For those of us who thought we’d never live to see the day, mazel tov! We made it!
There it was, last Sunday on Fox, during the Commanders-Giants game: an advertisement to purchase this season’s Giants tickets!
Heck, the Giants have joined the Jets in immediate ticket-sales neediness, both after decades of waiting lists to be fortunate enough to annually spend a bundle to suffer bad teams, bad games, bad weather, increased TV commercial delays and baited-and-switched kickoff times to milk even more TV bucks.
But Roger “It’s All About Our Fans” Goodell and his “good investments” PSLs — his claim remains, to me, a false financial claim for which he should have been prosecuted — TV-money-dictated kickoff times, and increasingly unpleasant and more costly stadium experiences joined to ensure the inevitable “enough is enough.”
And NFL telecasts and the NFL Network choose the worst-behaved, shirtless, drunken attendees to cameo as the NFL’s most favored and preferred customers.
Besides, with the NFL now increasingly tethered to team and league-partnered gambling, now one can go broke from the comfort of his own home.
To think of the loyalists who would schlep to watch the Giants play in the Yale Bowl, Norm Snead under center, Spider Lockhart at free safety. Even during the cataclysmic gas shortage of 1973, Giants’ fans made it to New Haven then back.
But the Goodell Era has made take-’em-for-granted, take-it-or-leave-it and exploitation of big and/or holiday games hidden behind TV paywalls, increasingly easy to learn from. And civilized, eventually discriminate fans have been taught — forced to rent a hammer with which to hit themselves in their heads — to reject depositing money into the NFL’s no-returns, no-interest-paid bank.
As Goodell’s end zones now remind us, “It Takes All of Us.” At least until the NFL runs low on suckers.
Was gonna skip game, but Romo’s calling — said no one
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
As we’ve entered Week 3, who will watch Chargers-Steelers on CBS because Tony Romo, at $180 million, is the analyst? And who will watch Ravens-Cowboys on Fox because Tom Brady, for $375 million, is assigned to the game?
How do we assess the 2024 MLB season? With this: Lousy baseball played by teams unprepared and/or managed to play anything better than lousy baseball.
But aside from games disappearing for minimized audiences to watch lousy baseball played on added-pay streaming channels, credit Rob Manfred for proceeding with those hideous, tradition-abandoning, street-cred “City Connect” Nike uniforms.
As reader Joe Kane noted last week, “Those beautiful red and white pinstripe Phillies uniforms were replaced” by an ugly, mostly black ensemble.
It was under Manfred that MLB umps wore FTX endorsements patches, a “don’t ask questions” deal made with a fraud-based crypto currency operation that lost an estimated $8 billion of investors’ money.
Greg Marotta is a sharp, gutsy urban-savvy sports guy, raised in Paterson, N.J. He’s a former sports marketing exec who dealt with lots of shady dudes. His tales of dealing with Jerry Jones are perversely hilarious.
And he’d make a great local sports radio co-host, as opposed to the dreck we’ve for years been presented.
Marotta has a screenplay, docu-drama or something or other, ready to go. The treatment I read hollers “green light.” Marotta: “It’s a ‘Jerry Maguire’ meets ‘The Sopranos’ with a dash of ‘Mad Men’ and ‘The Gambler’ mixed in. And it’s mostly true.”
Any manager or agent willing to give it a look should contact me. I’ll even waive my usual finders’ fee of zero.
Guess it didn’t much matter to Jim Nantz and Romo that the Bengals on Sunday went to 0-2 on a one-point loss to the Chiefs — a loss in large part due to Cincinnati WR Ja’Marr Chase’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
But with an LSU education and three-plus years in the NFL, perhaps Chase could be excused for “immaturity.”
Gene Steratore, CBS’ ex-NFL ref, gave it the truth: He said the official allowed Chase’s initial meltdown for the lack of a personal foul call for a hip-drop tackle, but when the receiver persisted, he had no option but to toss a flag.
By the way, for a savings of millions and some likely better telecasts, I’d give Steratore a shot at being an all-game analyst.
As heard during Thursday night’s Patriots-Jets, Al Michaels, at 79, remains an adherent to classical, nuts-and-bolts play-by-play. Down and distance, often followed, when most useful, by score and time left on the clock.
Though “they move the chains” has become the faux-hip, one-first-down-fits-all expression, it’s both vague and often self-evident.
The A&E network last week included an advertisement for addicts to seek help at a medical center, followed by an ad for Bet Rivers sports gambling.
Follow which Eli Manning money advice?
Gotta cackle during Giants’ games radio ads with Eli Manning endorsing a Jersey bank. You think these bankers would advise clients to spend their money gambling on sports as Manning and family do in commercials?
The Mets’ home finale — Fan Appreciation Day — was switched by MLB to Sunday night for ESPN money: Free cup of black coffee to the first 10,000 kids, 12 and under!
As reader Bill Sullivan writes, we get it: NBC hired “serious broadcast journalist” Maria Taylor from ESPN for its NFL studio shows and a reported $5 million per so we can see what — or how little — she’s wearing. Network football knowledge begins with full form shots of women in micro miniskirts.
MLB would be so much easier to enjoy if all players conducted themselves as Mets pitcher Sean Manaea. He gives thoughtful answers to even thoughtless questions, he’s polite, respectful, radiates class, and he’s just plain good for what ails us.
A Rochester youth league football game ended last week when one of the team’s coaches was hit by one of those darned “stray bullets.” Many of the traumatized kids on the mostly black team no longer want to play. But Roger Goodell keeps hiring N-word-spewing, gun-worshiping rappers to rep the NFL during Super Bowl halftime.
StatCast is close to unveiling its latest: Agreement probability percentages of TV’s ex-game officials with replay challenges after the live call on the field.
How you enjoying the NFL’s new “dynamic kickoffs”? Typical new-age sports rule change: Ready! Fire! Aim! That pass interference replay rule lasted one season, as it predictably replaced obvious bad calls and bad non-calls with microscopic maybes and challenges made out of what-the-heck desperation.
Even last weekend’s Solheim Cup coverage on NBC sacrificed replays of good and better shots to replay worthless scenes of first-pumping among the all female U.S. vs Europe golfers. But TV can’t help itself.
Here today, gone tomorrow: Fox’s early game into this region is Giants-Brown, Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma, vs. Chargers-Steelers on CBS with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo. Late afternoon game is Ravens-Cowboys on Fox, with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady.
Still nothing from Temple University on its promised investigation into three highly suspicious men’s basketball results as per the points spread. That promise was issued in early March. Should’ve bet the over.
