Through good economic times and bad NFL keeps plugging along

While fans, media and other observers – even its own players – can occasionally and justifiably rip on the National Football League for being a bit stodgy and anti-fun over some of the rules that have been instituted over the years (see penalty and fine for Wes Welker’s snow angel) there’s no questioning the league’s strength in good economic times or bad.

While the news pages are filled these days with news of job loss, mortgage foreclosures and corporate fraud, the NFL keeps extending and adding corporate sponsors to the tune of seven and eight figure deals.

The Memphis Business Journal Wednesday reported that FedEx would cut its marketing budget by more than 25 percent for 2009, a move the company disclosed on its blog.

Vice President of Marketing Mike Glenn found it necessary to emphasize, however, that FedEx’s cuts would come in “non-contractual” marketing events. Since the company has long-term contracts with the NFL, it won’t be eliminating its presence  at football games.

The league added a new partner Tuesday as well. Mars Direct Inc., a division of Mars Snackfood US, announced a licensing arrangement with the NFL to create officially licensed MY Team M&M’S Brand Chocolate Candies.

According to a press release, the MY Team blends will feature customized team logos and colors for all 32 teams. I’ll be a son-of-a-gun. M&Ms with your favorite team’s logo on them. They can be purchased at mymms.com/nfl, of course.

This isn’t to say the league isn’t finding it harder to make deals – I can only write to what I’ve seen published. But during a time when Commissioner Bud Selig is trying to convince Major League Baseball teams to spend wisely and stories are coming out about English Premier League soccer franchises facing financial struggles due to the international financial collapse, Bloomberg cites Nielsen statistics in writing that the NFL claimed 13 of the 15 most-watched television shows during fall programming and that ESPN’s Monday Night Football accounted for 14 of the 15 most-watched shows on cable.

Yes, the league’s anti-celebration penalties and fines have become borderline absurd. Yes, roughing calls against defenders who hit quarterbacks are going overboard. And yes, the league needs to find solutions to problems with often horrendous officiating that has more and more been determining the outcome of games during the 2008 season.

But those problems aside, make no mistake about it. For the most part this league is ridiculously healthy.