern NFL industry doesn't want revenues to shrink in bigger markets.

That said, I've long hated the Broncos for a variety of reasons. The Elway thing started it, and then the salary cap violations, the foreign substances, and so on. But they've got it figured out. They're going to win, and they're going to win because they understand the business of the NFL. Elway is the prototype and the genesis of using football purely as a vehicle for wealth and fame against the best interest of the sport, because he was the first one who did it. He understands that you don't earn championships in the modern NFL, you arrange them. You buy a quarterback who fits the fame model, or if you are a quarterback you don't go to a weak team and you use your power to force your way onto a playoff-caliber team. That's the way the industry works now, and the Broncos will thrive despite their small market because they embrace that.

[The Franchise]

Don't forget fantasy football. That shit is a multi-million dollar business. I'm not going to talk shit about it because I play it.