Thoughts on the NFL
Why is the NFL the king of the Major sports in ratings, revenue, fanbase, etc..? This topic was discussed on The Herd on ESPN radio today and this is the answer I thought by far made the most sense:
The games are on once a week for the most part - Sundays. Sure there is Monday Night Football, (and now with the new NFL Network that no one seems to be able to get, Thursdays and Saturdays), but for the most part people watch football on Sundays. Also, your team only has 16 games. Not 162, not 84. Each game really counts. When I get home from work on a weekday and there is a Yankee game on I may watch an inning or two now and again but no way am I able to nor do I want to watch every game.
Now keep in mind the Yanks are my favorite team in any sport and I love watching Yankee playoff baseball more than pretty much anything else in the world. But the regular season games just don't hold a thrill. Exceptions of course are NY vs Boston which are always big. But in the NFL, pretty much every Sunday I'm going to church, then going home, cracking a beer and watching the Giants.
On the other side of the coin, for some reason the NFL always gets a pass on it's problems. People don't like the NBA because of fights and thug players. Football has plenty of fighting but it's ok because it's a "violent" sport. That's true to some extent but come on! Some guy stomped on some other players face with his cleats this years. That is insane! As for thugs the NFL has pretty much the entire Cincy Bengals team in and out of jail, Tank Johnson, Rae Carruth, OJ freaking Simpson lol!
People bash on MLB for steriods. One of the best defensive players this year Shawn Merriman of the Chargers got suspended for steroids. He's not the only one and no one really cares. They say baseball salaries are too big. Peyton Manning has a 100 million dollar contract. And on that note NBA players make more per year than any other sport's players.
As far as the NFL being better than hockey well, that's because hockey is just boring ;) .
Like I said, I like MLB and NCAA football as much if not more then the NFL, but there is no doubt about it. The NFL is king for these and lots of other reasons. Just some thoughts...
The games are on once a week for the most part - Sundays. Sure there is Monday Night Football, (and now with the new NFL Network that no one seems to be able to get, Thursdays and Saturdays), but for the most part people watch football on Sundays. Also, your team only has 16 games. Not 162, not 84. Each game really counts. When I get home from work on a weekday and there is a Yankee game on I may watch an inning or two now and again but no way am I able to nor do I want to watch every game.
Now keep in mind the Yanks are my favorite team in any sport and I love watching Yankee playoff baseball more than pretty much anything else in the world. But the regular season games just don't hold a thrill. Exceptions of course are NY vs Boston which are always big. But in the NFL, pretty much every Sunday I'm going to church, then going home, cracking a beer and watching the Giants.
On the other side of the coin, for some reason the NFL always gets a pass on it's problems. People don't like the NBA because of fights and thug players. Football has plenty of fighting but it's ok because it's a "violent" sport. That's true to some extent but come on! Some guy stomped on some other players face with his cleats this years. That is insane! As for thugs the NFL has pretty much the entire Cincy Bengals team in and out of jail, Tank Johnson, Rae Carruth, OJ freaking Simpson lol!
People bash on MLB for steriods. One of the best defensive players this year Shawn Merriman of the Chargers got suspended for steroids. He's not the only one and no one really cares. They say baseball salaries are too big. Peyton Manning has a 100 million dollar contract. And on that note NBA players make more per year than any other sport's players.
As far as the NFL being better than hockey well, that's because hockey is just boring ;) .
Like I said, I like MLB and NCAA football as much if not more then the NFL, but there is no doubt about it. The NFL is king for these and lots of other reasons. Just some thoughts...
posted by Michael Schaffer at 1:57 PM
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