Football and My Crisis of Faith.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Green Bay, the smallest market in the NFL, has recently won a Super Bowl. Rainman, you wrote a great essay and it sucks that the contest was looking for something more marketable, but stop being an idiot about the rest of the game.

I'll try, but it's hard to stop being an idiot at my age. I've been doing it for far too long.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'll try, but it's hard to stop being an idiot at my age. I've been doing it for far too long.

Sorry about the name calling. I've just read several posts over the past couple of days talking about NFL conspiracies and they make this fanbase sound like a bunch of whiners.

There isn't enough reward to warrant the risk of purposely influencing games through league mandates.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Sorry about the name calling. I've just read several posts over the past couple of days talking about NFL conspiracies and they make this fanbase sound like a bunch of whiners.

There isn't enough reward to warrant the risk of purposely influencing games through league mandates.

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.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

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.

What tipped you off? The fact that the owners locked out the players right after signing a new multi-billion dollar MNF contract?

The reality is the owners have a license to print money, and they know it... and they're going to squeeze for all they can. I don't know where the limit is. The popularity of football is through the roof. Look at the lockout last year... a lot of people defended the owners, they needed to make more money. Others just don't care as long as they get football. They'll do anything, pay anything, there's no limit. So the owners have the diehards in their palms... now they can try to branch out and draw more non-traditional football fans. The lockout should've tipped everyone off, but people really don't care. 18 game seasons, Thursday night games, London, LA, 16 teams in the playoffs. They can do all these things and people will still watch, and profits will get bigger. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's where it's heading.