WHO NEEDS TWO?
USA Today has a cover story today on what could become a major problem for the NFL.
Fans are beginning to think that going to NFL games isn’t worth the hassle when they can stay home and watch their 60 inch, high definition TV.
I’ve never believed watching a game on TV was better then being there and HD hasn’t changed my mind.
I would always rather be there, but that doesn’t mean that I think it’s worth the hassle that begins with paying $65 for a seat next to a guy who will be puking on himself in the middle of the second quarter and then sitting in post game traffic for 45 minutes.
The USA Today story talks about ways that the NFL is trying to compete with the home experience.
Sorry, but I just don’t get it.
When I go to a game, I’m not sitting there wondering what’s happening in other games and I don’t need a special screen to show me six different replays of the play that I just saw.
Being in the middle of the crowd and being part of the spectacle is what got me interested in sports.
Are the fantasy geeks responsible for this need to enhance the game experience?
When I was a true fan (a long time ago), I could never imagine, as I sat there and watched Terry Bradshaw throwing to Lynn Swann, feeling a desperate need to know how many catches Paul Warfield had for the Dolphins.
The game was enough.
If NFL fans are so much in need of other-than-the-game stimulation, that doesn’t say much for the product that’s on the field.
Has the NFL product become so boring and predictable that fans have to have a stake in the games in order to stay interested?
Maybe, instead of thinking about all the electronic and digital ways to keep fans at the stadium entertained, the NFL should start looking at ways to make the games more exciting.
I’ve been in favor of eliminating the goal posts for years. Field goals are boring and no goal posts would create a lot more exciting goal line stands.
I would also limit substitution and take the speaker out of the players’ helmets.
Dime defenses that were invented to cancel out five wide receiver sets have turned the NFL into a dink and dunk league.
As I’ve pointed out here before, according to the NFL’s official play by play sheet, 56 of the 62 completions in last season’s Super Bowl were officially classified as short.
I think the NFL should also copy the Canadian League and reduce the time between plays from 45 seconds to 20 and stop the clock on every dead ball in the last three minutes to reduce the number of games that end with quarterbacks genuflecting.
The need for the electronic distractions would be reduced if there were fewer TV timeouts and the networks wised up and started sneaking 20 or 30 second commercials into the game during natural delays instead of making people at the stadium sit during a 2 1/2/ minute commercial break while the people at home, who are supposed to be watching the commercials, are switching to the other game.
The ball is only in play for about 8 minutes out of the three to three and a hlf hours that it takes to complete an NFL game.
That leaves a lot of time for fans in the stadium to fixate on their cell phones and agonize over not knowing how their fantasy teams are doing.
Drop the puck.
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Date: September 1, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized
