The Divide Between Analysis and Understanding

As America gets reacquainted with the NFL, there are plenty of people having live fantasy drafts over a few beers, rummaging stores for grills in order to tailgate and praying that their preachers speed up Sunday services for the next five months.

We already know what has made the NFL king of American entertainment over the last decade-plus; a few seasons of parity, a more passer-friendly style of play (though not exactly better) and the heavy dependence on the game for live viewing by partner TV networks. The latter, which provides the league revenue streams and advertising beyond comprehension, has been the bread and butter for the NFL since the 1960s under the stewardship of the late commissioner, Pete Rozelle.

With talk about the league pitching an additional eight-game Thursday night package to networks and some scheduling additions made by current league partners, there’s more to consume for the pigskin fan than ever before. 

However, one grossly overlooked aspect of this larger landscape for the NFL is that whether they care to admit so or not, there are still millions of fans that are not as savvy about every nuance of the game of football. [Honestly, the same goes for us media folks.]

Think of how many times Monday Night Football color commentators Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden give the breakdown of a play and the terminology they use will go over your head. Even for those who know that there are multiple names and variations of the same football plays, it’s not easy to keep up with what ‘Jaws’, ‘Chucky’ or any commentator that played or coached will spit out.

With the bandwidth for programming that networks like ESPN and even the league’s own network possess, there’s plenty of room for a show that can actually explain what in the hell these commentators and analysts are talking about. Who needs another hour of highlight reels or fantasy football uber-analysis when there can be a program or two that will demonstrate what a dig route is or why there’s a need to have different personnel for defensive schemes.



Courtesy of Fort Hayes State Univ.



For those who have known and loved football for years, a show like this can be a way of refining, if not outright testing, your knowledge of the game. Sure, you might have a Master’s in Madden Football and you probably like to debate at the water cooler, but there’s a good chance that you may have thought the Wildcat formation was invented four years ago (single-wing, anyone?). 

Fans who have been introduced to the game in recent years would get a better sense of what makes the superstars so respected and popular. Many came on board because they kept hearing about Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and numerous fantasy football references throughout pop culture. Yet, save for those hackneyed company lines about their greatness – they’re winners, what would their teams be like without them, etc. – there is a lack of understanding what it took for those players to become future first-ballot Hall of Famers. Why? Because explaining the craft is too long for advertising copy.

That guy looks MAD familiar!

Last year while live tweeting a Monday Night Football broadcast, I suggested that the league’s broadcasting partners should actually try teaching the game a bit. I received a few replies, stating that it wouldn’t be a good idea because it’s not the responsibility of said partners – ESPN, FOX, CBS and NBC – to explain anything, at least during the game.

Yet, this isn’t about the guys in the booth explaining each intricate detail as if this is “Football for Dummies”. While it’s not impossible, it would ignore the primary purpose to their jobs; to speak on the game as it happens to a rabid audience.

However, when you look through ESPNews’ programming slate and see nothing but “Highlight Express” or wonder if the over-the-air networks are really serving us with those ginormous pregame shows, it’s not unfathomable to see that there’s room to take a step back and educate people on the game with more than telestrators and corporate-sponsored studio ‘fields’.

The first day that we are 'Back to Football', we can use something new, can't we?

Maybe this program is a once-a-week in-season affair a la Showtime’s (formerly HBO's) Inside the NFL or those weekly fantasy sports shows on your local sports network. Throughout the season, the hosts – experienced television former NFL players and coaches – can use game and/or practice footage combined with live demonstrations from a local semi-pro or high school team to illustrate their points. How cool would it be to see the contrast between how an offensive line works for a pocket passer and a mobile quarterback? The hair-splitting differences between the brilliance of running backs Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson? The real reasons why some teams play a 3-4 defense and a 4-3?

It may sound like one of those instructional tapes that you might buy for middle school-aged kids playing Pop Warner football. Yet, every season, people ask this Scribe how can they best learn the game in order to keep up with television analysis that continually goes over their heads. If this kind of program is crafted properly, it can be more than ‘suggested reading’ from the syllabus. It can be a great hors d'oeuvre before the football feast us pigskin gluttons scarf down every weekend.

Say What?!?!: In writing this post, an old one came to mind. Though younger generations have only come to know John Madden as the guy whose name graces the popular video game, he was once upon a time a great coach and the forefather to the sport’s color commentary. Whether some like it or not, with his retirement from the booth after the 2008 season, his approach to explaining the game to fans (though seemingly ineffective as the years went on) is sorely lacking these days.

Over/Under

For those who have paid attention to this little spot on the internet or have followed some passionate sports ramblings and discussions over the years, you know that the last thing anyone can ever accuse this Scribe of is being a homer. Not only is this a result of rooting interests outside of the New York area, but of a firm belief that a sport is bigger than one team, one player or one game. Years of fandom and media experience has shown me the light as I’ve learned to appreciate sports from a vast landscape beyond the Boroughs or even Boston and Philadelphia, where collegiate and family ties are everlasting.

Since Game 1 of the World Series begins in a few hours, I wanted to chime in briefly on the coverage here in New York. While there is a good bit of solid analysis, even if it’s regurgitated, the most resoundingly absurd, abhorrently awful and maddeningly lazy media efforts are below.

Beyond homerism and fans defending the crowns of both leagues, there’s an unfortunate tendancy of some in sports media to pander to the lowest common denominator. These are prime examples (along with this phenomenally fourth-rate article about Philadelphia being a "second-rate city") as one can allude to their own conclusions about them (painting players as sissies is old, tired and in this case, borderline homophobic for no reason).

If this is to rile up the masses, all it truly does is make them seem like buffoons. The intensity that the words “World Series” should be enough for any fan base as it is the pinnacle of Major League Baseball. The fact that these two historic franchises – please Yankee Universe, stop selling the Philly Phanatics short – are playing in it brings a different sort of energy to it differs from recent championship tilts. Yet, to continue in this vein while shortsighting some of the Yankees fans that DO enjoy objective analysis and stories about the opponents is beyond stupid and in it's own unfortunate way, beyond baseball.

This is not to say that the Philadelphia media hasn’t done any wrongs in relation to the Bronx Bombers and my original home borough, but attention would have been drawn for those that were committed. These headlines and so-called stories are reasons why despite the diversity of fan allegiances, interests and awareness, the area’s reputation of being the ‘most knowledgeable’ of sports towns is saddled with being equally obnoxious.

Now, onward to some fun.

Because national broadcasts are relatively predictable when it comes to covering Philadelphia and New York-based teams, I figured that this would be a good time for some over/unders throughout the first few games of the Amtrak Series.

Axed?

While reading a few TV blogs, media trade magazines and press releases, I find myself amazed that no matter what baseball tries to do in order to enhance the viewing and attending experience around the country, it's a sport that can never, ever, ever, ever win the battle against poor perceptions because of dwindling ratings.

So what is FOX going to do, cancel the World Series like they did to "Do Not Disturb"? As they're going to put "Til Death" out to pasture?

Oh, I can hear the conversation right now... of course, maybe "The Commish" (actually, not that one) might stumble through a few words in frustration:

Just arriving to the Major League Baseball headquarters in New York after a private flight from St. Petersburg, Bud Selig's executive assistant patches a call from whoever the heck runs the show in FOX's Los Angeles office.

FOX: Hey, Bud. Can we have a talk?

Bud Selig: (sips on his can of Diet Coke, recommended by Jeff Van Gundy) About what?

FOX: Well, it's about the World Series.

Selig: Great baseball, ain't it? James Shields was electric and those fans are just great...

FOX: Bud, (long sigh)... we're not going to renew the Series.

Selig: (spills Diet Coke onto his lap) WHAT?!?!

FOX: I'm sorry, Bud, but they're only pulling a 8.7/14 share.

Selig: (still spilling Diet Coke onto his lap) You're gonna do WHAT?!?!

FOX: We are not going to air the remainder of the Series.

Selig: Wait, wait, wait... you're going to... cancel the WORLD SERIES... our championship... one of your bigger money makers... the WORLD SERIES, which is better than, what?... damn near everything else on your programming schedule?

FOX: You're just not the NFL, Bud.

Selig: No one is! That's apples and oranges, you idiot! We're baseball. We have such a tremendous history from Babe Ruth to...

FOX: And we appreciate all you guys have done for us, believe me. Bud, we're just not getting the numbers.

Selig: You're going to cancel the World Series. Do you realize what you just said?

FOX: Bud, please don't make it harder than it already is. It's nothing personal.

Selig: Well, it's something stupid.

FOX: Now, listen here...

Selig: No, you listen! (Clutches his Hank Aaron-autographed bat) You want us to call A-Rod and Derek and Big Papi and Manny, buy some Rays and Phillies jerseys, fly to Philly tomorrow and play in Game 3?

FOX: Can you do that?

Selig: No, I won't do... are you f***in' serious?

FOX: We'll it's hard to make sexy out of Philly and Tampa.

Selig: Sexy? What, the two best teams in their respective leagues all season long meeting in the World Series isn't sex-ay enough for you? Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, I'll give Scott Boras a call then. Tell him to make some asinine commercial announcing that Andruw Jones is available for a $500 million contract and air it during Game 4. Or... ooh, ooh, how about I call Eva Longoria-Parker and ask her to sit in the stands with a Rays cap and jersey. Maybe Joe Buck can have America play "Guess the Longoria" and win a free taco.

FOX: (Matter of factly) Actually, we've talked to Eva before we called you and we're flying her out of San Antonio or wherever the heck she is right now.

Selig: Wait, I thought you were cancelling us all of the sudden. Just to think that we were going to contract those guys to get contracted ourselves. Now, you're going to rewrite the script?

FOX: Well, we wanted to talk about this last night, but with those games ending so late, we had to get to work.

Selig: You're in Los Angeles! The game ended at 9:06 over there and you could still get another tan or whatever you do at night over there. I have enough people here in the East bitching about the time games end and you're lying about how late the game ended? Come on.

FOX: Dammit, Bud! You don't seem to get it, do you? If we don't get ratings, we don't get advertisers and if we don't get advertisers...

Selig: Hey, I brought you Buck, the Yankees, the Red Sox and Budweiser! (Channeling his inner Tony Montana) Who put this thing togetha', mang?

FOX: You! The same fool that brought us... St. Louis and Detroit!

Selig: Oh my God, wait a minute... I have an even better idea than that Eva crap... I've seen the light... and... I see it... yes!... yes!... YES!... I'll call Barry. I'll say, "Hey, Bar, sorry about the collusion thing, but listen, can you and Ryan Howard have a Home Run Derby after the third inning and the winner gets to..."

FOX: (interrupts excitedly) Barry... as in Barack?

Selig: (Hangs up... and webbies himself to his private plane bound for the home office in Milwaukee)

Staggering

New poll: this one’s focuses on the first über-hyped game of the college football season, but it’ll be up until next Thursday.

Meanwhile, we’re just in Week One of the NFL season and there’s already significant Super Bowl news.

NBC will take its turn on the broadcasting wheel this year for the NFL’s championship game in Tampa, Florida. Earlier today, the Peacock proudly announced that not only have they already sold 80% of their advertising inventory for the game, but they have “a dozen or so advertisers” who purchased 30-second spots for $3 million.

Three. Million. Dollars.

$100,000 per second.

That’s about a month’s rent in Beacon Hill or Daly City, right?

In all seriousness, it’s an absolutely staggering figure that hopefully receives its own in-depth analysis within the advertising and marketing trade media. The asking price has grown each year for a milieu of reasons, yet there is no denying how $3 million became the latest threshold.

Last year, the writer’s strike put broadcast networks at a standstill. Reruns and reality television were not desired avenues for companies to promote their goods and services. Though viewers gravitated towards cable programming in droves, those paid channels do not command the audiences that broadcast networks can offer.

Just as real estate in your nearby up-and-coming neighborhood, there were few prime spots in a weakened economy. Those few bastions of advertising potential turned out to be live sports. Live sports are considered DVR-proof as viewers are less likely to fast-forward through ads or record games for later viewing. In the States, the television events with the biggest audiences are typically sporting events; notably baseball and basketball games featuring the highest-profiled teams, players and/or markets and NFL games because of a short season with dedicated days for action.

The Super Bowl XLII broadcaster, FOX, knew that any event with a huge national audience had to make up for the lack of scripted fare. The network decided to increase the price of a 30-second ad to upwards of $2.7 million, a 15% increase from the year before.

If you know a competitor was able to pry $2.7 million from a vendor for essentially the same service, wouldn’t you consider boosting the price?

Though this is less about the pigskin – after all, no one has even played two regular season games in September yet – you wonder if the reason behind NBC’s eagerness to boast about its Super Bowl buys has to do with their success in broadcasting the Beijing Olympics a couple of weeks ago.