Roger Goodell's NFL daring fans to live without football
Descriptions
Phil Mushnick
See? That wasn’t so difficult, now, was it?
The NFL and NBC sold Saturday night’s Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game beyond a ransom wall thus millions who otherwise would have watched what was anticipated as the weekend’s most attractive game chose to live without it.
And that’s the smug new TV business model of the NFL and MLB — condition devoted viewers to live without. Brilliant strategy, no? As if greed is undefeated, as if greed doesn’t kill, as if, to borrow from Wall St., pigs don’t get slaughtered.
Or is the public unaware that the NFL expects us to finance its removal of what no business can thrive without: its most reliably dedicated customers.
As reader Bruce Korman succinctly put it, “On a day when half the country was snowed in this game [had it been seen over the air] would have been a ratings monster.”
And so what would’ve been an all-in game was played to a minimized TV audience in dangerous Arctic night conditions for both players and paying spectators as per the noble leadership of NFL Treasurer Roger Goodell, whose sense of sarcastic humor includes claims that player safety is a top priority, and the warm and fuzzy, “It’s all about our fans.”
This game was designed for maximum money — $110 million from NBC/Peacock — in exchange for a papering over the view with one-night stand money.
So, while Rams-Lions, Sunday night, according to NBC, “peaked at more than 38 million viewers,” NBC again insulted the public with transparent, easily dismissed, fools’ fodder propaganda claiming that a streaming/pay-walled “record-breaking” 23 million watched Miami-KC, an inflated total as greater Miami and Kansas City were able to watch on over-the-air TV.
But even if it were 23 million, based on NBC’s numbers, 15 million more watched Rams-Lions on over-the-air TV than NBC’s “record-breaking” Peacock game, a shallow record as no NFL playoff game had ever been sold exclusively to a pay-per-view operation. Heck, had it 10 million fewer buys it would have been, as NBC brayed, “The Biggest Live-Streamed Event in U.S. History.”
As for Goodell, he claimed he was “thrilled” with the pay-per-view numbers, again and predictably disingenuous. He was “thrilled” — “Proud as a Peacock” — to have reduced the audience to an NFL playoff game by many millions of those who would have watched?
NBC, from Mike Tirico to its Sunday night pregame crew, performed triple-lutzes to sell this held-for-ransom game while sacrificing their credibility.
CNBC’s investment “expert” Jim Cramer, who touted ex-Met and persistent misanthrope Lenny Dykstra as a financial guru days before he was arrested, convicted and jailed for fraud, hosted NBC pregame panelists Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison for a Peacock purchase come-on.
CNBC the day before Dolphins-Chiefs, ran a countdown box to kickoff framed by a Peacock logo. Reader Peter Sullivan informed us that the same clock come-on appeared on the NBC-owned Syfy channel!
Sure, nauseating, but, again, starting with NFL Treasurer Goodell, you can’t shame the shameless.
Anyway, as Walt Goldeski, another of Goodell’s taken-for-a-sap readers wrote, “The Lions play the Bucs indoors in Detroit at 3 p.m., Sunday. The Bills play the Chiefs outdoors in Buffalo at 6:30 p.m., Sunday. Does that make any sense?”
Hey, “It’s all about our fans!”
College hoops suffering from delay of game
College basketball, for some unfathomable reason, now seems committed to stopping games and killing action as a matter of design.
Saturday’s San Diego St.-Utah on CBS, had its plug pulled so the refs could examine a TV monitor to determine if a Utah player had intentionally flopped.
Given that there was no call, play on! Why stop playing to examine maybe? If he flopped, he did so at his own peril and his team’s get-back-on-defense risk. Just play on, for crying out loud!
Saturday, on Fox, St. John’s and Creighton played a close, high-energy game until 57 seconds remained. Then it was time to coach per possession, those 57 seconds took eight minutes to complete.
So NFL games, this past weekend, began with solemn tributes to the memory and martyrdom of Martin Luther King, who was derided by born-and-bred racists as “a n—-r.”
Then it was now back to Treasurer Goodell’s honoring vulgar, N-word spewing artists for America to enjoy during Super Bowl halftime shows.
Not that CBS, this season’s Super Bowl network will report it — race-themed essayist and NFL studio host James Brown will abandon the courage of his convictions — or pandering Goodell will note, but this year’s headliner, Usher, checks all the backwards sexual and racial boxes in just one song, “Nice and Slow.”
Care to read the lyrics aloud, Roger? J.B.? No? Why? Below you and yours but perfect for us and ours?
But as soulful NFL end zones remind us, “End Racism.”
Announcers’ word salads are unpalatable
I’m starting to get the hang of it: You replace the plain, simple and instantly useful with the vague, wordy and worthless, thus:
In just the first quarter of Saturday’s Texans-Browns, NBC’s Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge said the Browns scored a TD because they “were able to avoid negative yardage,” “Ran the ball downhill” and “dialed up a long pass play.” But Houston soon struck back with “a positive gain.”
During Eagles-Bucs on ESPN/ABC, Troy Aikman, at approximately $93 million over five years, observed that Bucs’ RB Rachaad White was “able to pick up positive yards and move the chains.”
Of course, on an obvious scramble by Dallas QB Dak Prescott, Fox’s Greg Olsen, during a replay of the self-evident had to add that Prescott “used his legs.”
Even reliable Sean McDonough has been afflicted. Saturday, during ESPN’s Rangers-Capitals he noted that Washington was “skating downhill.”
Week in Review:
Product Placement of the Week: During the U.S.-Sweden Under-18 women’s game as seen on the NHL Network, a commercial appeared for treatment of erectile dysfunction.
Schadenfreude Shot of the Week: Fox’s cut to a disgusted Jerry Jones during the Packers’ road humiliation of the Cowboys.
Bad Timing of the Week: The D.C.-based Caps and Wizards are looking to relocate to nearby Alexandria, Va. for several reasons, not the least of which is attendance-discouraging D.C. street crime.
Last week the Wizards released point guard Ryan Rollins, making a guaranteed $1.7 million, after he was charged with repeatedly stealing from a Target store — in Alexandria.
Analysis of the Week: Sunday during Georgetown-UConn on Fox, Donny Marshall, after a three-on-one up-court charge by the Huskies led to a 3-point shot: “That’s the modern-day fast break.”
Stat of the Week: In blowing a 16-point lead at home to lose to the Heat, Monday, the Nets missed 43 of 55 3-point heaves. In a one-point loss that many 3’s limited the Nets’ free throws to 16 (the Heat took 25).
But unlike that recent home loss to the Bucks, the Nets at the very least, seemed somewhat interested in winning. Say, is it possible to be both a basketball fan and a paying Nets fan?
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