I am as big a sports fan as they come in this great land that we live in and I have to tell you that I am concerned about the entity that we call the NFL. Over the past four years we have had a commissioner who acts like he is God, we have owners who don't want share money with people who make them the money, players who spend about as much time in the police blotter as they do in the training room, former players suing the league for not being given enough information about concussions and head injuries, and now the integrity of the game is being questioned because of non professional referees. What I just written down is about 30 talk shows worth of topics in five sentences. We all concede that the most popular sport in America is Pro Football. Baseball is no longer America's past time, (over reaction Monday is) Football has replaced it. The NHL and NBA are only relevant in the post season. Golf is only great when Tiger is succeeding and playing. Boxing is often angry water cooler conversation, tennis is non existent and no one will openly admit that they sat and watched 42 cars go around an oval 500 times for three hours. I blogged weeks ago that no one messes with the NFL because everyone has an opinion and knowledge of the sport. People will argue with you till they are blue in the face about their teams and everything about their teams. We have made the NFL what it is and now it has gone way too far.
The NFL is full of itself because we have allowed this nonsense to go this far. As a consumer, we have a choice. We can watch what is on television, go to the game or not get involved at all. Because we buy the Directv packages, the merchandise, the product advertised durning the game, the NFL will act like a dictator in our lives. Everyone who follows football know that not paying the referees a raise is moronic and controlling. 32 teams are dividing a television contract that earned them 9 billion dollars. The players are getting paid more, the price of tickets are not getting cheaper, food at the concessions stands, jerseys, hats, mecrhandise in general are not getting cheaper. Rookies are being paid less money so that veteran players who have earned the money can actually get paid somewhere if not from that team that he is fighting for a contract from.s every where in the NFL!!! So with the price everything rising, why shouldn't referees get a raise as well? The NFL knows that you, me, the martian on venus will watch their product no matter who is calling the game, reffing the game or playing the game. There have been tons of complaints lobbed at the league for missed calls, the length of games, and the misuse of rules in the games. What does integrity mean to the league? Absolutely nothing. The league knows that you are going to watch no matter what. Buffalo plays Cleveland this weekend. The game will sell out in Cleveland and the game will be on televisions everywhere.
Another example of the NFL is too full of itself is this bounty scandal involving the Saints. The fact the league produced a face saving affadavit this weekend as to why Jonathan Vilma was suspended for a season is evidence that the commissioner probably glared at Greg Williams and said how badly do you want to coach again in this league. Now i am not acusing the commissioner of coercion but they said that they had evidence way back months ago to convict Vilma of putting up 10,000 to anyone who knocked out Brett Favre. So why do they use a letter signed three days ago to further implicate Vilma? Vilma says he has 9 letters that will prove that he didn't say that. Who are we to believe? Drew Brees was outspoken months ago that they saw no proof of the involvement by the players. Dont you think that if that information about Vilma's involvement was available last month or three months ago or five months ago that that would been the nail in the coffin for Vilma and everyone else involved? The fans like that Goodell is trying to clean up the negative image of football players. The fans don't like someone bieing accused or scandal to explain a scandal. We want things to be crystal clear. The Commissioner will probably re-suspend the players because the players foolishly did not in the latest collective bargining agreement address the power of the commissioners office. The biggest mistake they could have ever made.
We will still watch because we are fans of the games... Maybe we are all addicts and need our fix of the NFL drug. Shame on us for that, shame on them for playing to our weakness..
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