Blitz Package

This Sunday, the 50th Super Bowl will be played between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos.  Smart money is on Carolina destroying Denver, as the Panthers are really good, but as life often imitates sports, the NFL seems to be attempting to destroy public resistance to them, going after anyone who speaks ill will of their product in any way.

The league has become a monster, making 12 billion last year, and potentially looking at 13 billion this year.  Even though the league, and its team's owners, could afford to build a private facility for every one of their franchises (and many owners were billionaires BEFORE they bought their teams), they play the public heartstrings, convincing communities to waste billions in tax dollars to support a wildly profitable private enterprise.

This manipulation goes back to the initial forming of the modern NFL in the 1960's, when the league convinced lawmakers to label the newly merged NFL as a non-profit entity.  For the record, this wasn't necessarily for future team owner's profit margins.  They were mainly given this perk to avoid an anti-trust challenge, and to help encourage the growth of an up and coming sports league, but to say they didn't welcome this label is foolish.  The NFL has itself revoked it's non-profit status, as the league's teams already paid taxes.  With the change, they now don't have to publicly list the salary of the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, a man who clears mid-eight figures annually, a man whose salary was public due to non-profit laws.  Now he no longer has to reveal what he makes, especially then he's trying to defend the kid glove punishments the NFL hands down to its players when they commit horrific crimes.

To give the NFL credit, they've masterfully run their organization.  Twenty years ago, when they changed the competition rules, preventing the Super Bowl from boiling down to the Dallas Cowboys or San Francisco 49ers every year, the league's popularity exploded.  Used to be, many fans stopped watching their teams by early October, but now, they have a captive audience all the way through Christmas.  By spreading the wealth and having upheaval in the league, where bad teams from the year before can actually make the playoffs the next year, by having teams who had never sniffed the Super Bowl actually playing in it, and by honing their playoff schedule, they've made a better product, a far more enjoyable product.  Most sports would be happy with ending it there, but not the NFL.

They took the 'spread the wealth' idea from the teams to the media, spreading the broadcasting rights for the games amongst the four big national broadcasters.  CBS and FOX host the Sunday afternoon games, NBC has the incredibly popular Sunday night game, and ABC, through their broadcast partner ESPN, has the Monday night game.  Each network is desperate to keep the NFL happy, so now, through local franchise broadcasting networks, the major networks, and all their broadcast partners, the NFL has a direct presence with every sports media outlet in the country.  The only time you hear anything bad or critical of the NFL is when one of their players does something so egregious, social media drives the network news to have to cover it, but the media still gives the league the benefit of the doubt.

NFL stadiums are the most obvious and obnoxious form of media and public manipulation the league engages in.  The league's sell job is incredible.  They first start talking about how a facility is no longer adequate.  Never mind the fact the 'improvements' the facility needs are primarily money making for the team's owners; just ignore that.  The owners and league start to form an exploratory commission which feels like a campfire singalong, with talks of community loyalty, friendship, and sacrifice.  The lovefest starts to change when the public sees the price tag for the new facility.  Communities already straining to maximize their tax dollars are being asked to front hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies for a private company's work facility.  To control any early fires, the team and the league focuses on 'metro image,' 'civic partnerships' and 'not letting fans down.'

Then the NFL starts the real dog and pony show.  It's a three tiered attack.  First the team's owner starts showing up in large markets without an NFL team (it was Los Angeles for many years, but now it will likely be St. Louis, as their team, the Rams, has moved back to LA.  More on them in a sec).  They make a big deal out of flying into a wanting city, going out to some undeveloped site, and, as they rub their chin and nod in agreement, talk about the potential profitability of their team moving there, creating waves of panic amongst their fan base in their home city.

Then comes the truth about the costs, which are no where near the initial costs floated during the campfire singalong.  First the facility can't be just bare bones.  It needs a roof, and a substantial luxury ring for VIP's only.  It needs massive infrastructure improvements in the area surrounding the new stadium, costs which are often excluded from the negotiations, but tax payers are on the hook for.  Then comes the needed upgrades for parks and walkways, shuttle buses and plazas.  Then comes the seat licensing fees, forcing long time, loyal fans, to have to pay thousands of dollars for the right to even purchase their seats.  And let's not forget the owner.  After he has gotten every bell and whistle in the new facility, he goes back to the community ten years later, insisting the facility in now old and dated, needing massive tax payer funded upgrades.  Just in case, he warms up the plane, and starts making plans to visit Salt Lake, or Portland, Oregon, or Vegas.

Then comes the local media push, coerced into making sure only pro-stadium discussion is put forward.  There is an insinuation that local media might lose their press access, and the team freebie merchandise the pathetic sports media reporters and producers covet, if they don't tow the company line.  The media's tone is "OH MY GOD!!!  YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE YOUR FOOTBALL TEAM!  YOUR LIFE DOESN'T MATTER!  YOUR SPOUSE DOESN'T MATTER!  YOUR KIDS DON'T MATTER!  YOUR JOB AND HOUSE DON'T MATTER!  YOUR LIFE WILL BE A WORTHLESS HELLSCAPE WITHOUT A LOCAL FOOTBALL TEAM!!!"  Think I'm joking?  I heard two clowns on one of the sports talk stations insisting Minneapolis/St. Paul would be a third class city without the Vikings, and berated anyone who called to challenge them.  The day after the new MetroDome was approved, the day after, was when most of the media in this town first asked whether spending all of this money on a sports complex, for ten games a year(!), was really a good investment?  FYI, it isn't.  To their credit, Reusse and Barreiro were the only ones I heard bring up the cost prior to the stadium being approved.

To quote the Simpsons, "our national priorities are so screwed up."

But then you say, "well what's done is done.  At least we're assured the team will stick around."  Nope!  Look at St. Louis.  That city's tax payers are still paying millions on a football stadium without a team.  They did what the league ordered them to do.  They built the stadium, they made upgrades, they paid for it with tax payer dollars and the fans did support the team.  Still wasn't enough, as the league and the Rams' owner vilified the community in order to jump ship and head to Los Angeles.  We saw this in Cleveland too.  There is no fan loyalty from the NFL anymore, only money worship.

The NFL, having mastered public manipulation for direct benefits to the teams and league, is now on a mission to make sure nothing negative is EVER reported about the league.  Let's start with the NFL, and other sports leagues, dirty secret about supporting the troops.  These NFL games and broadcasts are draped with imagery of our armed forces, in a way to win over public support for the league.  Reality: they only look at the troops as props, something proven when all the sports leagues were exposed for taking money in order to do their 'salutes.'  Outside of an initial outrage, followed by media reports which insisted the NFL, and other sports leagues, were really giving far more value than they received, that story disappeared quickly.  No word on whether they still cash the Armed Forces checks.

If your city is chosen to host the Super Bowl, not only will you have to spend another few hundred million in upgrades and perks for the wealthiest of wealthy (for the Super Bowl in Minnesota in a few years, we have to provide a new cell phone tower for NFL and owners use, and comped luxury suites for the owners and their families.  Little Billy has to get his free mini bar because grandpa owns a team!), but the city is handed over to the NFL for weeks ahead of time.  They becomes the defacto government, controlling roads, police, signage, private businesses, traffic, homelessness and loitering, and managing taxpayer funded community upgrades which the NFL demands!  And to those who insist hosting a Super Bowl is a real big deal, making a city more visible, who hosted it three years ago?  Four?  Five?  Most people have no clue.  How many long term jobs can be directly linked to a community hosting a Super Bowl?  Very few, if any.

Once again, a controlled local media exerts a tremendous amount of pressure on the community to ignore these issues, but the NFL is showing it's true colors when it comes to stories they can't control.

Ever since we realized 'having your bell rung' was actually a serious brain injury, the world has become very aware of the dangers of repetitive head trauma in sports.  Football is not the only sport which has this problem, but they've fought against their own players, downplayed the issue repeatedly, and even today makes it seem like not having players unconscious on the gridiron is a product of the 'wussification' of the sport.  When players started dying at 42, we realized something was wrong.  The fallout has been dramatic with many parents (myself included) preventing their kids from playing sports where repeated head hits are common.  Football's participation numbers have really taken a hit.  The NFL has done some public relation's work on this issue, but many insist they're still pushing back, acting as if concussions are bad for business.  It's like when the NRA talks about gun violence.  They say, "boy isn't it a shame," but do nothing else, even though they could.  The NFL acknowledges the problem, but they know talking about it too much hurts the sport, so they try not too.  The NFL even seemed to be a fighting against the movie Concussion, starring Will Smith, a movie about the discovery of the concussion problem.  It's undeniable the Academy Awards have a race issue, but has anyone asked how much influence the NFL had in making sure Concussion, and it's star, weren't recognized with Oscar nods?

How about the Al-Jazeera America (AJA) story which has put one of the NFL's superstars, Peyton Manning of the Super Bowl bound Denver Broncos, under a dark shadow.  AJA was doing a story on the questionable health clinic The Guyer Institute in Indianapolis, an institute which has been alleged to be dealing with players who use performance enhancing drugs, like Human Growth Hormone (HGH).  While secretly recording former employee Charlie Sly, Sly himself started offering up Manning, with zero initiation from AJA.  AJA didn't go into this story trying to do a hit piece on Payton Manning, but when a former employee talks of how Peyton Manning's wife was receiving shipments of HGH, and how Manning would be coming to the clinic after hours, AJA had to go with it.  The NFL and their controlled media's response?  They have attacked AJA for the story, banking heavily on Charlie Sly recanting his confession, and hiring big name crisis managers to protect the Manning legacy.  Sport reporters have refused to talk about it, even going as far as defending Manning, while never once addressing the facts of the AJA report.  AJA is now closing up shop in the USA.  AJA wasn't on the strongest financial footing anyway, but did their advertisers get calls from another 'organization,' telling them to pull their advertising, or else?  Having gone over the AJA story, which seems very journalistically strong, there clearly are some real questions about the integrity of Peyton Manning which need some answers.  My guess is the NFL is running enough coverage for Manning to get past Sunday's game, and then he'll quickly retire.

But now, there's a new story about the NFL which really concerns me, as it signifies the NFL testing how powerful they are.  Troy Haupt might have the only copy of the original broadcast of the very first Super Bowl.  How he got it is not important, but he has approached the NFL with a proposition; he'll fork over the tape, for a million dollars.  You'd think a league, which makes eleven figures in profit, would be drooling at the chance to get its hands on a unique, collectable moment.  The NFL has said it will only pay $30,000 for the tape.  The Packers and Chiefs, the two teams in Super Bowl I, would probably pay two million at the drop of a hat.  For goodness sake, Goodell could buy it himself without missing a dime!  Experts all say the tape is worth a million.  The NFL won't budge.  Not only will they not budge, they have threatened a lawsuit to prevent Mr. Haupt from selling his own private tape to anyone else in a private transaction (how many Packer fans would line up for that!), and they definitely seem involved in CBS, the network which has the rights to broadcast Super Bowl 50, cancelling a pre-game interview with Troy.  Imagine the Louvre telling someone who wants to sell them a Picasso for a million dollars they'll only pay $30,000, and if the owner tries to sell it to anyone else, they will sue.  Pretty comparable.  The NFL seems to be going out of it's way to be a jackass.  It's like they are drunk on their own power.

A fair question: is the NFL really the bad guy, or is it the insanely easy to manipulate media in this country which is the problem?  The media, and specifically in this case, the sports media, are pathetic lap dogs, hollow shells of their former selves.  I remember media outlets refusing to be manipulated by the sports team owners, opting to cover the teams from outside the facility as opposed to constantly run fluff pieces about the team.  Back then, sports media knew the teams needed them far more than the media needed player access and bobblehead dolls.  As easy as it is to be extremely critical of sports media, I think, for me, the intent to manipulate and control originates with the NFL.  Just because the media can be played like a fiddle doesn't excuse the NFL's actions.

For the record, I like football, and I like the Vikings.  It's parsley on the plate of my life.  I don't obsess about it, nor do I let it blur the things which are really important to me.  It doesn't control me; maybe that's why this blog piece was so easy to write.

Good luck Carolina and Denver.  I'll be watching the Puppy Bowl.  At least in that game, the tugging at the fans emotional heartstrings is due to cuteness, not greed.