The National Football League continues to serve up boring games for its fans who have responded by not watching them. I received a number of responses to my recent article on this lamentable trend and the “action” in the days following publication did not show much promise that things would be getting better. The issue of the magazine with the article featured on the cover appeared a week ago today. That night, on the flagship “Monday Night Football” broadcast, the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals played five quarters of dreary football. Final score: 6-6. Neither team could score a touchdown, even when provided with an extra quarter in which to get it done.
Then, on Thursday night, when players should be healing and not playing nationally televised games, the Tennessee Titans defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 36-22 and it wasn’t that close. Neither team has what could be called a “national following” and neither is a threat to reach the Super Bowl.T he broadcast had the feel of mere scaffolding designed to support the endless advertisements
Sunday morning, in London, the Washington Redskins and the Cincinnati Bengals battled to a 27-27 tie. Ties once had an honored place in football. They generated two of the game’s immortal one-liners. Michigan State coach, Duffy Dougherty, once said, “The alumni are with you win or tie.” He had reason to know. In 1966, his Spartans played Notre Dame to a 10-10 tie in what had been hyped as the “game of the century”. And, then, two years later, underdog Harvard was losing to heavily favored rival, Yale, but in the last 42 seconds of the game, scored 16 points. It was a stunning comeback and generated the immortal Crimson headline: Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.
But those were other times … and college games. Now, even the scholar-athletes have given up on tie games. Somebody must win.
The Redskins/Bengals no-decision game was played in London because the NFL’s leaders believe their product can be marketed to a global audience as “entertainment.”
Assuming this is true, shouldn’t the games be entertaining, at the least? Somehow two ties and a dud between non-contenders does not sound like marquee material.
