Ratings Down for Super Super Bowl

by | Feb 2, 2009 | Business of Football, Super Bowl

In news that will probably make fans in New York and Boston giddy, and only encourage the folks in Bristol to continue showing every conveivable Yankees-Red Sox matchup (even when more compelling games are on), the ratings for the Super Bowl dropped slightly this year, from a rating of 44.7 last year to 42.1 this year.  Each rating point represents 1,145,000 households.

The rating for the 2007 game was also a 42.1, and in 2006 it was a 42.2.  East coast fans will likely conclude that the drop in ratings was because neither team in the Super Bowl was from New York or Boston (despite the fact that no teams last year were either–the Giants are from New Jersey, and the Patriots are from Foxboro).

There are other plausible explanation, though–there may have been more fans who were unable to take time off from work, thanks to the economy.  And since it sounds like tickets were cheaper, and it was the first time for Arizona (and since Pittsburgh fans are so fanatical), it’s possible that more people made the pilgrimmage to Tampa to try to attend in person.

Or maybe a whole bunch of people were so sickened by the crap that NBC chose to air as its pregame show, that they turned the TV off in disgust and listened online or on radio.

Still, it was a lot of people watching (estimated at about 90 million), but we do wonder if a ratings drop (combined with the economy, and the fact that some companies finally started mocking the prices–see High Life with their 1 second spots) will impact the price for ads next year…lord knows if they drop by about $2,999, 925 or so, ZoneBlitz.com will be first in line for a 30-second spot…

**UPDATE** After further review, the numbers for this year’s Super Bowl were actually higher than last year’s–take THAT, East Coast Media Bias!

Poor officiating mars the Super Bowl

by | Feb 1, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts, Super Bowl

We posted a couple times earlier this season that the officiating in the National Football League has gotten pathetic.

That has been magnified here during the second half of the Super Bowl.
On the first Arizona drive of the second half, Kurt Warner was pressured on third down. The ball came out of his hand but his arm was clearly coming forward. The refs, during a conference, however, decided to call it a fumble instead, requiring Arizona to burn a challenge to get the correct call.

Instant replay can be a fantastic tool for officials, but not if they use it as a crutch – too often, refs are out of position or they question their calls. So they take the cop-out and make the challengeable call, even when there is little doubt to most observers that it’s the wrong call.
Then, later in the third quarter, Darnell Dockett was flagged for roughing the passer no a play in which Ben Roethlisberger had just barely gotten his pass away.

Later on the same drive safety Adrian Wilson was flagged for running over Steelers holder Mitch Berger on a field goal attempt – Wilson was off balance and couldn’t stop and, in the opinion of Zoneblitz, he didn’t hit Berger nearly hard enough to warrant a personal foul call. That was the third personal foul on that drive – two of the three were extremely questionable.

Finally, on a fourth quarter pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Hines Ward, Rod Hood stuck with the receiver and tore the ball out of his arms from behind before Ward could come down with the catch.
On several replays I failed not only to see a hold but also any premature contact that should have resulted in a penalty. But the refs called holding and the Steelers got another first down via penalty.

This is the Super Bowl. These officials are graded during the season and the crew with the best ratings supposedly get to call the big game. If this is the best crew the league has had I rest my case. There has been and there remains a major officiating problem in the league and it is harming the integrity of the game.

NBC Super Bowl Pregame Pathetic

by | Feb 1, 2009 | Super Bowl

We turned on the NBC Pregame show about half an hour ago.  So far, we’ve seen:

 – Interview with Bruce Springsteen
 – Rainn Wilson pimping the Office with Al Roker
 – Four stars from Fast & Furious pimping their movie (if you want to call it that–the girls just stood there while Vin Deisel and Paul Walker attempted to make sense)
 – Andrea Kremer actually interviewed a football player–Troy Polamalu–but it was about his hair
 – Conan O’Brien making a fool of himself with some dumb kicking gags
 – CNBC stock updates (along with gratuitous pimping of NBC selling ads for the Super Bowl at $100,000 per second)
 – And finally, one actual football clip, where Cris Collinsworth was working on the field with a player (didn’t see who).

This is what the Super Bowl pregame show has become–all about the entertainment, nothing about football.  It’s sad, and frankly pathetic–and I can’t believe Bob Costas is as willing as he appears to be to participate.

Add to that the Today Show, which broadcast from the stadium this morning (and had more relevant information, in some ways–at least they covered the Taste of the NFL party), and the non-stop pimping of their interview with Obama–which also makes little sense to me, other than our new president seems to like to be on TV whenever possible, and I’m not sure I’m going to stomach another two and a half hours of this drivel…

**UPDATE** Costas actually did an interesting interview with Roger Goodell–wow, actual talk about football!  Of course, it was only a portion of the interview–the whole interview is on their Web site, along with a bunch of other football related content…