09-04-2008, 10:01 PM
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#44
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Bamma
OVR: 36
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DC/MD
Posts: 63,552
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Re: Dante Culpepper officially retires
Interesting article:
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TOM POWERS: Daunte Culpepper's right: NFL is all about control, money and power
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 09/04/2008 08:13:06 PM CDT
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Daunte Culpepper retired Thursday, albeit not very gracefully. Like his former Vikings coach, Dennis Green, Culpepper departed firing salvos about conspiracy theories and shadowy figures out to get him.
The fact is, Culpepper was a great quarterback when he had great receivers. Without the likes of Randy Moss and Cris Carter, he was merely decent. But he was no kind of quarterback after hurting his knee against Carolina in 2005. I was at that game, and it was very sad.
But in his bitter departure letter to various media outlets, Culpepper did write something with which I totally agree:
"The NFL has become more about power, money and control than passion, competition and love of the game."
He is absolutely right. The NFL is big business gone berserk. It is the corporate equivalent of a paranoid control freak, and a greedy one at that. It seeks power over everything from the flow of information to the conduct of its spectators.
Someday, the NFL will be in your bedroom telling you what is acceptable behavior for a card-carrying NFL fan. Don't laugh. One of Commissioner Roger Goodell's lieutenants might be hiding in your hamper right now.
Currently, we are moving inexorably toward an 18-game regular season, maybe with two bye weeks. There's no getting around it. Goodell already has noted that the preseason appears to be too long. And by that he isn't implying that the league will cut an exhibition game or two and have everyone report to camp a week later.
Additional regular-season games might make fans happy, for now, but that's just a byproduct. NFL owners are about stadiums, TV rights, merchandising and cash flow. Period. And they want more of all of the above. You, as a fan, aren't even in the top 10 in terms of priorities.
The No. 1 priority of NFL owners is to generate maximum profits for each and every team.
A weak link detracts from the owner's franchise value and investment. So they will approve any and all franchise relocations.
Look it up. At least a half-dozen owners already have abandoned cities with passionate fan bases for more lucrative pastures. If that shiny new stadium filled with luxury suites and fancy restaurants isn't built for them, they're gone.
Robert Irsay moved the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis by sneaking in moving vans at 2 a.m. and carting off the equipment to Indianapolis. Years later, Art Modell abandoned a loud and loyal fan base in Cleveland for Baltimore, even though taxpayers had approved $175 million in stadium renovations. Not enough.
How about Tom Benson in New Orleans, threatening to move the Saints while the city was still suffering from the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina? Benson paid $65 million for the Saints. The average franchise now sells for about $800 million. That's quite a return.
But he wants more, and San Antonio might give it to him.
And apparently Al Davis will move his team to any city in California that slips him $10.
Season-ticket holders might not mind an increase in regular-season games because they are forced to buy exhibition game tickets anyway. But they might have to come back early from the lake to see the Vikings open up in mid-August. Or else push back the date of their Super Bowl parties until early March.
Eventually, the market will become oversaturated and the games won't be so special anymore. I don't know when that day will arrive, but I'm sure we'll get a chance to find out.
Just so you know, I enjoy watching NFL games. The slick NFL product is good, even if there are so many TV timeouts that the games have no flow anymore.
But I also know if the NFL had had a chance to manage Elvis Presley's career, it would have ruined him. Ever hear an Elvis song on the radio? It lasts maybe two minutes and 20 seconds. Elvis believed that you always left the people wanting more. The NFL would have had him singing 30-minute arias so it could have time to hawk T-shirts.
Anyway, I really do enjoy the actual games. But as a corporate entity, the NFL is everything I hate as a consumer, a newspaperman and a self-respecting human being.
OK, now that that's out of the way, let's tee it up and start the season. |
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