The story is that the Presidential election is hurting NFL ratings…
However the “Walking Dead” won Sunday night. Turns out zombies trump overdeveloped men when they go head to head.
This has been a long time coming.
That’s the story of the 21st Century, the decimation of old paradigms. What once was, no longer will be.
In an era of experiences, where everyone wants to participate, be up close and personal, football is a bad fit.
You can’t get a good seat and even if you do the game is better at home.
A game that those who play it say the public can’t truly understand. One with very little action where so many men get hurt that nobody wants their kids to play anymore.
This is a recipe for success?
But we kept hearing that live television was everything, sports ruled and football was king.
Until cord-cutting began…
I don’t remember the last time I tuned in ESPN and I’m paying five plus bucks a month for it. Talk about a rip-off!
And then there’s the dilution of the product. In this case, I don’t mean bad games without stars, but the proliferation of game days. Used to be NFL Sunday. Now it’s NFL Thursday, NFL Monday and Sunday.
It’s no longer special.
And the brass is out of touch.
How do you think it looks when your players keep beating up their spouses? It reinforces the notion that the game is played by thugs.
This is not college rah-rah character building. This is about money pure and simple. Otherwise, why would these men put themselves in the line of fire?
And we’ve been complicit.
As our best stars get hurt. As our most famous stars can barely walk and literally lose their minds. Try having a rave in Southern California – can’t be done – too many people have died. The public won’t stand for it. And the public won’t stand for a sport that is literally killing its players’ futures.
But you can’t say this because football is religion, it’s the national glue.
Nothing bonds us all together other than politics and tech. Movies are niche. TV too. As for music…the biggest stars are known by few.
We live in a Tower of Babel society. No entertainment is immune. What does this mean?
Well, you either hunker down in your niche and be happy or you re-evaluate.
The music business sells niche and expects it to go mainstream, which is utterly hysterical.
A great swath of the public will never listen to hip-hop. And a good chunk tunes out today’s pop. But they keep tuning into the vapid “Voice” despite the show never minting a star. Because there are songs. We’re enamored of songs. Where have all the good songs gone?
It’s hard to like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
He’s another robber baron, a corporate titan overpaid to care for the interests of billionaire owners out of touch with the proletariat.
If you don’t think people have contempt for these so-called winners, you followed neither the Sanders nor the Trump campaigns. That’s the story of this decade, how income inequality has bit back, how the disenfranchised are angry and are exacting payment whenever they can.
We don’t need your stinking football games.
Not when we’ve got Pokemon Go! Not when we can be the star of our own world on Facebook and Snapchat!
Maybe there will be a bump in the ratings (now that) the election is over and the championship races tighten up. But rest assured, football is in trouble. And it’s going to continue to falter. Like boxing, it can’t be fixed. And how do you expect a younger generation to pay attention when they’re all playing soccer?
That’s the sports story here-how European football, the world’s game-has gained strength.
Because kids played it in school, because it’s based on finesse more than violence and…
Nothing lasts forever.
Kinda like the network hegemony.
A bunch of outlets are gonna fall by the wayside. Propped up by a cable bundle that is going extinct, the truth is few people are watching them.
But plenty of people are tuning in, watching higher quality television than ever before. Which outlets gladly pay for. Funny how quality has become the mantra.
The executive is not the king in television, it’s the talent.
But do we revere football players anymore?
I don’t think so.
“It’s no longer special.”
– exactly. Once upon a time, baseball was America’s past time, but a warning was sounded early as 1965: football had caught up, and by end the 1960’s, it was king, baseball runner-up.
Over-saturation was foreseen/described as being on the fore article Kerouac read far back as ’66, the advent possibilities coming cable/closed-circuit tv both pro & college sports.
Hindsight, only surprise being it took half an century to become consensus reality, 2016. The truth is anyone who has watched ESPN it’s inception got sick of it/sports highlights overload a long time ago.)
In 1970, mere appetite for football saw events transpire made fandom ravenous: AFL / NFL merger christened afield and ‘Monday Night Football’ debuted. The fact a player strike was underway in pro football, interrupted only by the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs playing the College All Stars in August, only stoked the fires fandom more.
The late 1950’s through the 60’s was truly the Golden Age of football, as it was same for television (and life, but that’s a discussion for another time.) The 70’s and years followed brought further change: new stadiums & continued expansion more teams, which resulted in a watered down product/quality afield.
Flash forward century 21… far too many teams, too many players and too many rules / constant tinkering therewith – part & parcel thereof too many questionable calls. Add too many games, not just on television but in general, and too many injuries (have we really advanced much beyond Roman Coliseum days? Death knell the sport however, will result via an couple factors the football Genie can never again put back the bottle: obscene $ and the showboats afield – too much and too many, ad nauseam.
If obscene amounts of money doesn’t eventually kill the golden goo$e/price most fans out of attending games, incessant ‘hey look at me everybody’ aggrandizement the self by way prima dona players will. If (as MLB learned) youngsters are already gravitating toward other sports today, and the ever greater health (physical/mental) cost playing football claims more victims, what future portends? Aforementioned trends continue, only football will be played will be Transformers on electrified gridirons.
I quit watching football when it started taking them 15 minutes to determine if a guy caught the ball. The NFL takes itself just a wee bit too serious for my tastes.
Unfortunately, it looks like baseball is going down the same path (let’s spend 5 minutes determining if the player’s spike lost contact with 2nd base, shall we?).
On the bright side, my golf game has never been better.