Issue #112
by Wayne Ellis, Sports America

Head and Should Pads Above the Rest
Why the NFL Enjoys the Ultimate Winner’s Edge

After slogging through another brutally hot, humid, baseball-only summer here in DC, we finally reached the end of the annual sports draught…

Football season kicked off this past weekend for real. Sure, for some of us, football actually started the week before, with many colleges getting things underway.

(Apparently, there was a little scheduling confusion in Michigan, where a game was scheduled but the Wolverines failed to show.)

But for a huge chunk of the sports-viewing population, football season didn’t really get going until the Colts and the Saints kicked off on September 6th, with the rest of the league following suit on the 9th and 10th.

And now, through the glorious bounty of ABC, ESPN, CBS, FOX and the NFL Network, for the next 16 weeks, we have the opportunity to get NFL games on four different days or nights of the week: Sunday, Monday, Thursday and, Saturday (at the end of the college season).

Simply put: the National Football League does it right. If an entire league can possess a winner’s edge over the competition, the NFL does. Here’s why.

NFL – “N”ot a “F”ollowers “L”eague

There’s probably as many theories why the NFL stomps the competition as there are Monday morning quarterbacks. Generally however, the discussion can be focused on four main reasons why the game surpasses all others.
As for which is the most important reason, well, folks with bigger brains than mine could probably lay the reasons out definitely 1 to 4. But the order really doesn’t matter. So here are the top four reasons, in no particular order.

• Parity
• Single Game Importance
• Team First Fan Base
• The Most TV Friendly Game

A quick look at each will help to better understand the NFL’s enormous winner’s edge.

True Parity… Or As Close As a Sport Can Get

Unlike other sports, when NFL teams begin practice in the summer, almost every team in the league has the chance to make the playoffs. In fact, this year, only the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs had mathematically eliminated themselves before the season began…

• The Chiefs simply watched their team fall apart piece by piece. And the usually astute Carl Peterson decided to due his best Nero impersonation – fiddling while the team lost its franchise quarterback, and most important offensive linesmen.

• The Browns, on the other hand, seemed to draft well – again – yet continued to coax the worst out of their talent. The Browns don’t appear to have a captain of the ship capable of elevating the team to a compete in the AFC North, arguably the league’s toughest division 1-3.

Other than these two have-nots, every season, the rabid fans of each franchise can look to the new season with optimism. The main reason they can do that is the existence and effectiveness of the NFL’s salary cap.

Unlike baseball, where teams with their own sports networks can pretty much buy the talent they want, the teams in the NFL have to abide by the hard cap mandated by the league. This year’s cap, according to askthecommish.com, is approximately $109 million per team. That’s up from “just” $85.5 million in 2005. The $23.5 million jump in just two years surely reflects a healthy economic state for the league. When teams can’t dominate others economically, or buy up all the best players, team performance becomes the key. And that’s why 30 out of 32 teams had a chance to win this year.

Every Game Counts:

Because of the physical demands, it’s impossible for football players to play the game more than once a week. Just imagine if the 16-game season was doubled to 32 games, and teams had to play twice a week.

Rosters would swell to around 150 players per team. Playing careers would be about a half a year, and teams would have to number their players into the 100s.

Luckily, the NFL powers that be capped the regular season at 16 games. Of course, owners and their desire for more and more revenue, lengthened the season to include four preseason games. But aside from the freak injury to a star player, these games merely serve to whet the appetites of advertisers and fans.

Then, for 17 weeks, every team plays every week, except for one bye-week. When you compare this to baseball’s 162 game season, it’s makes sense that each NFL game is about 10-times more important than a single baseball game. And that holds for the NBA and NHL’s 82 game season – making each football game about 5-times more important.

Then there’s the playoffs themselves. One and done, just like in the NCAA Basketball Tourney – the U.S.’s other annual powerhouse sports event. Forget sports series that crown the teams that take 2 out of 3 games, or 3 out of 5 or even 4 out of 7. In the NFL, you get one chance. Blow it, and you go home.

The Uniform Still Matters

Unlike the NBA, where the league appears intent on marketing stars rather than teams, the NFL still puts the emphasis on teams and their cities. Perhaps that’s why very few NFL teams very relocate. Look no farther than Green Bay, Chicago, or Dallas to realize how intimately a team becomes associated with a city.

Sure individual stars populate the league, but it’s more the exception than the rule to have a player become known more for himself than the team he plays for. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that players faces are totally obscured while they play. Unlike baseball’s revolving player carasoul, it seems odd to try to picture Peyton Manning in a Falcons uniform, or Tom Brady as an Oakland Raider…

Maybe it has to do with the fact that NFL uniforms change about as often as new states are added to the U.S. Compare this to the NBA, and a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers, and their five different uniforms. It’s a lot easier to picture LaBron James face and build than it is to imagine his uniform. Now try to imagine Brett Farve in anything other than the Packers green or white jerseys.

The Medium is the Message

Finally, the league’s winning edge over other sports may hinge upon its relationship with television. From the time that Pete Rozelle inked the first deal that brought football to Monday nights – and out of the sports-dominated weekend lineup – football has grown up with television.

Compare football’s love affair with television with other sports…

• Be honest now, who can sit through an entire baseball game on television? Clearly it’s a sport for radio. The amount of time between instances of action makes baseball more of a background element to another event that the reason for the event itself.

• The NBA? Come on. How many times have you heard someone say that all they have to do is watch the fourth quarter of an NBA game to see what’s important?

• Hockey? Not even glow-in-the-dark pucks made this more television friendly. Although for live action, it’s probably the greatest game to watch. Unfortunately the speed of the players and the puck just doesn’t translate to television.

With football’s inclusion of instant replay in game officiating, its multiple camera angles, and now its HD allure, the NFL has clearly leveraged its football friendliness. But this relationship benefits both sides.

Where would the FOX network be, had it not paid through the nose to bring the NFC to its viewers in 1994? Conversely, where would the NFL be without FOX’s landmark $1.58 billion dollar bid for four years of NFL action in 1993? Granted, the NFL would still probably outstrip the other major sports. But it probably would not be at the $3.735 billion mark in annual revenue from TV (as reported on Wikipedia).

Dominance Into the 21st Century?

Going foreword, it appears that unless MLB, the NBA or NHL significantly alter the way their games are played, or embrace technology in a way unimagined as of yet, the NFL will continue to strengthen its advantage.

Of course, it may be that another sport, one outside of the Big Four, could experience an explosion in popularity and leap frog the NFL. Of these “non-Big Four” sports, NASCAR and the“X-Games” (as a whole) seem to be the fastest growing. But both have a mammoth uphill battle to topple King Football.

Yet, if sports history has shown us anything, it’s that the American tastes change over time. Think about the stature of boxing 100 years ago, or horseracing 75 years ago, or even baseball 50 years ago.

Now, consider how technology affects the way we experience our favorite sports. It’s certainly possible that another sport, viewed through another medium could overtake football at the top of the U.S sports heap… but that time’s a long ways off.

Until then, we can just be thankful that it’s September, pigskins are flying, and there’s only 3 of 7 days out of the week that don’t include football at some time during the season.

Post Game Highlights

Another way that technology has increased our enjoyment of football has been through the automation of fantasy football. Now, instead of just following our favorite teams, we can create our own teams form favorite players. Suddenly, there’s no such thing as a bad game, as even winless teams feature players that can have a fantasy impact.

If you’d like to learn more about fantasy football, go to any the websites of any of the major TV networks and you’ll find a prominent place for fantasy fans.

Finally, Sports America Inc.’s prayers go out to Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills and his family.

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