NFL is losing appeal
As I watched the first week of NFL games on Sunday, I realized I was getting a little tired of it all. I remember last season being so stoked on opening Sunday. This year, I felt a bit blah about it. I spent most of the early games playing on my computer instead of focusing on the “action”. I am starting to find college football more interesting *gasp*, even though I used to be a pretty big hater of it. I guess living in SE Michigan makes a difference there, where U of M football is king, and the Lions are horrendous. So here is a short list of my major gripes with the NFL:
1. They focus on controversy and call it entertainment. I’m mean seriously, if I wanted all this drama, I would watch a soap opera. Whiny, annoying players would go away if the media stopped talking about them, but instead, the media focuses all of their attention on those particular players. Then the have the audacity to complain about how annoying those players are. I’m not going to name names here, but you know who I’m talking about.
2. Game selection is biased towards large market teams. Living in Detroit, I obviously get the Lions when they are on and not blacked out, read: Lions road games. We often get the Browns or the Bengals as well do to their proximity. Usually, the third game is one they consider to be of national interest. For example, we got Giants vs. Redskins for the late afternoon NFC game on Fox. Why not the Cardinals vs. 49ers? The Cardinals are the defending NFC champs and were crazy entertaining last year. Where is the love? I assume this is carryover from last year when the NFC East was considered to be the best division in football, though I would argue that point. It felt like they aired every inner-division NFC East game last year. I’d like a little variety please. I shouldn’t have to buy a satellite dish to get a decent variety of games.
3. Commercials. There are too many of them. After the score, after the kickoff, every timeout, every injury, 2 minute warning, in between quarters, etc. This was ok when I was in college because I was usually working on homework during the less interesting games, especially the first few quarters. Now though, I’m just there on the couch watching football, and lots and lots of beer commercials.
4. Vested interest. This is probably the crux of the issue, if I’m honest. I think that sports are often provide a sense of hometown pride. I love to cheer for the local team because I associate with them. If they are winners, then so am I. Isn’t that why people refer to their favorite team in the first person plural? (Our defense stopped the run well in the first half, but we got worn down in the 4th quarter.) Well, my current hometown team is the Lions, current worst team in the league. My former hometown and current favorite team is the Rams, soon to be worst team in the league. I hardly want to associate myself with either of these groups. If the Rams lost because they were no good, I could live with it, but losing because of 10 penalties is excruciating. Not to mention the fact that the only game I’ll get to see this year is when the Rams come to Detroit. However, I’m not a fair weather fan so I’ll stick with them, but if they leave St. Louis as they are discussing, I’m not sure if my heart will go with them.
I can understand why people prefer college football. The places it is really popular often don’t have a pro team or at least not a perennially successful one. Plus, it is easier to associate with a University, especially if you or your friends went there. I’m not going over to the dark side completely, but it’s starting to look very tempting.
Juvers said:
Sep 16, 09 at 10:02 pmI’ll welcome you to the other side, Scott! Although my interest in the NFL has grown tremendously over the last few years, it nowhere compares to my excitement for college games. For me, it’s mainly because I identify with it more, based on all the Illini games I attended.
However, I also just find the “unknown” more exciting when it comes to college ball. In the NFL, I can pick nearly every game each week. Maybe I won’t pick it correctly against the spread, but I’ll pick the winning team. This isn’t hard to do when we’re watching teams like the Lions, Rams, Raiders, Browns, Bengals, Buccaneers, Broncos, etc… It’s just not hard to pick the games, and that “surprise factor” doesn’t exist.
On the other hand, besides Florida, I’m not sure who else is a great team in college football. Granted, the defense isn’t as good in college, and the spreads are often enormous, but I can’t pick college games nearly as well as I can NFL. This last weekend, we were treated to spectacular games like Florida St vs Miami, Notre Dame vs Michigan, and Ohio St vs USC. There wasn’t a clear favorite in any of these, and I’m now more confused about who the top tier teams are than I was before the season started.
Basically, it just amounts to the fact that there is the possibility of me being surprised at the end of a college game, whereas I rarely am with the NFL.
scott said:
Sep 17, 09 at 12:51 pmThat’s a good point, Juvers. I forgot to mention the dilemma the NFL is facing regarding the salary cap next year. From what I’ve read, they are basically not expecting to have one. If that happens, I’m going to start losing interest much faster. The parity and unknown that you mentioned above will go away completely from the NFL. I have always thought that one of the strengths of the NFL was its parity, in that bad teams can rebound rather quickly. See the Dolphins of last season. If they remove the salary cap, those days will be over.
jared said:
Sep 18, 09 at 7:33 pmI think you’ve got a good point about the media surrounding the NFL with your first point, but I don’t think it’s really the NFL. IMO, Goodell has done a good job of just doing his thing and not building up drama about things. It’s hard for the NFL to control the media, though.
I definitely agree about game selection, but I would say that later in the season when the opportunity to adjust the Sunday and Monday night games, they generally do a good job of picking the games they should. You usually see the ones that matter most at that point in the season.
With regard to commercials, you need a DVR.
Really, though, this is one of the things I’ve come to appreciate about soccer. There simply are no commercials except at halftime. Why? Because there are no breaks during the game itself. Occasionally you’ll see a silly like 10 second VW clip or something in the corner, but it’s rare enough and inconspicuous enough that it doesn’t really bother me.
What I’m not sure about, though, is how college football is much better. IMO, you see just as many ads, just as much controversy, and even worse bias (which will continue to be the case until they get rid of the BCS). I’m also not convinced that it’s easy to pick games in the NFL than college. Everybody was so amazed by the Texas/Texas Tech/Oklahoma games last year, but what did they all have in common? The home team won. With similarly talented teams, that’s just not a trend that changes much from sport to sport or level to level.
As an outsider to your particular situation, I’d guess it’s primarily your fourth point that’s affecting you most. It’s really hard to get riled up for something when you’re most likely going to come away disappointed…
scott said:
Sep 19, 09 at 5:54 amI actually do have a DVR now, and you are right. It greatly improves the viewing experience. I guess I should watch the games on tape delay instead of live.
As for the college football comparison, they really don’t see to have as many commercials. Maybe I’m wrong there. What I was really trying to highlight, though, was that people are mostly likely to prefer the team that is both close to them and good. People in Detroit seem to prefer college football because U of M is a perennially powerhouse while the Lions haven’t had a good season in over a decade. I was just saying that I can understand why people here would prefer the college game, and as a person who is assimilating into the society here, it is starting to rub off.