There have been a lot of overhyped moments in the NFL in recent years. The presence of ESPN and the generally shouty nature of NFL commentary these days assures that there will always be the next “best in the history of” moment coming down the road soon.
But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the propaganda machine as at work as it has been the last week or so for Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough, MS as Tampa Bay prepares to take on New England and his former coach, Bill Belichick.
I’ve read that Belichick’s legacy is at stake – if Brady not only wins last year’s Super Bowl but also beats his former coach in his former home stadium that it tarnishes what the coach accomplished over the last two decades.
I’ve read, in the Athletic – which I think does pretty good sports journalism, for the most part – that this is “one of the biggest regular season games in NFL history.” Or the biggest.
They seem to be close to arriving at a deal. But they have seemed close to coming to a deal for two or three weeks now. Enough is enough.
Even as early as this morning, however, I thought DirecTV might get a reprieve. A friend emailed me information that DirecTV was offering its Sunday Ticket package for free for the season. That would seem to be a reasonable offer. But after a little reading and a couple of phone calls, I learned that, of course, DirecTV was only offering that deal to new subscribers.
Existing subscribers, I was told, are appreciated, but ineligible for the service. So DirecTV is competing with most cell phone companies and who the hell knows how many other businesses in treating new clients better than existing ones. Does nobody remember how much it costs to get a lost customer back?
So, anyway, for the 2011 season DirecTV is ineligible to keep my business, at least as far as Sunday Ticket goes. I can use that $300-and-change on other things.
I agree. Regardless of whether they return in time to play a full season or not, the owners and the players have cost us virtually the entire offseason. Let’s have some pride as fans and make them pay in the pocketbook enough so they can feel it.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King devoted a good chunk of his Monday Morning Quarterback today to finding a way to get more “contributors” to the game enshrined in Canton, Ohio as well. He makes a compelling case that many non-players deserve to be enshrined. I think he’s probably right — I particularly agree with the case he made for the Ed Sabol, who founded NFL Films.
I’m not sure, however, if the three alternatives he proposes for making the change to ensure more contributor honorees make the most sense to me (though at first glance I don’t have an obviously better answer, either).
Stolen directly from his column, King’s three proposed options include:
1. Take one of the two Seniors slots and give it annually to a non-head coaching contributor to the game, which wouldn’t mean a contributor wouldn’t get in every year, but rather that one contributor’s case would be heard every year.
2. Take one of the two Seniors slots every other year and give it annually to a contributor.
3. Take the two non-modern-era-candidate slots and make them fit for all other candidates — seniors, scouts, etc.
I admit, I’m not an expert on how the voters would go about changing the process. I do know that the limit on modern era candidates is five and the limit on senior committee candidates is two, for a maximum of seven inductees to the Hall in any given year. To me, as the NFL Hall of Fame prepares to expand its physical footprint anyway, it seems like you could simply add one more slot each year for a “contributor” and make the maximum number of entrants each year eight – with no requirement that number be voted in, of course.
But as I said, I don’t know for sure what the procedure is for making a change like this. So, I’m asking our readers for thoughts. Should more contributors be recognized? If so, how would you suggest changing the voting process? If not, why?
And while you’re sharing your thoughts on this topic I’ll see if I can’t find some clarity to the process under which such a change to the voting could be made.
Those of us who start blogs, podcasts and video shows, I think, do so dreaming of hitting the big time, though most of us also realize it’s quite a long shot.
“The Mole and Meares Show,” however, hit the jackpot recently, if only for a week. The duo was contacted by a producer at NFL Films for a piece Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” show is doing on social media and its influence on sports.
Showtime sent correspondent Susannah Collins to the basement studio where Christopher Meares Greg Molyneaux, have filmed “The Mole & Meares Show” since 2008.
The site includes weekly video, where Mole and Meares pick winners for their four games of the week. They then refer viewers to their website, www.moleandmeares.com, where they unveil the rest of their picks, publish their power rankings and host a contest where visitors can pick games and win prizes.
“They wanted to show the transformation of a basement show to a professionally created show,” Meares writes, adding that Showtime’s staff filmed the makeup process, the suiting up and the meetings with a director. Showtime also did all the editing for the show.
When Meares, who also blogs on CBS Sports, contacted me about the segment, which he says is scheduled to air Wednesday, December 22, I told him he could consider me jealous. He indicated that I shouldn’t be, that the opportunity likely arose more from the duos’ proximity to the studios — they’re 20 minutes away.
Doesn’t matter. I’m jealous anyway. Congratulations to Mole & Meares. I hope your segment leads to big things. Best of luck.
The first NFL preseason publication, Athlon Sports Pro Football, hit racks around the country sometime over the weekend.
In the last few years I hadn’t bought Athlon. I thought they had traded the compilation of a lot of important news in exchange for being the first magazine on the racks. But this was Memorial Day weekend and I had some free time on my hands at the cabin of some relatives. So I decided to pick it up. (more…)
Mike Florio has done a nice job building his Web site into a national phenomenon. But he was better when he had to pick and choose the issues on which he weighed in because of time constraints stemming from his legal job (though it rarely seemed like he actually had any law-related work to do). Now it seems as though he feels he has to weigh in on every single little thing that comes up. And much of what he floats is simply ridiculous.
In recent weeks, he has posted his opinion that:
– The Vikings should bench Adrian Peterson because he fumbles too much – did he look up the per carry fumbles of other young, future star running backs like Eric Dickerson, Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton, et al? And when he fumbled at the end of the Chicago game (which by the way was lost at least equally if not more so by an ineptly played special teams performance and a defense that generated no pass rush and gave up 36 points to the Bears) it was his first drop in four games. Furthermore he ran for nearly 1400 yards and 18 touchdowns this season – and was criticized throughout the season for not breaking enough big runs. For those numbers in, potentially, a down season, I’ll take seven fumbles.
– The NFL eliminating supplemental revenue sharing likely wouldn’t affect the league’s competitive balance because it never has before. This simply ignores the fact that there has been a salary cap preventing teams from dramatically outspending their league brethren the way the Yankees outspend every other team in Major League Baseball. Does he seriously think that owners like Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones wouldn’t do the same thing the Yankees do in an uncapped NFL? (more…)
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