Spring Break
NFL favors profit over football fans
Erick Moen
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Sports
The outcry over viewership of NFL games reached its crescendo last night when this year's two NFC powerhouses met up in Dallas on the NFL Network.
It was the first matchup of 10-1 teams since the 90s and involved two of the most beloved franchises in all of sports, yet 2/3 of the U.S. was deprived due to the disgusting greed of rich men.
The NFL has gone from a home-grown game to an elitist sport more every year, but it has become increasingly alarming recently. The accessibility of the game to true fans that bleed their team colors tells the story.
The Super Bowl was the first to go.
The tickets have become so exorbitantly expensive that no real fan can go see his or her team try to take sports' greatest crown. Even playoff games are becoming a corporate, convoluted mockery of their former selves with tickets so amazingly exclusive that true fans are prohibited from attending.
Next, the NFL decided to outsource its fan base by sending games oversees depriving even the privileged few with season tickets from attending their home team's games.
The NFL Network serves as the final dagger in the heart of the true fan. It is only a matter of time before the NFL stops accepting the massive amounts of money offered by the big networks and begins passing on that expense to fans by making all regular season games pay-per-view.
Not only does that increase the difficulty for any fan to see the teams they love, it also decreases their enjoyment of the event by placing them in the unsure hands of brown-nosing announcers whose checks have the NFL logo on them.
But before we get into this week's stuff, here are my thoughts for the week:
1. The death of Sean Taylor will make the next couple of weeks in the NFL a very hollow affair for a large number of players and fans and it is a dark cloud that will hang over the rest of the season - a moment of silence for a young man senselessly gone too soon.
2. Bill Parcells built the Cowboys team that will most likely represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, but he has taken shots from many of his former players on his coaching style and the atmosphere he fostered. But when asked about the matter and about Terrell Owens, all Parcells did was compliment all the players and give the credit to their efforts. Now that is the epitome of class.
It was the first matchup of 10-1 teams since the 90s and involved two of the most beloved franchises in all of sports, yet 2/3 of the U.S. was deprived due to the disgusting greed of rich men.
The NFL has gone from a home-grown game to an elitist sport more every year, but it has become increasingly alarming recently. The accessibility of the game to true fans that bleed their team colors tells the story.
The Super Bowl was the first to go.
The tickets have become so exorbitantly expensive that no real fan can go see his or her team try to take sports' greatest crown. Even playoff games are becoming a corporate, convoluted mockery of their former selves with tickets so amazingly exclusive that true fans are prohibited from attending.
Next, the NFL decided to outsource its fan base by sending games oversees depriving even the privileged few with season tickets from attending their home team's games.
The NFL Network serves as the final dagger in the heart of the true fan. It is only a matter of time before the NFL stops accepting the massive amounts of money offered by the big networks and begins passing on that expense to fans by making all regular season games pay-per-view.
Not only does that increase the difficulty for any fan to see the teams they love, it also decreases their enjoyment of the event by placing them in the unsure hands of brown-nosing announcers whose checks have the NFL logo on them.
But before we get into this week's stuff, here are my thoughts for the week:
1. The death of Sean Taylor will make the next couple of weeks in the NFL a very hollow affair for a large number of players and fans and it is a dark cloud that will hang over the rest of the season - a moment of silence for a young man senselessly gone too soon.
2. Bill Parcells built the Cowboys team that will most likely represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, but he has taken shots from many of his former players on his coaching style and the atmosphere he fostered. But when asked about the matter and about Terrell Owens, all Parcells did was compliment all the players and give the credit to their efforts. Now that is the epitome of class.
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