"the best run league in sports"

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: I don't understand why it's okay to have stupid wild card games on Saturday and not the Super Bowl. The SB on Saturday night makes sense. The networks say that viewership is lower on Fridays and Saturdays than on Sundays but that wouldn't be the case for a Super Bowl. they do Monday Night football all year long, and two games to start the season, why not do that for the first week of playoffs? Seems to fit better to me.

They don't play a Monday night game the last week of the season.

The NFL wouldn't have a team play on Monday and then have them play a playoff game the following Saturday, so that would lock the winner of the Monday game into Sunday.

Let's say the Green Bay-Minnesota game is played on Monday. If Minnesota wins they play Atlanta, and the WAS-SEA winner plays SF. If GB wins, they play SF, and the WAS-SEA winner plays ATL. They could not schedule the next games until after the Monday night game. I understand it's just one day more, but there are a lot of implications (not the least of which is one less day to get point spreads set and gambling underway).

[Frayed Knot]

it's not a drawback to the league, they're more than happy to manipulate the game times. They don't care about the fans (in the stands )

You're right in that they don't care about the paying fans in the stands (even though the talking heads will constantly site the GB fans specifically for their heartiness, loyalty, and publicly owned team) but how again does that non-caring attitude NOT clash with the whole "Best run league" label?

I don't understand why it's okay to have stupid wild card games on Saturday and not the Super Bowl. The SB on Saturday night makes sense. The networks say that viewership is lower on Fridays and Saturdays than on Sundays but that wouldn't be the case for a Super Bowl.

To a certain extent the viewership would be lower: more people make plans for Saturdays; more people work on that day compared to on Sunday; weekend trips wouldn't be over, etc.; which again comes back to the slave to TV part. When your legacy is built on having great TV ratings, slightly below great isn't considered good enough.

[Frayed Knot]

The major strength of the NFL is its TV deal but the drawback is that you become beholden to that monster. Absolutely. The networks had a problem in that the 1 PM games were going past 4 PM which meant that some of the markets that got the 4 PM games had to miss the end of the 1 PM games. The solution was to start many of the 4 PM games at 4:25. It wasn't to think of ways to shorten these bloated games which would have made the fans happy (e.g. fewer commercial breaks, less time for half-time) but to elongate the broadcast day.

Not just elongated games, but the playoffs games used to be slotted in the 1PM & 4PM EST timeslots. The whole window has shifted 3+ hours later for TV in addition to blocking out 3-1/2 hrs per game rather than the previous 3-even.
On top of that they will hold up the kickoff of the later game if the earlier one hasn't finished yet; potentially more good news for the actual paying customers in GB.

[Frayed Knot]

Just a thought about kickball in wake of the success and turn-around seasons of top draft picks Robert Griffin & Andrew Luck -- Yeah, even though both of them lost their very first playoff chance this weekend, they were still in large part responsible for turning teams that won [u:10n4gusj]a combined 6 games[/u:10n4gusj] last season to 20 this year.
My question is that since the MWWF (mediots who worship football) were so unanimously in favor of a rookie salary cap based on the idea that not all of them reach their (supposed) potential, we should be hearing from them any minute now about how these two are underpaid and should be given new deals now that they clearly met and surpassed expectations.

Guess I shouldn't hold my breath on that one, huh?






btw, I love the fact that Seattle QB Russell Wilson (another rookie earning far beyond whatever his rigged contract calls for) is succeeding despite being 5' 11". The poobahs who run & comment on that sport have been adamant about the "fact" that the position can't be played properly by anyone under at least 6' 3". What closed-minded thinking that is!

Edited January 6, 2013 by Guest

[MFS62]

I liked the U-turn the announcers made about the Redskin- Seahawks game. Leading up to the game, all we heard about was how hot Washington was (winning their last 7 or something like that).
I caught the end of the game, and one of the talking heads told us "The Seahawks have been hot lately".

Feh.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

MFS62 wrote: I liked the U-turn the announcers made about the Redskin- Seahawks game. Leading up to the game, all we heard about was how hot Washington was (winning their last 7 or something like that). I caught the end of the game, and one of the talking heads told us "The Seahawks have been hot lately". Feh. Later

The Seahawks DID win 7 of their last 8 (including shellackings of playoff-bound Minnesota and San Francisco), and the Redskins talk might have just been the people you happened to hear-- the 'Hawks were Vegas 3-point road favorites coming into the game.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

I'm glad MLB doesn't do any of these things, like scheduling virtually every Yankee playoff game during prime time, or colluding on free agent salaries, or starting WS games at 8:40 PM Eastern and extending commercial breaks so they finish at midnight if you're lucky, or rigging salary structures such that even if D'Arnaud were fully ready to start the season at Citi Field he's going to start in Las Vegas to delay his free-agent clock (or arbitration clock, or whatever) a year, or playing games in unbearable weather in order to get them over with and get the next round started. I'd hate to think that baseball would do anything like that.

I liked the U-turn the announcers made about the Redskin- Seahawks game. Leading up to the game, all we heard about was how hot Washington was (winning their last 7 or something like that). I caught the end of the game, and one of the talking heads told us "The Seahawks have been hot lately".

ESPN - 11 of 14 predictors had Seattle. Both Grantland writers had Seattle. I don't listen to sports talk radio, but everything I read this week noted that Seattle was on fire and as good a pick as any to get to the Super Bowl from the NFC. Washington was hot - they had won seven in a row - would you have preferred that no one mention that?

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: Just a thought about kickball in wake of the success and turn-around seasons of top draft picks Robert Griffin & Andrew Luck -- Yeah, even though both of them lost their very first playoff chance this weekend, they were still in large part responsible for turning teams that won a combined 6 games last season to 20 this year. My question is that since the MWWF (mediots who worship football) were so unanimously in favor of a rookie salary cap based on the idea that not all of them reach their (supposed) potential, we should be hearing from them any minute now about how these two are underpaid and should be given new deals now that they clearly met and surpassed expectations.

And now Griffin's career is at risk.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Oh, and MLB is about to enter year 43 of the DH. Sometimes. It depends on where you are playing. For several recent years teams have not all played the same number of interleague games (some 15, some 18), so teams competing for the same playoff spot have played unequal numbers of games under real baseball and AL baseball rules. The abomination of the DH, and it's application under the horror of interleague play are equivalent to any five fiascoes in any other league.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: MFS62 wrote: I liked the U-turn the announcers made about the Redskin- Seahawks game. Leading up to the game, all we heard about was how hot Washington was (winning their last 7 or something like that). I caught the end of the game, and one of the talking heads told us "The Seahawks have been hot lately". Feh. Later The Seahawks DID win 7 of their last 8 (including shellackings of playoff-bound Minnesota and San Francisco), and the Redskins talk might have just been the people you happened to hear-- the 'Hawks were Vegas 3-point road favorites coming into the game.

I'd still like to know what the heck the Seahawks are doing in the NFC. They're the Brewers of the football for me.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: MFS62 wrote: I liked the U-turn the announcers made about the Redskin- Seahawks game. Leading up to the game, all we heard about was how hot Washington was (winning their last 7 or something like that). I caught the end of the game, and one of the talking heads told us "The Seahawks have been hot lately". Feh. Later The Seahawks DID win 7 of their last 8 (including shellackings of playoff-bound Minnesota and San Francisco), and the Redskins talk might have just been the people you happened to hear-- the 'Hawks were Vegas 3-point road favorites coming into the game. I'd still like to know what the heck the Seahawks are doing in the NFC. They're the Brewers of the football for me.

We're months away from the Brewers being an NL team for longer in my life than an AL team. I think you mean the Astros of football. (that one probably hasn't even registered in your/our brains yet)

[TransMonk]

Edgy MD wrote: And now Griffin's career is at risk.

I'm a Skins fan and would have preferred to see Kirk Cousins in the second half. It's a tough call and I can only hope there is no ligament damage.

I know the situations are not exactly the same, but the Washington fan base sure has had the "he's the future of the franchise/we're in the playoffs/shut him down/don't shut him down" roller coaster with Strasburg/Griffin over the past 6 months.

[Edgy MD]

I'm more concerned with his rights, and with the rookie salary cap and the difficulty in securing a guarantee in a contract, there's a real possibility that Griffin just got incredibly screwed.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm glad MLB doesn't do any of these things, like scheduling virtually every Yankee playoff game during prime time, or colluding on free agent salaries, or starting WS games at 8:40 PM Eastern and extending commercial breaks so they finish at midnight if you're lucky, or rigging salary structures such that even if D'Arnaud were fully ready to start the season at Citi Field he's going to start in Las Vegas to delay his free-agent clock (or arbitration clock, or whatever) a year, or playing games in unbearable weather in order to get them over with and get the next round started. I'd hate to think that baseball would do anything like that.

Yes, baseball does all of that - or, as in cases like collusion, has done some of it in the past.
The difference here is, and the reason the thread was started, is that while baseball regularly gets cited for these things by the sports media, the NFL gets a total pass on all of it and more from a press corps which often seems more interested in acting like a pr firm. In addition to the things cited here, the NFL never had a steroid problem, they never had a period when black players were banned, never used replacement players or counted the games with those scabs the same as the same-season games with regular players, etc.

[Edgy MD]

Looks like Griff was able to get a big chunk of his salary locked into his signing bonus.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy MD wrote: Looks like Griff was able to get a big chunk of his salary locked into his signing bonus.

That's basically the only way most NFL signees get any money locked in, what with the nonguaranteed contracts.

/Thumbs up to the late Gene Upshaw

[bmfc1]

How about the field conditions yesterday at Snyder Stadium? For all it's faults, MLB wouldn't permit field conditions like that for a playoff game. The Seahawks lost a player for the remainder of the playoffs because of the condition of the field.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Looks like Griff was able to get a big chunk of his salary locked into his signing bonus.

Sure, but the overall size of the contract he was able to get was artificially capped so, even if the guaranteed pct is fairly large, the total package is about half of what a player of his draft status would have received just a few years earlier.
But even more important is that he's locked into that deal for, what?, three years?, four? five? and then a year or two beyond that because his team will simply "franchise" him to keep him from negotiating a true open market deal until sometime around the end of the decade ... assuming he lasts that long.

[Ceetar]

bmfc1 wrote: How about the field conditions yesterday at Snyder Stadium? For all it's faults, MLB wouldn't permit field conditions like that for a playoff game. The Seahawks lost a player for the remainder of the playoffs because of the condition of the field.

no no, baseball players are wusses and cancel games at the first raindrops. Football players are MEN that laugh at things like weather and messy fields.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Looks like Griff was able to get a big chunk of his salary locked into his signing bonus. Sure, but the overall size of the contract he was able to get was artificially capped so, even if the guaranteed pct is fairly large, the total package is about half of what a player of his draft status would have received just a few years earlier. But even more important is that he's locked into that deal for, what?, three years?, four? five? and then a year or two beyond that because his team will simply "franchise" him to keep him from negotiating a true open market deal until sometime around the end of the decade ... assuming he lasts that long.

Yeah, pretty screwed.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Four years, $21.12M, fully guaranteed.

[Ceetar]

Swan Swan H wrote: Four years, $21.12M, fully guaranteed.

for doing absolutely nothing. I weep for him, truly.

[Edgy MD]

Your sarcasm suggests you miss the point.

[Frayed Knot]

So how long is the league prepared to hold up the start of the 2nd game while the first one heads into its 4th hour?

At least it's only San Francisco where it's not going to be ice cold for the fans, but that's merely a fortunate happenstance. It could just as easily be a cold weather site and they're already 20+ minutes past the scheduled kick-off time.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Both games are on now.

[Frayed Knot]

Yup, I think they kicked it off about a minute after I posted.
I think they actually have a specific time (20 minutes?) that they will delay a game in order to try and avoid the dreaded TV overlap, but if the early game is still dragging on past that point then they'll go ahead regardless.

First game was long as hell even before they reached OT (and then a 2nd OT) and was sloppy all over the place to boot, but when it wasn't being delayed for penalties, replays, time-outs, and ref conferences, it had its moments.

[ashie62]

Two excellent games...

[Frayed Knot]

Like I said earlier, the first one was more than a bit too sloppy to be tabbed as "excellent" even if the back and forth nature of it made it interesting at times (particularly early on).
By the time I turned on the second game it was just as SF was pulling away early in the 4th Q so I suspect I missed most of the good parts.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

This is turning into a football thread in the baseball forum.

[MFS62]

Maybe Denver will want Tebow back.

Later