Growing the game domestically
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is concerned about growing the game internationally. Next week, the Giants and Dolphins will play in London, marking the first NFL regular season game outside of North America. This week, Commissioner Goodell floated a trial balloon of holding the Super Bowl in London in a few years, and also, the Buffalo Bills announced that they would like to play a home game in nearby Toronto. Back in the summer, Goodell even toyed with the idea of expanding the regular season from 16 games to 17, with each team playing 8 home games, 8 road games at another NFL team's stadium, and then one game in a foreign country. I have no real problems with any of these ideas, although the 17th game seems a little much. Today, however, my problems are not with the popularity of the game in what was once called Byzantium, but with the Byzantine rules of the league's television contracts that are hurting the game domestically.
Currently, NFL games are broadcast on five networks--ESPN has Monday Night Football, NBC has Sunday Night Football, the NFL Network will have some Thursday night games later in the season, and then the bulk of the NFL games are on Sunday afternoons on Fox and CBS. Fox has the Sunday afternoon games in which the road team is in the NFC, and CBS has the games in which the road team is in the AFC. All Sunday afternoon games start at either 1:00 PM Easter or 4:05 PM Eastern if the game is on CBS or 4:15 PM Eastern if the game is on Fox.
Since there are generally 8 or 9 games starting at 1:00 PM Eastern, each CBS or Fox affiliate is given the game that they are supposed to broadcast. This assignment depends upon location, and so the Nashville affiliates get the Tennessee Titans games, and the Charlotte affiliates get the Carolina Panthers games. This is provided that a home game is a sellout. If a home game is not a sellout, then all NFL games at that time are blacked out for that given television market.
My main quibble with this today is with another rule. Due to the variable nature of the length of a game, one game may end early, or indeed as was the case today, the New England Patriots were beating the Miami Dolphins so badly, that CBS switched us in the Columbia area (we always get AFC East games on CBS) to "bonus coverage" of the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens. Once that game was over, they switched us to the Tennessee Titans and the Houston Texans. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Titans fan.
In this game, the Titans were winning 35-22 on the strength of kicker Rob Bironas's record-tying 7 field goals. The Texans however were coming back. Having already scored two fourth quarter touchdowns, shortly after we join the game, they score a third to cut the Titans' lead to 35-29 with only 1:37 remaining. At this point however, we are sent back to the CBS studio because "League rules prevent us from live showing bonus coverage past 4:15 PM Eastern."
However, since this game is so exciting, the CBS studio crew is watching the game. CBS is showing us people watching the game rather than the actual game. When the Texans recover an onside kick, they show us the replay. Then we cut back to the studio to show us people watching the game. Then when Houston scores a touchdown to take the lead, they show us the replay. If this 36-35 lead holds, it would be the third largest comeback in league history. At this point, I call my father, who is watching the game live in Nashville, coverage that was not "bonus." There are however, still 56 seconds left, and the Titans still have all three timeouts.
I continue to see people watching the game followed shortly by replays of every play. The short pass, the two incomplete passes, the 46-yard pass to get into field goal range, the short pass, and then a replay of Houston calling a timeout to ice Bironas. Then we see the replay of Rob Bironas's game winning 29-yard field goal, which was also his NFL record 8th of the game as time expires. And then, just for good measure, they return live to Houston for Bironas's postgame interview.
How on earth is this bonus coverage rule good for the game? Generally, it seems to me that the best thing for the game would be to let people actually see the game, and more specifically, the ends of as many games as possible. On Saturdays, college football games fill the television schedule, and they start at many different times. When the ESPN noon game is over, I can turn to the final minutes of the Lincoln Financial SEC Game of the Week that started at 12:30. After that, I can watch CBS's SEC game that starts at 3:00, and then when it is over, I can catch the second half of the ESPN2 game that started at 5:00 PM. Then I can switch to the end of ABC's game that started at 8:00, and once that is over, to the end of the ESPN game that started at 9:00, and then for good measure to the Hawai`i game on ESPN-U that starts at 12:05 AM if I am up for it. I could probably catch the final 10 minutes of at least 10 games if I wanted to. This helps me to know so much more about the sport, about the Game of college football. The NFL however just wants me to see what it says my favorite team should probably be. Not good for the Game.
Currently, NFL games are broadcast on five networks--ESPN has Monday Night Football, NBC has Sunday Night Football, the NFL Network will have some Thursday night games later in the season, and then the bulk of the NFL games are on Sunday afternoons on Fox and CBS. Fox has the Sunday afternoon games in which the road team is in the NFC, and CBS has the games in which the road team is in the AFC. All Sunday afternoon games start at either 1:00 PM Easter or 4:05 PM Eastern if the game is on CBS or 4:15 PM Eastern if the game is on Fox.
Since there are generally 8 or 9 games starting at 1:00 PM Eastern, each CBS or Fox affiliate is given the game that they are supposed to broadcast. This assignment depends upon location, and so the Nashville affiliates get the Tennessee Titans games, and the Charlotte affiliates get the Carolina Panthers games. This is provided that a home game is a sellout. If a home game is not a sellout, then all NFL games at that time are blacked out for that given television market.
My main quibble with this today is with another rule. Due to the variable nature of the length of a game, one game may end early, or indeed as was the case today, the New England Patriots were beating the Miami Dolphins so badly, that CBS switched us in the Columbia area (we always get AFC East games on CBS) to "bonus coverage" of the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens. Once that game was over, they switched us to the Tennessee Titans and the Houston Texans. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Titans fan.
In this game, the Titans were winning 35-22 on the strength of kicker Rob Bironas's record-tying 7 field goals. The Texans however were coming back. Having already scored two fourth quarter touchdowns, shortly after we join the game, they score a third to cut the Titans' lead to 35-29 with only 1:37 remaining. At this point however, we are sent back to the CBS studio because "League rules prevent us from live showing bonus coverage past 4:15 PM Eastern."
However, since this game is so exciting, the CBS studio crew is watching the game. CBS is showing us people watching the game rather than the actual game. When the Texans recover an onside kick, they show us the replay. Then we cut back to the studio to show us people watching the game. Then when Houston scores a touchdown to take the lead, they show us the replay. If this 36-35 lead holds, it would be the third largest comeback in league history. At this point, I call my father, who is watching the game live in Nashville, coverage that was not "bonus." There are however, still 56 seconds left, and the Titans still have all three timeouts.
I continue to see people watching the game followed shortly by replays of every play. The short pass, the two incomplete passes, the 46-yard pass to get into field goal range, the short pass, and then a replay of Houston calling a timeout to ice Bironas. Then we see the replay of Rob Bironas's game winning 29-yard field goal, which was also his NFL record 8th of the game as time expires. And then, just for good measure, they return live to Houston for Bironas's postgame interview.
How on earth is this bonus coverage rule good for the game? Generally, it seems to me that the best thing for the game would be to let people actually see the game, and more specifically, the ends of as many games as possible. On Saturdays, college football games fill the television schedule, and they start at many different times. When the ESPN noon game is over, I can turn to the final minutes of the Lincoln Financial SEC Game of the Week that started at 12:30. After that, I can watch CBS's SEC game that starts at 3:00, and then when it is over, I can catch the second half of the ESPN2 game that started at 5:00 PM. Then I can switch to the end of ABC's game that started at 8:00, and once that is over, to the end of the ESPN game that started at 9:00, and then for good measure to the Hawai`i game on ESPN-U that starts at 12:05 AM if I am up for it. I could probably catch the final 10 minutes of at least 10 games if I wanted to. This helps me to know so much more about the sport, about the Game of college football. The NFL however just wants me to see what it says my favorite team should probably be. Not good for the Game.
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