The NFL Thread 2011: New York Giants Win Super Bowl XLVI

[themanwithnoname]

RolStoppable said:

themanwithnoname said:

superchunk said:

I had zero concerns on how the Bears were going to handle Minn. My only complaint was that certain first string players were still on the field in the 4th qtr.

Now, I'm looking at the schedule to see how many games it will take for Bears to take 2nd place in the division.

However, I really wish these London games were trashed. Damn team has to fly around the world instead of sit home and prepare.

Yeah, and fans and teams are essentially cheated out of a home game. Complete utter waste of time played in front of people who don't give a toss about either of the teams, nevermind the game. And don't even get me started on Bills games in Toronto.

The NFL is approaching this from the wrong angle. I agree that hosting a couple of games outside of the USA is a waste.

The NFL wants to make American football more popular in the world, but that can't be done by selling it as a premium sport right away. They have to earn the right to charge good money first, otherwise it's never going to work. Who in their right mind would pay to watch a sport they have small or no interest in? Nobody. That right there is the problem that the NFL apparently is unable to grasp.

The NFL needs to get their games on free-TV outside of America (live), even if it's just one or two specific ones per week. This way people would be willing to give American football a chance. I know from personal experience, because that's how I got into it. That was about 15 years ago, but within a couple of years they pulled the games from free-TV. Or rather they charged too much for the broadcasting rights (talking Central Europe here). How is the NFL supposed to make new fans, if they cut off the pipeline that does just that?

To top it off, those NFL swines dared too charge so much for the broadcasting rights at one point that even pay-TV skipped an entire season. That was the biggest crap ever, because American football had been one of the reasons why I even subscribed to pay-TV in the first place. And once the NFL returned, it would only do so with a fee on top of the normal fee for pay-TV. At that point it just wasn't worth it anymore, so I turned my back on the NFL. The only reason why I watch it again is because the internet offers some possibilities nowadays. Low quality streams might not be great, but they are free.

Somehow that doesn't surprise me at all. Ever since Goodell became commissioner, we've seen a whole bunch of decisions made solely for gaining more money, not including these London games. They created the NFL Network a few years ago, which only exists to show 5 or 6 Thursday night games late in the year. Don't have it? Well, tough luck then. Outside of those games, the network is worthless, I mean who really wants to watch NFL combine workouts in the off season? Yet I'm supposed to sign up for a channel that I know I won't use but a handful of times over the course of the year and completely ignore it for 9 months, or apparently that's what Goodell thinks at any rate.