Enough already.
A few days a week, I have free periods in the morning to grade, plan and blog while enjoying Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio. At the end of my day, I'll often make the trip up 27 North with Mike Tirico or Stephen A. Smith. For someone who deeply loves music, I listen to a bunch of sports radio.
Today was an especially disappointing day of a.m. listening both in the morning and afternoon. There are a million different sports topics that deserve attention right now, including Carmelo Anthony's DUI arrest, the up-coming NBA playoffs, the benching of Baron Davis, the beginning of the MLB season, college basketball players turning professional, the NHL playoffs and theft of the Seattle Supersonics. So what was today's topic?
A.M. on my a.m. - NFL Draft preview.
P.M. on my a.m. - 2008/2009 NFL Schedule.
Are you kidding me? The NFL is the only major sport NOT in season right now. Why is it dominating the airwaves?
The answer is simple - because it is what we the listener wants to hear, right? But is it? Am I the only person who is sick of the 12 month NFL coverage?
Look - I love the NFL as much as almost anyone. I love my Cowboys, really like the Titans and will usually make an effort to watch any televised game during the season. I ordered NFL Sunday Ticket for two years. I am commish of a fantasy football league. The bottom line is that I like football.
I hate the over-coverage of it. Why, oh why, would Mike and Mike devote an entire show to previewing the NFL Draft that is not for another week and a half? Why preview it in the first place? Am I wrong to assume that most NFL fans care who their respective team will draft in the 1st round and pretty much nothing else?
This morning's show featured a spirited debate between Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay, two men whose job is the exact same, over which cornerback would be the first one selected in the draft. Who, besides the agents and mothers of these cornerbacks, possibly cares? I love football, but have never once had a conversation about which outside linebacker is slipping in the draft or what kind of 40 time a fullback ran at the combine.
The afternoon drive home featured even more nonsense. The two ESPN guys were "breaking down" the newly arrived NFL schedule for the up-coming season. Fine. Let me know what intriguing match-ups are on the horizon and which teams got especially easy or difficult draws. I can live with that.
The conversation drifted, however, to individual match-ups in November and December. December?
"I think the Cardinals will really give the Cowboys a game in Week 8."
You do? Based on what? Your crystal ball or your time machine? How do you know what players will be healthy in December? How do you know what rookies will make an impact? How do you know anything at all about a game that is eight months away?
The simple answer is for me to turn my radio to music or NPR and avoid this nonsense that bothers me so. I must be the only person sick of hearing about football all the time, right?
Am I? I just cannot believe that millions of sports fans care about combine workouts and projected 3rd round picks. I cannot believe I am the only person who tires of predictions and analysis of events so far in the future that no intelligent conversation can possibly take place.
If I'm the only one, I'll turn the dial to something else this summer whenever the ever-popular gridiron discussions begin. I have a feeling, though, that I'm not the only person who would rather hear discussion of baseball, basketball, playoff hockey and golf on his April commute than more NFL drivel.
Am I wrong?
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12 comments:
The NFL is about one step ahead of NASCAR in my opinion. I'll never understand its popularity.
One word - gambling.
WTF? I'll admit that I am not a huge sports fan and relatively new to football. I grew up watching baseball, and I loved it, but now it mostly bores me. College football and NFL are about the only sports that I really crave to watch. The NFL being one step ahead of NASCAR? That's a joke. The NBA maybe, or basketball, in general, which has got to be one of the most boring sports to watch, but the NFL is a lot of fun to watch. It may not be as good as college football, but its still a great sport.
I do like the NFL, but I'm completely over the 12 month coverage of it. I think gambling is the main reason it is the #1 sport in the country (fantasy football too), but I also think the popularity of it is somewhat manufactured. It is the easiest sport for sports media to cover - only a few games, plenty of time to analyze, fairly easy to understand - which I think also plays into its non-stop attention.
You know how I feel about basketball...
I know you like basketball, bro...sorry to pick on something you love so much! I agree with the article %100, by the way...aside from the random interest article every now and again, football should not be covered 24/7. Its silly, especially at the beginning of baseball season and as the NBA heads to the playoffs. I agree that gambling is perfectly suited for football, since it only happens once a week, etc, but I disagree completely that gambling is one of the reasons it is so popular. Its popular, because it is the perfect combination of other sports. Its not boring like soccer and basketball, and its faster paced than baseball. It combines the basic action of going back and forth between goal posts on the field with the decision making and strategy of baseball. It may start and stop and isn't as fast as basketball, but it also allows for some pretty damned glorious moments and big plays that you don't see in other sports...just look at the Manning-Tyree pass in the last Super Bowl. The NFL is hyped, sure, but so is every pro sport. Gambling is not the reason the NFL is popular...if that were true, then horse racing would be just as popular on tv, and kids in the Bronx would be wearing their Barbaro ballcaps every which way but forwards. just because the NFL is easy for the media to follow does not mean that it is manufactured. Againk, I agree with you about the coverage, but I was mainly writing in response to Raul's assertion that the NFL was one step ahead of NASCAR. Raul, have you become some sort of annoying purist? WTF? Its still exciting and fun to watch?!
I LOVE college sports and MLB. That's pretty much it as far as mainstream sports go. I just think football and basketball should be left to the kids.
signed,
Annoying Purist (sheesh)
I think there are several factors that have contributed to the NFL's popularity with gambling being a major one. Horses are not people, so an animal sport will never be as popular as a human one. Football is the best gambling sport on earth besides boxing, but nobody knows enough about boxing to risk their money upon it.
Football is a great, exciting sport. Actually, football can be really dull and slow at times, especially in the NFL, but the anticipation of something big happening is always there.
Part of the appeal is that every game matters, every play matters. Baseball, basketball...can't say that. I think the over-the-top popularity is manufactured. There are plenty of people who love football, but I don't see the fanaticism that deserves so much coverage. With the 24/7 news cycle, sports media needs something to cover all the time, so football is the easiest. I think that is the manufactured aspect of it.
Michael - it makes me really happy to see you so excited by sports these days, but I am going to have to ask that you refrain from using WTF? in back-to-back posts.
No offense, Maximum Jack.
Every game doesn't matter in Baseball? Do explain. I'll agree that every game doesn't matter for non playoff-bound teams (this would be true in the NFL too), but all those in the hunt (and thanks to the wild card, that's plenty of teams) all 162 games (163 if a one game playoff is needed!) do matter.
Apologies for the excessive use of parentheses.
Simple statistics Max Jack; if you have fewer games, then a single loss or win carries more statistical significance. Especially in college football where a single loss can send a team from the top ten to off the poll, at least in theory.
Michael beat me to the explanation, though you are technically correct that every game does matter. The difference is that over the course of a 162 game schedule, there is room for a few eggs throughout the season. With 16 games, you cannot have too many stinkers and have any hope of the playoffs.
To use the math to prove it, a 10-6 football team is probably going to the playoffs. That is a 62.5 win percentage. If you won 62.5% of your games in the MLB, you have 101 victories. NOBODY had that many wins in baseball last year. Colorado got to the World Series winning 55% of its games. You won't find many (though it has happened) contending 8-8 NFL teams.
I wasn't arguing that a game matters as much in Baseball as it does in other sports. I'll concede that point as well. We've all been there in week #3 when Florida hands us a big fat "L". Still, divisions and playoff spots are won and lost by one (or less!) games in MLB all the time. They all matter, even in April. That's why Terry Francona gives me about three freakin' ulcers per month.
Also, I don't have the statistics to back me up, but in baseball perhaps series might be comparable to games in other sports. It would be interesting to see the win-loss records of all the teams that made the playoffs when you take into consideration each series as opposed to each game. Did Boston win 62.5% of their series last year? How 'bout Colorado or Arizona or Cleveland or NY?
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