NFL 2016

I missed most of the action yesterday between recovering from a cold, re-watching the last third of B5 season 3, and of course cooking.

I caught parts of the Arizona vs NE game. I wonder: is it worth paying Brady such a big salary? It seems Bellichick doesn't really need him, and he could be profitably traded now.

On the one hand, the Steelers handsomely defeated the Redskins, who are favored to win the NFC East Division.

On the other hand, it was the Redskins, who are favored to win the NFC East Division.

After the game, I watched the last ep of Season 3 of B5 with commentary by JMS.

NFL Ratings falling.

Maybe I am not alone? I am more out of the NFL than most. I have not even seen a score yet. And I don't care. But it looks like others are just not as into it as years past. What is happening?

Quote: AZDuffman

NFL Ratings falling.

Maybe I am not alone? I am more out of the NFL than most. I have not even seen a score yet. And I don't care. But it looks like others are just not as into it as years past. What is happening?

They keep adding more nights to the schedule. They can't really expect the ratings to stay at same high ratings for every night they are diluting their product.

Quote: kenarman

Quote: AZDuffman

NFL Ratings falling.

Maybe I am not alone? I am more out of the NFL than most. I have not even seen a score yet. And I don't care. But it looks like others are just not as into it as years past. What is happening?

They keep adding more nights to the schedule. They can't really expect the ratings to stay at same high ratings for every night they are diluting their product.

They have been warned and warned that was going to happen. I do wonder how the bell curve falls. IOW, better to have more diluted games than fewer big ones.

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: kenarman

Quote: AZDuffman

NFL Ratings falling.

Maybe I am not alone? I am more out of the NFL than most. I have not even seen a score yet. And I don't care. But it looks like others are just not as into it as years past. What is happening?

They keep adding more nights to the schedule. They can't really expect the ratings to stay at same high ratings for every night they are diluting their product.

They have been warned and warned that was going to happen. I do wonder how the bell curve falls. IOW, better to have more diluted games than fewer big ones.

I think the product moving to pay channels is killing the brand. You need cable or satellite, and you need a package that includes ESPN or the NFL Network to catch the midweek games. Fugettaboutit.

The other trend is the constant stoppage of play for penalties or commercials. So much attention is being placed on keeping players from being hit.

Poll: 44% Likely to Turn Off NFL If National Anthem Protests Continue

Interesting video at the site. I agree with the video that it is nowhere near 44%, but I have seen others like myself tired of the social circus the NFL keeps making itself into. Goddell seems to have had a more PC reign than his two predecessors. It may be catching up with him.

As for me, still dropped out at least until the weather turns bad.

Quote: Ayecarumba

The other trend is the constant stoppage of play for penalties or commercials.

As the inimitable Victor Hugo told his publisher "?"

One of my vivid memories of a Seattle vs Miami game at the Orange Bowl in the mid-80s, is of players standing around chatting, waiting for the commercial break to be over so they could resume play. This trend is as old as televised games.

Quote:

So much attention is being placed on keeping players from being hit.

Not enough, really. It's a great sport, but the players involved shouldn't accept a high chance of crippling injuries and long-term neurological damage as an occupational hazard.

IMO, hitting ought to be done away with. I've mentioned before the "down by contact" rule ought to go away. This would mean if you hit a player and he goes down, he's still active and the play goes on. Another useful couple of rules would be these:

1) Going for another player's helmet is a 15-yard, automatic 1st down penalty the first time a team does it. The second time in the same game, the offending player gets ejected (even if he's a different player). If there is a third occurrence in the game by the same team, they forfeit the game.

2) Using one's helmet to hit another player would also be a 15-yard, automatic 1st down penalty, again the first time the team does it. The second and any subsequent times the same team does this would be ruled a safety, no matter where on the field this takes place.

The reason for the severity in the penalties I'm proposing, is that there's always a situation here committing a penalty on purpose makes sense. There are plenty of situations were a penalty is less costly than a score, or even a long advance by the other team (getting into FG range in the last seconds of a close game, for example). Therefore the need to make these very dangerous actions uneconomical always.

I wonder if there are any studies on trends in the number of penalties per game? The whistle seems to blow every other play, and often it is some "roughing" call, rather than procedure (e.g. offside) or cheating (e.g. holding).

While commercials have been part of the game since the 70's, it seems that there are more of them, and that they are longer.

If the NFL were to give in to corporate sponsorship and in game advertising on uniforms like soccer, would the number of commercial breaks go down? Probably not.

What I can say is that if the broadcast of a two and half hour game were condensed to just the actual action on the field, the broadcast would be what... 30 - 40 minutes?

Quote: Ayecarumba

I wonder if there are any studies on trends in the number of penalties per game? The whistle seems to blow every other play, and often it is some "roughing" call, rather than procedure (e.g. offside) or cheating (e.g. holding).

Complex rules tend to increase in complexity over time.

That said, some teams commit far more penalties than others.

Quote:

While commercials have been part of the game since the 70's, it seems that there are more of them, and that they are longer.

That's hard for me to say. I watch most games through regional cable channels, and their ad rules are different. You know sometimes there are breaks in play, say for an injury or a review, where the coverage stays on and you hear the announcers filling in the lack of action? In 99% of such breaks, the channels here go to commercial. It's not rare to miss the replay review entirely.

Quote:

If the NFL were to give in to corporate sponsorship and in game advertising on uniforms like soccer, would the number of commercial breaks go down? Probably not.

Ha! In the early 90s, the local channels which showed Football also showed soccer (sucker?). For the latter games, they ran animated simple animated ads overlaid on the live broadcast. This made sense for sucker, as there are no built-in TV breaks. they ran them on Football games, too, even though they had a myriad breaks for showing full commercials.

Quote:

What I can say is that if the broadcast of a two and half hour game were condensed to just the actual action on the field, the broadcast would be what... 30 - 40 minutes?

Regulation time is 60 minutes. Figure 40 seconds or so between plays, whether the clock is running or not, figure out the number of plays, and you can get a rough estimate of actual play time