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October 27, 2016

The real issue that is plaguing the NFL is they have run out of ways to separate their customers from their money.

In fact, they ran out of sensible ways to do that a long time ago. That’s why they have started holding games in foreign countries.

They think they can maybe find new customers to exploit. The games they hold in London, for example, cost the league millions, but they hope that Brits will get hooked on the narcotic of the NFL and cough up millions for the product. So far, no good. As Marx observed, they are also ruthlessly trying to exploit their existing market. Go to an NFL game and you come away feeling like you have just been mugged. It’s not the absurd prices for everything. They constantly bombard the fan with marketing, because they expect the fan to commit his life to the corporate entity known as his team. Go to a Dallas Cowboy game, for example, and you are treated to a long pre-game ceremony about how you are not just a fan, you are soldier in the army of the Dallas Cowboys. Marx Was Right, Sort Of | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 27, 2016 10:30 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

NFL YV ratings are plummeting. Why? Well one reason is Peyton Manning is not playing anymore.

I mean that there is no celebrity quarterback in the game now that Peyton retired. Tom Brady? Old and deflated by deflate-gate. Aaron Rodgers? Great quarterback. Ho hum. Colin Kaepernick? He's not a first-tier QB and his attempt at celebrity has simply failed. Games today are just plain boring. In fact, the Oct. 23 Sunday Night game has been tagged, "The Worst Game Ever."

More at the link.

Posted by: Donald Sensing at October 27, 2016 11:30 AM

NFL TV ratings are plummeting. Why? Well one reason is Peyton Manning is not playing anymore.

I mean that there is no celebrity quarterback in the game now that Peyton retired. Tom Brady? Old and deflated by deflate-gate. Aaron Rodgers? Great quarterback. Ho hum. Colin Kaepernick? He's not a first-tier QB and his attempt at celebrity has simply failed. Games today are just plain boring. In fact, the Oct. 23 Sunday Night game has been tagged, "The Worst Game Ever."

More at the link.

Posted by: Donald Sensing at October 27, 2016 11:30 AM

Adios to bugger-ball. Complete waste of time.

Posted by: Terry at October 27, 2016 12:43 PM

Oh geez, using Carl Marx to explain the NFL’s problems? To paraphrase someone, somewhere - “The NFL got 99 problems but Carl Marx ain’t one”.

Its oversaturation, it’s hyperbolic over hyping of everything – The Draft! The Combine! The Schedule! The Minicamps! -, its vague ass rules - What’s a damn catch? What’s an illegal hit? -, it’s players who act like complete dickwads, it’s the game being secondary to whatever the GD network would rather show us and freaking endlessly freakin’ blab about when the freakin’ game is in process, it’s…all the above and more.

Carl Marx and the NFL... metaphorical shark jumping. Stop.

Posted by: tim at October 27, 2016 1:32 PM

tim, you got it. The appetite for spectacles is not endless. And the average NFL fan is among Hillary's so-called deplorables who are having a rough time economically. There is a limit to how much they can or will spend to watch a three hour scrum buttressed with ceremonies akin to religious rites.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at October 27, 2016 1:58 PM

I'm not convinced that anybody that used to watch that stuff is not watching it now. I mean, why should they?

I never understood why anyone would watch it in the first place, my brain ain't wired that way. I think mostly the same way about religion.

Posted by: ghostsniper at October 27, 2016 3:11 PM

What you have is a surfeit of mediocrity. The rush to expand never took into account the fact that there only so many really good players for the NFL, MLB, NHL and vomit ball, the NBA and even fewer great players.

So there are teams whose squads shouldn't be in uniform; they don't even make decent semi-pro teams.

With that there are a host of inner city 'stars' who believe they have a government derived right to suit up and be paid outrageous sums to make fools of themselves and the league.

To make up for their lack of skill, they introduce violence and political buffoonery.

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at October 27, 2016 3:13 PM

I'm going to go against the grain here....my family and I went to ARROWHEAD last weekend to see the Chiefs play. We go once per year as a family mini vacation. We buy the cheapest nosebleed seats we can get, and there isn't a bad seat in the place. Kansas City proper cannot fill the stadium maybe like LA, Chicago, NY, etc. but one will notice that in the parking lot are cars from not just Missouri and Kansas, but Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, and not just a few. It is a mid-west team and its fan's large geographical area is referred to as Chiefs Kingdom.76,000 fellow rednecks. Plenty of pick up trucks with NRA and hunting stickers. I didn't see a damn Prius in the place. Sunday was a day that we started with our Bible study, then went to the game. We enjoyed a few hours of fun, forgetting about work and politics. When the good guys score, we high five with the folks around us. There is a reason it is the loudest stadium in the world. Good fun for us. Also, unlike some numbnuts in the NFL, you won't see anybody kneeling down during the national anthem. Someone in the crowd tries that or doesn't take off their hat and they will likely get their ass kicked. My young son was asking about some of the players kneeling in a circle after the game. I pointed out that they were praying to God. Not all pro athletes fail to acknowledge that all good things come from Him.

Yes, it is marketing and capitalism at its best.

Posted by: Snakepit Kansas at October 28, 2016 5:52 AM

I'm sorta with Snakepit there in that I have serious doubts about the premise of this post.


Has the product gotten more mediocre in recent years? Sure, I'll buy that, and leave hardcore sporties to comment further.


But the fact is, Americans generally like spectacle and hype, even over-played, and will put with with ads until the cows come home.


What they absolutely will not put up with any more is the kind of elite-driven contempt for the country (aka... the fans) that we see from Kaepernick and the "hands-up, don't shooter"s, and the "you fans realize you are all domestic abusers at heart, right" types, and the "what, you aren't wearing pink socks on Sunday..... WOMEN-LOATHER!!" sentiments, and the "isn't it wonderful that this mediocre talent went to the top of the draft? He belongs in the minors, but he IS gay, so WOO-HOO!!! Top 'o the list!" nonsense.


Who is God's own Prophet of Truth who said, "The more ANY organization starts yapping about "social justice", the more that what that organization is supposed to be doing will start to fall apart." (Instapundit? Ayn Rand? Both?)

THAT is what is wrong with the NFL, full stop. Stop piling on the pink socks bulls---, and focus on the game and it's century-old legacy, and the people who care about football will return.

But do it fast, because when they are gone longer term, they will stay gone. And the NFL will be human institution #128,947 on earth to be laid waste to and destroyed by leftism -- the destroyer of EV-ER-Y-THING it touches, without exception.

Posted by: Andrew X at October 28, 2016 7:07 AM

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