NFL Playoffs - Is It All A Money-Making Scheme?
January 18, 2008 | 8:52 pm | by Chris Akin |Rate It:
I love professional football. The NFL is a lifestyle for me, as much as working, sleeping and eating are. From the first game of the season through the last second of the Super Bowl, it consumes me. I watch no less than 3 games a week, and some weeks even more. I play fantasy football as well, and always have 3 or 4 teams which I’m a part of. To say that I’m a junkie would be a major understatement.
Being a lifer though, I see a LOT of suspicious things about the final four this year. More than any other year, the final four teams just HAPPEN to feature the players that mean the absolute most financially to the league. After watching some of the play this year, I frankly question the validity of what we are being dealt as “the best of the best” for the year.
Let’s look at things for a minute:
San Diego Chargers. Is there any player in the league that gets more attention than LaDanian Tomlinson? He’s a great player, without question. However, he is featured everywhere - in every advertisement, every magazine, and every blog that talks about the NFL. On defense, Shawn Merriman and his little shocker dance is pretty prominently featured in every promo CBS shows. And since he was drafted, the league has tried to make a star out of quarterback Phillip Rivers. It was interesting how the Chargers happened to beat the Colts as well. A rookie-like fumble by Marvin Harrison that leads to a score? Are you kidding me? But then again, the league got their money’s worth out of the Colts last year. Peyton Manning has proven to be an uncompelling superstar who’s great play does not translate to advertising dollars. And now, conveniently, he’s home.
His brother though, remains. Even more than Phillip Rivers, the league has begged Eli Manning to become a star. They prop this guy up based solely on his brother’s skills and the insulting label the NFL have put on the Mannings. “The First Family Of Football”? Give me a break. I’ve watched Eli and the Giants week after week, since Fox somehow assumes that we all want to watch them each and every week on the local broadcast. Needless to say, he’s average at best. But somehow, he’s got it all working right now. He’s praised for a loss against the Patriots, which all by itself tells you just how desperate the league is to see him rise up. It’s sickening.
And let’s look at the Patriots, since we are talking about them. Wes Welker was a damn good pickup for them. That being said though, can someone please explain to me exactly how a team that is limited by the same salary cap as 30 other teams can be THAT much better than everyone else? How can this team afford one of the top 5 quarterbacks ever, one of the top 10 best receivers of all time, several sure-fire hall of famers on defense, the best coach since Vince Lombardi, and nearly every supporting piece playing a near perfect role? It just doesn’t happen like that. But the Patriots are magically given every break. Hell, they lost a draft pick for cheating in the first game, which will turn out to be a worse pick than they will actually get to make since they also get the 49ers pick. The league coddles this team, and wants them to win.
Then, finally, there’s the Packers. Last year, every announcer and every pre-game show pondered on if Bret Favre should retire. They all wanted to let everyone know that he was through. But now, he’s miraculously back after years of shit teams that he’s been on. He’s the story of the year next to the Patriots, and now it’s likely he’ll be taking it all the way to the Super Bowl to prove the point.
My bottom line here is that no matter who makes the Super Bowl this year, the NFL wins a major marketing war. If it’s the Patriots that win, it’s the culmination of destiny and the crowning achievement in the career of Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Bill Belichek. Green Bay winning would be the best win for the NFL, as it would enable them to solidify the legend status for Bret Favre that they always wanted to see as he walked away from the game. If it’s the Giants, it just solidifies the supremacy and the royalty of the Manning family. Last but not least, a Chargers win establishes the future. It launches Tomlinson as one of the greatest backs of all time, and it makes Rivers into the star the league has wanted him to be from the start.
No matter how it ends up, it means a lot of merchandise sold by the NFL. That’s exactly what they want!
No comments yet.