On the EDge: The No Fun League preps for another Super Bowl (yawn)

January 29, 2018 Utah Channel 3

OPINION — I was at a gathering the other day and happened to be wearing a T-shirt with the Oakland Raiders logo on the front.

I’ve been a Raiders fan since they began and, as such, suffered through my share of bad years and, believe me, there have been plenty.

A friend of mine looked at my shirt and said: “Boy, I sure miss the NFL.”

I gave him a sort of puzzled look and he explained that he hasn’t watched a game in the last few years, blaming it on players who decided to take a knee during the anthem.

“I just can’t stand to see them disrespect the flag,” he said.

Rather than engage in a fruitless conversation – his opinion was clear, mine is certainly clear – I just shrugged.

“You aren’t missing much,” I replied.

Look, it is clear that the NFL television ratings are down and, in some places, attendance figures are below the norm.

But, I don’t think you can pin it all on the peaceful protests of the players whose intent is to make a statement about inequality and injustice in a society that seems skewed rather than make a statement about the flag.

There are some diehards who have turned away from the game for political reasons. It’s their right, of course, just as it is the right of the players to invoke their First Amendment rights. And the point here is not to reopen that wound and go to battle again over the appropriateness of the protests because we will forever remain at loggerheads.

But, with the Super Bowl just days away and all the hype and flutter amping up, the truth is simple.

NFL ratings and attendance are down because of an inferior product on the field.

I got to thinking about my friend’s comment and, well, I agree.

I miss the NFL.

But, not for the same reasons.

There was genuine interest in the game before robotic athletes started dominating.

There was color, the players were characters.

I mean, seriously, we had guys like former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who was always good for a laugh but one of the fiercest competitors on the field. He was often the butt of some caustic jokes, including a line from Hollywood Henderson of the Dallas Cowboys who, before facing Bradshaw in the January 1979 Super Bowl, said Bradshaw was “so dumb he couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and A.”

Bradshaw guided the Steelers to a 35-31 win over the Cowboys that year, earning the Super Bowl MVP trophy and tying or breaking several records after responding to Henderson’s taunt with “This isn’t nuclear physics, it’s a game. How smart do you have to be?”

In his own homespun way, Bradshaw was right, of course. It was a game, a high-stakes game, but a game nonetheless.

Now, we have the result of the corporatization of the game.

It’s spread through all of professional sports to the point that the average family is hard-pressed to go to the stadium and shake their pom poms for the Raiders or Cowboys or anybody else. Tickets, if you can find them, are at a premium, even in cities where the fortunes of the local 11 have gone sour. According to Vivid Seats, a brokerage that specializes in tickets to sporting events, rock concerts and the like, the average price of an NFL ticket last season was $172, which does not include parking, a couple hotdogs, soft drinks for the kids and beers for the adults. It doesn’t include a program, a keepsake – from a team pennant to a team jacket – or any of the other memorabilia you are likely to take home if you pay the ransom.

The NFL isn’t the only pro sports league with this money-hungry problem.

Try going to a pro baseball game, an NBA game, a hockey match.

You can go to the box office for a Major League Soccer ticket, where the average ticket price is just under $50, but remember, the MLS is listed as the worst professional soccer league in the world, so you are still paying inflated prices for an inferior product.

And, that is the problem with pro sports in general these days.

The leagues, particularly the NFL, have diluted their product, sprinkling some legitimate superstars among more teams than are truly necessary or in the best interests – both athletically and financially – of the league. Each team has one or two franchise players, surrounded by a supporting cast of fairly obscure, interchangeable hulks.

I’m not sure if today’s players are better trained than the old-timers. They may run a faster 40-yard dash or do more chin-ups or have lower body mass index, but I question the size of their hearts and their love of the game.

There was a time when pro athletes carried around the local newspaper’s want ads in their back pocket looking for work because unless they had off-season jobs, they couldn’t make ends meet. Today, players have got the Wall Street Journal tucked away to study how to invest their season’s salary, which is more than the rest of us will earn in a lifetime.

The product is oversaturated on television. You can watch the NFL all day on Sunday, then again on Monday and Thursday nights and, as the colleges wind down, on Saturdays as well.

They have played games in Tokyo, Osaka, Mexico City, London, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Barcelona, Dublin, Sydney, even Göteborg, Sweden. The league has been trying for years to play one in Beijing. And, there is interest in locating an NFL franchise in London, all in the hope of feeding the league’s bulging coffers.

There are special days when teams wear nonstandard uniforms – from throwback jerseys and pants from the earliest days of the NFL to what it calls Color Rush uniforms for, usually, Thursday night games. It’s not an effort to honor the past or add a little color and flair, it’s to further push revenue from merchandising.

There is little for the average fan to cling to or afford.

The complexion of the game has changed radically and so has the personality.

Instead of guys we knew as Sweetness, Mean Joe, The Refrigerator, The Snake, The Stork, Deacon, Broadway Joe and Butkus, we’ve got guys who look more at home calling their brokers and money men from their private jet instead of calling a play in the huddle.

Yeah, football has taken a hit.

A major hit.

But, politics has little to do with it.

No bad days!

Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.

Email: edkociela.mx@gmail.com

Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela