Hey, NFL - I Was Thinking...

I was watching football over the Holiday weekend and was amazed at the number of empty seats in the stands. LP Field in Nashville, home of the Tennessee Titans, a decent team with a 6-5 record, was maybe half empty. An optimist might call that stadium half-full, but when you're talking about an NFL venue, you would rather be Lambeau Field, a stadium that would sell out even if the Packers were winless well into the season. Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego also had large sections of empty seats, a strange thing when the Denver Tebows were in town, the hottest topic in all of sports right now.

Television coverage for a football fan can be very frustrating, particularly if you rely on the networks and don't have some pricey premium package. (Let's not even talk about the ridiculous dispute between the NFL Network and the cable giants, who can't come to terms, thus depriving us from even considering a pricey premium package.) So if you live on the East Coast, it will be a rare day when you get to see the Seahawks, the Raiders or the 49ers play. Down here in Florida, we are subjected to Buccaneers, Dolphins or Jaguars games; three teams that make up the Triangle of Suck in the NFL. If we aren't being made to watch them stink up the field, then the networks assume we want to see the Patriots. Recent weekends, I have seen more of Tom Brady and that homeless guy who coaches the Patriots than I have my own dog.

When football is not on, the Sports Centers of TV and the web or the Sports Sections of print and online journalism are talking about football. It is, no one can argue, the new national pastime. We don't give a crap about baseball, in comparison. We eat it up, can't get enough of it, and will watch the sorriest matchup in history if it is the only game on TV. 

Which brings me to my point. A football fan will watch any game if it is the only game available. So...WHAT IF...the NFL played six days a week? (My original plan called for seven days a week, but I'm reminded that Saturday is college football day, and that would not sit well with the American football watching public to mix it up like that.)

The season would still be 17 weeks long, you'd just have fewer games per day. There are 32 teams, which makes 15 games a week, allowing for two teams having a bye every week. So, two games on Monday, two on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Sunday you'd have two early games, two late games and one night game. If a team plays on a Monday, to avoid fatigue and allow for jet-lag recovery, that team plays the following week on a Tuesday.  It would be a scheduling nightmare, to be sure, but not one that some innovative programmer couldn't overcome. A fan could conceivably watch every game all season long, granted with a little back and forth on the remote control between the games happening simultaneously.

What about the other TV shows that would get bumped if CBS, FOX or NBC were to take this on? Oh, how sad it would be if 2 Broke Girls or Whitney or one more CSI wasn't available. Move it to another night or time. If the networks follow the money, which they will, they know that the NFL is a ratings bonanza. Let ESPN and ESPN 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and The Ocho get in on the bidding. Advertising, dollars, ratings, licensing, perhaps even stadium attendance will be affected. (We all know that a nationally televised game fills seats better than one only available in the local market.)

I'm sure there are too many interests involved in a plan like this for it ever to really happen, the most powerful likely being the NFL and their precious NFL Network, but I'm throwing it out there. Football fans and football haters are invited to weigh in in the comments section. Tell me why I'm wrong, why this won't work, or what we could do to make it happen. If you're a fan of Whitney, just be quiet. That show is getting canceled and you know it.    

Zuckerberg's Free Ride

He was there to do a free commercial for the new profile pages on Facebook and talk about his eventual domination of the universe. Lesley Stahl came across as a sycophantic fangirl. It was interesting to watch as "60 Minutes" allowed him to burnish his image in the wake of "The Social Network," the film that portrays him as a heartless user.

(El click de pic para mas grande action)

About That Tim Tebow Anti-Abortion SuperBowl Ad

 

(click)

Get Real, CBS

I was hoping to catch Obama’s appearance on Letterman on YouTube or Google Video, whoever they are now, but was met with “This video has been removed by the user.”

So I figured, “That’s understandable. CBS would rather their site be your destination for all your Letterman video needs,” and headed over to cbs.com to see if they had it.

They had what appears to be small clip from the interview (which can also still be seen on YouTube/GooVid) but it requires the Real Player plug-in. I don’t allow Real Player on my system. It is a space hogging tyrant with a desire to open everything for me. I hate Real Player.

Sorry, CBS, that’s how NOT to be a video destination for me. Another argument for the DVR, I suppose.

Life Without a DVR

I was one of the last people in North America to agree to be chained to work via cell phone (about 2002) and I still have yet to get on the DVR bandwagon. To me, it seems that a DVR would just make you watch too much TV. I figure if you miss a show, you missed it. Too bad. Besides, there are only about 3 things I even want to watch in a week. Tonight presents a problem.

24 is on opposite the Gators-Buckeyes NCAA National Basketball Championship. A cross promotional network revenue sharing plan should've been put into action months ago. All the employees of CTU could watch the game on their monitors. Jack could've watched it in the field on his PDA. The President could watch it in the Oval Office as he prepares to bomb three Middle Eastern countries.

Looks like I'll be hitting the "last channel" button tonight, switching back and forth between the game and the hunt for crazy terrorists trying to destroy my way of life. None of the commercials on either Fox or CBS will ever be seen by me.

Then again, if I had a DVR, I'd never see any commercials at all. Hmmm.

(Sympathies are due Emma Brownell of iMediaConnection, who was sure her local UCLA Bruins would maul the Gators. Chomp!)