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.

[Marcellus]

How exactly does NE winning the SB after 9/11 "help" football?

Yea its a good story that can be exploited to some level, but that's all.

No what happened is they lucked into Tom Brady.

CP is a place that 98% of the time screams you must have a franchise QB to win and then makes excuses for bias when the franchse QB's win.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

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.

Wow really dude. Did you not see and hear the gushing about how poetic it was that the "Patriots" were in the SB after 9/11 happened to our country? All of the stories that tied the SB as Patriotic to this nation. Have you not noticed the influx of people that that brought into football as fans? The average increase of NFL fans spiked post 9/11. In talking to a lot of people, that are not from nor have ever been in the northeast, that are fans of the Patriots and asking them when they became fans of the Patriots they ALL have said after 9/11 when they won the SB and how justifying it felt for the Patriots to win after what our nation had just been through.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

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

In baseball when a team is caught cheating they get stripped of their championship. In football when a team is caught cheating to win a championship they just get a minor fine and draft picks taken away but get to keep their championship.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

How exactly does NE winning the SB after 9/11 "help" football?

Yea its a good story that can be exploited to some level, but that's all.

No what happened is they lucked into Tom Brady.

CP is a place that 98% of the time screams you must have a franchise QB to win and then makes excuses for bias when the franchse QB's win.

Tom Brady was a rookie and was not great by any stretch. The defense, and a very sold running game that the Patriots had at that time is what won that SB.
Depends on how you define help.
Brought a lot of new fans to the NFL. Ended up giving the NFL another QB that most people loved like Peyton Manning. Gave the NFL another rivalry to exploit. Wasn't there some mention of how the fans won't get to see another Manning vs Brady game unless it is in the playoffs.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

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

You're using that term as if it has some sort of official meaning. Professional sports wouldn't even exist if they weren't supposed to be entertainment. Pro wrestling is scripted with a storyline and predetermined outcome. You're saying that's what the NFL is?

Never mind--this really is too stupid to discuss.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

In baseball when a team is caught cheating they get stripped of their championship. In football when a team is caught cheating to win a championship they just get a minor fine and draft picks taken away but get to keep their championship.

WTF? There is something wrong with you.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

In baseball when a team is caught cheating they get stripped of their championship. In football when a team is caught cheating to win a championship they just get a minor fine and draft picks taken away but get to keep their championship.

Remind me of when a baseball team was stripped of a championship for cheating.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

Tom Brady was a rookie and was not great by any stretch. The defense, and a very sold running game that the Patriots had at that time is what won that SB.
Depends on how you define help.
Brought a lot of new fans to the NFL. Ended up giving the NFL another QB that most people loved like Peyton Manning. Gave the NFL another rivalry to exploit. Wasn't there some mention of how the fans won't get to see another Manning vs Brady game unless it is in the playoffs.

What the **** are you talking about? The Patriots went 11-3 under Brady in 2001, including 7-1 in the second half of the season. The offense and defense both finished 6th in the NFL in points (scored for the offense, allowed for the defense) while being 19th and 24th in yards, respectively. The rushing offense was 24th in the NFL in yards per.

The tuck rule was properly called, and had cost the Patriots a game earlier in the season, when it was called in the Jets game. Clearing snow by the players is legal, and having either the Jets or Giants win the Super Bowl would have been more of a direct connection with 9/11 than having the Patriots win it.

As for rivalry, it it was only a product of the NFL officials, don't you think the Patriots would have fallen back into obscurity by now? Instead, Brady is the only NFL QB to have more than 100 more wins than losses, and Brady has reached the Super Bowl in 5 of the 11 seasons he's been the team's primary starter and has reached the AFCCG in 7 of those 11 seasons, while Manning has repeated shit the bed as a playoff QB, becoming the king of the one-and-done.

You need a better brand of tinfoil.

[GoChargers]

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.

Don't forget the league destroying the Cheatriots' Spygate tapes so that the fans and press could never see the full extent of their cheating.... not to mention slapping Belicheat on the wrist by not giving him a nice long suspension like he deserved.

[tk13]

Brady was definitely a huge part of the Pats first win... but he was far from 2007 Tom Brady at that point. I don't think he even threw for 200 yards in the Super Bowl. He definitely didn't have a lights out game.

People also forget Brady got hurt in the AFC title game, and Drew Bledsoe played QB for most of the game that got them to the Super Bowl. That's completely been lost into history at this point.

[Sorter]

Originally Posted by GoChargers

Don't forget the league destroying the Cheatriots' Spygate tapes so that the fans and press could never see the full extent of their cheating.... not to mention slapping Belicheat on the wrist by not giving him a nice long suspension like he deserved.

Personally, I think that's way overblown in regards to being an advantage.

[GoChargers]

Originally Posted by Sorter

Personally, I think that's way overblown in regards to being an advantage.

Disagreed. Clearly they must have gained some major advantage from doing it, because not only were they doing it for seven years under complete secrecy, but Belicheat's assistants have also tried to go back to doing it when they've gotten head coaching jobs (i.e. McDumbass in Denver, Charlie Weis and his laptop at Notre Dame).

[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.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by tk13

Brady was definitely a huge part of the Pats first win... but he was far from 2007 Tom Brady at that point. I don't think he even threw for 200 yards in the Super Bowl. He definitely didn't have a lights out game.

People also forget Brady got hurt in the AFC title game, and Drew Bledsoe played QB for most of the game that got them to the Super Bowl. That's completely been lost into history at this point.

The Patriots were on the verge of blowing out the Rams in that SB, when Warner tossed a pick-6. That score would have made it 24-3. The officials, however, called a penalty on the Patriots, getting McGinest for holding Faulk. If there had really been a conspiracy to ensure the Patriots victory, they could have just picked up that flag.

[Sorter]

Originally Posted by GoChargers

Disagreed. Clearly they must have gained some major advantage from doing it, because not only were they doing it for seven years under complete secrecy, but Belicheat's assistants have also tried to go back to doing it when they've gotten head coaching jobs (i.e. McDumbass in Denver, Charlie Weis and his laptop at Notre Dame).

There is definitely an advantage. What's more relevant is that the advantage (even being caught) outweighs the punishment.


That being said, the advantage isn't truly that great due to the limited amount of time you have to see the other teams signals and relay back what that means before the snap.