($)9 Billion Problems

Poor NFL. What are they going to do with their $9billion?

The NFL is the most popular sport in the country. It's the king of all sports. So why would the owners voluntarily shut down such a lucrative business?

With the profits increasing each year, the owners want more. Yet, with short careers and a shockingly short life-expectancy (55 years), the players want improved post-football benefits... not to mention more money in general.

An even shorter answer is this - greed. It seems crazy that the owners would voluntarily shut down when they're making money hand-over-fist. The owners are committed to fighting for their share. The players are about to file an anti-trust lawsuit. Whoever loses in court will then appeal. And the cycle could result in a lost season.

It's never a good thing when Sportscenter clips take place in an office and not the playing field.

The NHL faced a similar dilemma in 2004. The owners decided to sacrifice the 04-05 season to make their point. The players lost. The fans lost. But most of all, the league lost. Six years later, the NHL still struggles to find a foothold in the sporting landscape. In perhaps the biggest blow, ESPN stopped broadcasting NHL games. Despite a rousing return to the front page during the winter Olympics, hockey remains slightly more popular than soccer - a far cry from the Gretzky years.

Yet, the NFL owners know football is king. Americans are addicted to fantasy football, the draft, the Sunday tailgates. The owners feel they can cancel an entire season, and the fans will come crawling back, like heroine junkies dying for a fix. And I fear they're right. The league could survive a lost season. There would be a backlash from a certain percentage of fans, but the NFL would soldier on as the #1 sport in America.

But only for a time.

My guess is that the lockout would scar the fans in a way that would affect the league slowly over time. There will be small signs of the decline at first... perhaps the Super Bowl ratings will be slightly lower. Fewer teams will sell out. Yet, the proud NFL would refuse to budge on standard practices. Advertising rates would remain absurdly high, as would ticket prices. Advertisers and fans would slowly walk away. The league would suffer. And, like all kings before them, the NFL would die. Not literally, of course, but it would lose it's crown. Perhaps baseball would take over. Perhaps college football. Perhaps MMA. Perhaps Dancing with the Stars. Perhaps something not even on the air yet.

What the NFL owners fail to realize is that fans today are not lemmings. They enjoy the NFL product for the moment, but they don't want to be taken for granted. If a successful business is put to rest for the sole purpose of more money, the fans will feel manipulated. They'll come back at first because it's routine. But the scar would remain. Look no further than the NBA to see a possible scenario. Fans of the NBA suffered through an almost-lost season in 98-99, and the league slowly morphed from a team-game to a focus on individual stars. This empowered the players to the extent that they now dictate where and when they play. Fan animosity is high, and attendance is down.

Next season (if there is one), Peyton Manning and Tom Brady will be 35 and 34, respectively. They're the face of the league. Will we start to look on those guys as the Magic and Bird of the NFL? The popular players during the league's heyday? Who will take over when they retire? Who will represent the league when they retire? (If the league is smart, it'll be this guy.)

Of course, all this negativity can be avoided. If the league and players settle on how best to split up their $9billion, all will be fine. The fans will get their draft and fantasy football. The players will get their benefits. And the owners will get that 2nd yacht. Yet, the chances of this happening are about as good as the Lions winning the Super Bowl.

Sucker

I'm a sucker. I admit it.

Like most of the other slappies in Detroit, I watched the Lions yesterday. Even after my earnest pleas for fans to give them the proverbial finger, I couldn't follow my own advice.

Yesterday afternoon, I indeed saw the Lions tie their own record - their 24th consecutive road loss. The previous record, set during the Morningweg/Mariucci regime, coupled with the current streak, gives the Lions a two wonderful stretches of football futility. Together, that's 48 road losses - an equivalent of 3 entire NFL seasons. Wow.

Okay, the mockery is over. I do want to maintain some level of objectivity. Despite the team's 1-5 record, they're improved. They're no doubt a better football team. They actually had multiple chances to win that game yesterday. The problem is that - every time Good Fortune smiled on the Lions - they found a way to negate it with a penalty.

• With the Lions driving at the end of the first half, Kevin Smith burst up the middle for ten yards to the NYG 30 yard line. Oops... Stephen Peterman decided to get one more hit in after the play. Personal Foul. 15 yards. Instead of driving for a touchdown, the Lions were lucky to get back into field goal range.
• On their first possession of the 2nd half, the Lions looked great driving down to Giants' territory. On a key 3rd and 3, Stanton hit Burleson for a whopping 28 yard gain! Oops... Gosder Cherilus lined up incorrectly. Illegal formation. On the next play, Stanton fumbled, and the Giants' seized momentum once again. (This call, by the way, was a bit harsh. This is one of those cases that the refs seem to be nitpicking on the Lions, while they let other, more successful teams slide.)
• Now the kicker... on the ensuing possession, the Lions' defense stood tall on a 3rd and goal from the 3. They forced an incomplete pass, and seemingly forced a field goal attempt. Wait, not so fast. Apparently, Cliff Avril lost his cool on the play and was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct. It's impossible to tell actually what happened or what was said, but this is another one of those bizarre - only the Lions - type penalties. The penalty gave the Giants four more attempts from the 1 yard line!

Petty refs or not, the Lions need to find a way to avoid these mistakes. They've shot themselves in the foot for decades now. Will it ever end?

Still reeling

This man doesn't care about you
It's now Friday, and folks are still talking about Calvin's non-catch. It's not the typical, "Screw them!" banter. Rather, it's general disbelief. Both talk show hosts and callers echo the same thought "Yeah, it's been five days, and I still can't wrap my head around it." There's no anger; just confusion. And the disgusting call continues to haunt the Lions organization.

It wasn't simply a missed opportunity for a team desperate for a win (2 wins in the last 33 games). The ruinous call by the referees (and later backed by the arrogant NFL brass) demolished the brittle Lions' good cheer. The disheartening way that game played out - compounded by the loss of Matthew Stafford - sent fans' expectations plummeting. The cry you heard late Sunday afternoon was "Same old Lions."

The result? The team can't even sell out their first home game. This is a fan base that sold out 50 straight games during the Matt Millen regime! These fans love their Lions, almost to a fault. Yet, they're beaten down. By Millen. By Marinelli. By Barry Sanders. By Favre. And by the friggin' NFL and their referees. And this isn't anything new. The referees have been punishing the Lions for years. As a bad team, they never get the benefit of the 50/50 call. This isn't the first time the NFL overruled a Calvin catch. That 0-16 season would not have happened if not for referee intervention. Case in point, the fifth loss of that season - at Minnesota - the referees first took away a great Calvin catch. That's not entirely true. The referees actually determined he made the catch and then fumbled, giving the Vikings the ball late in the 4th quarter and down 10-9. The Lions challenged the ruling on the field. After numerous replays showed Calvin caught the ball and then hit the turf and THEN the ground caused the fumble, the head referee decided there was not ample evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. Thanks. But it gets worse. On the Vikings ensuing game winning drive, another ref awarded the Vikings a 42 (!!!!) yard pass interference penalty where the Lions player (Leigh Bodden) never actually touched the receiver. Think my take on this exhibits a Lions' bias? Perhaps you should see what the Vikings fans said at the time. Or perhaps the national media.

The league has been hating on the Lions for years. And now, the Fords are finally feeling the pinch. And if the Fords are feeling the pinch, the NFL will too. Ford is one of the NFL's biggest sponsors. But the NFL is still the all-powerful deity. If Ford gives them fewer advertising dollars, there's plenty of other automotive companies ready to fill the void (Hello, Kia!) and target that elusive adult male demo.

So, chalk another one up for the establishment.

No Fun League

If you read this blog often, you know I'm no Lions apologist. In fact, I'd say I veer toward the other extreme. If it was up to me, the Lions wouldn't even be in Detroit. They'd have left years ago to become some other city's curse. As it stands, they're still the sad-sack franchise for the beaten-down city of Detroit. And the folks who had the displeasure of watching yesterday's game against the Bears had yet another reason to feel sorry for themselves.

By now, most people have seen Calvin's non-catch against the Bears. In case you'd like to relive the absurdity...

The non-catch was in the waning seconds of the game and, barring a miraculous kickoff return for TD by the Bears, the Calvin catch would've clinched the win. Like so many sporting events this year, the fate of the game was in the hands of the officials. But why did this play even require review? The official present in the above video had a clear view of the play and signaled "Touchdown". Nope. Because of some bizarre NFL rule, the play required the dreaded "Booth Review".

In any other league or sport in the world, Calvin's catch is legit. Yet, in the NFL, it's incomplete. It truly makes no sense. Why would the league have a rule in place that negates a perfectly decent completion? It seems to go against the spirit of the game. The rules of sports (and officials for that matter) were put in place to ensure fair-play and equality. Apparently, the rules have taken over. The spirit of the game means nothing.

If I were a Bears' fan or player, I'd feel a bit sick to my stomach. That's no way to win. It's like USSR's basketball team stealing the Gold from the US in the '72 Olympics. It makes me long for the days of Bobby Jones who called a penalty on himself when nobody else saw it. Alas, those days are long gone. The Bears open the season 1-0 and won't care a lick about how they won.

For shame, NFL.