Rambling Thoughts about the NFL and their "Dixie Chicks Moment" (Vanity)

Self | 9/27/2017 | Alberta's Child

[Alberta's Child]

After all the excitement and the flurry of media coverage and great posts I've read here on Free Republic in the last few days, I thought I'd post this series of random, rambling thoughts about the self-inflicted demise of what had once been one of this country's iconic cultural institutions: the National Football League.

I gathered these from many of the things I've posted in recent days, and I wanted to share them with anyone (everyone) who wants to chime in on this unfolding disaster. I was going to post it as a more serious, formal article, but I figured it would be easier to read it this way ...

• I never thought I’d see the day when standing up for the national anthem before a sporting event would be considered such an ordeal for professional athletes, and the source of so much controversy.

• I find it comical, ironic, and pathetic that foreign-born Major League Baseball players who aren’t U.S. citizens and may not even speak any English always stand respectfully for our national anthem. A Japanese-born player, for example, would set himself on fire in the on-deck circle before he ever did anything to disrespect any national anthem – in Japan or anywhere else.

• Speaking of which … Do you think the leftist media in this country would be carrying on with all this nonsense about the "constitutional rights" of these athletes to kneel during the national anthem if this involved U.S.-born baseball players who refused to stand for the Canadian national anthem before a World Series game, or American soccer players who refused to stand for the national anthem of a Latin American team in the World Cup?

• Talk about a horrible messaging strategy for the NFL players who began this stupid "taking a knee" protest. Does anyone even know what they’re supposed to be protesting about? Great way to get your message completely obscured by the controversy around your protest, you morons.

• Interesting Point of Trivia ... Based on my research, the entertainment sector in this country collectively comprises about a $1.3 trillion industry. There are only about 12 countries in the world that have a national GDP larger than that. And this is all discretionary, folks.

• There's nothing more dangerous for a major U.S. entertainment business enterprise than to screw around with people who can easily spent discretionary dollars anywhere. The problem many of these professional sports teams face is that they have almost no hard assets of any value. Take away the NFL's TV and merchandising contracts, and most NFL teams probably have a net worth of almost $0.

• If you want to know why the NFL has a problem right now, just look at that list of advertisers. The NFL used to be known for advertising to a core fan base comprised of younger to middle-aged men. You'd have ads for beer and pickup trucks. Later, you had luxury cars and Viagra added to the mix as this fan base aged and retired. Now, the NFL is advertising to TV viewers who don't fit into any major demographic group at all. Their advertisers are hardly any different from what you'd see on Olympic figure skating, or weeknight TV sitcoms. That's a mark of the NFL's success over the years, but the problem is that most of their viewers now are casual fans at best, and will quickly get bored of a TV broadcast that has 11-15 minutes of football in 3+ hours of television commercials. This is why the NFL is so desperate to avoid even a hint of a "boycott" by football fans. These fans aren’t going to boycott the NFL at all. They’re just going to walk away and find something else to do on Sunday afternoons.

• The media and some political figures have been predictable in slamming President Trump for comments that allegedly had a racial overtone. This item is very telling because Trump never mentioned anything about race in his comments about the NFL. But his comments are viewed by his critics in a racial context because the NFL players he criticized have already publicly stated that their silly antics are about nothing BUT race.

• Captain Obvious Chimes in Here … Listen to the public address announcer before any NFL game when they are getting ready to play the national anthem. Every announcer gives some variation of the directive: "Now, please stand, remove your hats ..." OK – so we all stand and remove our hats. Am I missing something here?

• When are NFL fans going to figure out that they are the middle-aged equivalent of white kids wearing their hats on sideways and playing hip-hop sh!t on their iPods?

• A BIG Indicator of the NFL's Probem Here … Rush Limbaugh started off his Monday morning show this week by announcing that he didn't watch any NFL games the previous day. It was the first time that has happened in 45 years. He didn't even react that way when he was forced to resign from ESPN under political pressure, or when the NFL wouldn't let him own a franchise. Just think about that for a moment. Even more telling in Limbaugh’s monologue was that he presented this as an issue that had been simmering for some time and was the culmination of a lot of things he didn’t like about the NFL. The national anthem debacle was simply the last straw. Yes – the NFL has a very big problem, folks.

• I really can't fault Roger Goodell and NFL owners for all the public statements they issued in the aftermath of President Trump's epic rant at the Alabama political rally last Friday night, even if these public statements were botched, uniformly pathetic, and delivered the absolute wrong message for the occasion. You can't fault them for their desperation in these circumstances, since it's not often that the President of the United States tells your customers that: (1) it would be great for some of your employees ("sons of bitches" that they are) to be fired; and (2) they should just get up and leave your place of business until you and your employees get your act together. What President Trump did last Friday was the equivalent of telling the world that McDonalds hamburgers taste like garbage.

• Having said that, the NFL and its owners must be sitting there praying for fans and the media to keep focusing on the allegedly "divisive" comments about any "son of a bitch" on an NFL roster who refuses to stand for the national anthem. This means they won't be talking about the OTHER part of President Trump's rant that didn't get a lot of coverage – namely, his complaint that the NFL has ruined football by turning it into a dull game with penalty flags for silly, stupid infractions. I'm sure more than a few NFL owners must have been dragged into an emergency room after that one.

• Surveys taken by various polling firms and market research outfits in the last couple of days show that a solid majority of Americans (and I'm sure this majority is enormous when you only include football fans) support President Trump on this one. Why am I not surprised at this? And why am I not surprised that the NFL and its media partners ARE surprised by this?

• Speaking of which … Do you get the sense that the NFL commissioner's office and the owners of every NFL team have all been on one long, continuous conference call since Friday night?

• Roger Goodell and a lot of these owners really come across as befuddled dopes in a number of ways in their response to this disaster, but one common theme among their public statements really takes the cake. How can any of them keep a straight face when they bloviate about the importance of "unity" on their teams, while the scenes we saw unfolding last weekend demonstrated anything BUT unity? Unity? Seriously? What kind of "unity" are you showing when the national anthem is playing in various stadiums, and you have players standing, kneeling, stretching, locking arms, or even cowering in the locker room? You'll find more unity in a prison recreation yard.

• Speaking of which … Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised at how quickly unity replaced diversity as the stupid, faddish corporate buzz-word of the moment?

• I give Pittsburgh fans a lot of credit here. I've seen a number of videos on the internet showing NFl fans burning their team merchandise in a public show of disgust, and it seemed like a disproportionate number of those videos were posted by Pittsburgh fans. This isn't just because the team has a passionate, hard-core fan base, but because those fans surely noticed something else that didn't get a lot of media play in all the coverage of the team's "protest" last Sunday. After engaging in that stupid, cowardly, embarrassing charade for the national anthem, the Steelers went out on the field and lost to a Chicago Bears team that a lot of folks were picking to be one of the worst in the NFL this year. These Pittsburgh fans surely assumed – CORRECTLY, I might add – that the team spent more time and energy preparing for their pre-game temper tantrum than the actual game. As a fan I'd feel not just insulted, but ripped off by the team.

• Speaking of which … I think the videos posted all over the internet of fans burning their NFL merchandise have stunned a lot of people in the NFL. The one from that Pittsburgh Steelers fan in Texas whose great-uncle is entombed at the bottom of Pearl Harbor was epic.

• Speaking of which … I wasn't surprised to see Ben Roethlisberger come out and express public shame (even if it was contrived) over what happened before the Steelers-Bears game. He's been in Pittsburgh long enough to realize that the disgraceful stunt they pulled at a road game in Chicago is never going to be tolerated in "Deer Hunter Country" back in western Pennsylvania.

• I may have had a dream that I read a public statement released by Hillary Clinton on this matter, in which she thanked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "for standing up to that racist, sexist, nationalist, misogynist, white supremacist Russian agent in the White House." She also reminded him that after the NFL goes down in flames and he loses his ass like she did, he should note that when he writes his memoirs, the title What Happened has already been taken.

• Do you get the sense that business schools will be using this whole disastrous sequence of events as a textbook case study in how NOT to address a public-relations nightmare? This was the NFL's one chance for a "Dixie Chicks Moment," and they sure didn’t miss the opportunity to foul everything up as badly as they possibly could.

• I knew the NFL had run its course more than 25 years ago when people spent as much time talking about Super Bowl commercials as they did about the Super Bowl game itself. Think about the stupidity of that for just a moment. I have to give the NFL credit for milking that idiotic sh!t for as long as they did.

• I saw a quote in a media report the other day from NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart. The name was familiar, so I quickly checked on it and confirmed that it's the same guy who served as the White House spokesman and lying propagandist for Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. I also learned that Barack and Michelle Obama bought his house in D.C. when they left the White House earlier this year. Does anyone think that's a coincidence, or does it just confirm that the NFL's primary focus for the last 18 months has been on currying favor with the Federal government rather than on football?

• Lockhart was hired by the NFL in February 2016, which coincides exactly with the start of the primary season for the 2016 presidential election? Does anyone thing THIS is a coincidence, or was this part of a strategy for the NFL to leverage its political connections with a major political party that has received enormous piles of money and political coverage from a media empire like NBC/Comcast? Do you think maybe the term "crony capitalism" was made up specifically to describe a business-political relationship like this?

• A hundred years from now, when they look back on this period of U.S. history they’ll be in utter awe of the remarkable ability of this New York City billionaire to wage a populist crusade on behalf of all the "bleacher bums" of America.

[Slyfox]

I was a huge Dixie Chicks fan from way back when they were doing cowgirl songs in cowgirl outfits. I still miss their sweet harmonies.

With that said, knowing the group as I did, I found that they really did not understand their audience. They had no idea who was really listening to them.

So, when Natalie made her stand on foreign soil during war time, they were very surprised at the fall out. I believe that they have still not gotten over it.

Maybe the NFL should look at their situation squarely and figure out who their audience is - BIG HINT - it is not the leftists.

And they also need to look closely at their own rule book which does not allow displays that look like political statements.

[Alberta's Child]

Thank you! :-)

[Alberta's Child]

Yep -- I focused on the Steelers for two reasons:

1. Their pre-game bullsh!t was particularly bizarre and played out disgracefully.

2. The reactions of some Pittsburgh fans I've seen online have been epic, to say the least. LOL.

[arthurus]

Very nicely put together.

[kanawa]

bkmk

[Alberta's Child]

It’s a good comparison. The Dixie Chicks are obviously much smaller than the NFL and not nearly as well entrenched in our culture, but their tone-deaf actions were amazing to watch.

[justa-hairyape]

The NFL is definitely a service Provider. That service is a team playing a game of football. Without the game, their players are worthless. Only other capital assets are equipment and facilities they may own for training. Any merchandise owned will also be worthless if the game collapses. They do not own the stadiums. So yeah, net worth is very low, possibly negative when debts are added, if the game collapses. Think the big losers will be networks that sell advertising. Could finally collapse parts of that crony industry. Personally think the NFL peaked right before they copyrighted the Stupid Bowl phrase. That was when a significant number of people started questioning the greed of the league.

[Alberta's Child]

The beauty of this was the way it was all played out by President Trump since last Friday.

When I heard his epic rant at the Alabama rally, my first thought was that he had tossed a hand grenade right into the NFL-media crowd.

After a couple of days I decided that it happened a little differently. He rolled a bunch of hand grenades into the circle-jerk known as the NFL and their media partners. And these @ssholes have spent five days running around trying to pull all the pins out themselves.

[abb]

Inspector Clouseau’s bomb-handling skills come to mind.

[Alberta's Child]

The Cowboys might actually be an unusual case among NFL teams. I believe they own their practice facility and a lot of real estate in that area of Dallas-Fort Worth.

[Alberta's Child]

LMAO.

[justa-hairyape]

Wow. 1988. You saw the light a long time ago. It was relatively easy for me to stop watching since I was a Lions fan.

[abb]

Lookee here!

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/begins-stubhub-advertises-10-discount-nfl-september-tickets/

It Begins: Stubhub Advertises 10% Discount on NFL Tickets
September 27, 2017 by Jim Hoft 81 Comments

On Sunday over 200 NFL players knelt during the US national anthem on Gold Star Mothers Day.

A poll on Tuesday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans stand with President Trump and the National Anthem.

And nearly 51% of participants in the poll say they watch less NFL football due to the politics.

Now this…
Stubhub is advertising 10% discount on NFL tickets.

[right way right]

“There's nothing more dangerous for a major U.S. entertainment business enterprise than to screw around with people who can easily spent discretionary dollars anywhere. The problem many of these professional sports teams face is that they have almost no hard assets of any value. Take away the NFL’s TV and merchandising contracts, and most NFL teams probably have a net worth of almost $0”

I liked that point, even though a bit exaggerated it makes a really strong point about what we can actually do.

The best thing that we could hope comes out of this is that 'Real' Americans would gain confidence in our own power. I hope the NFL goes teats up and a new American Football league takes its place.

[Alberta's Child]

That’s great news. TV ratings and secondary ticket sales are the best indicators of an NFL team’s appeal at any given moment. TV contract values and initial ticket sales aren’t good indicators because these are often done months and years in advance.

[IMTOFT]

“A real bellwether as to how this is going to play out is the typically very high visibility Sunday matchup between the arch divisional rivals Steelers & Ravens in Baltimore. Keep an eye on that one.”

And as a former diehard Ravens fan and Steeler-hater, I agree, I am curious as to how that game will turn out...I’ll read about it later, my desire to watch that game has dissolved to zero...when I sat down and watched the Baltimore Ravens - who previously represented the birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner kneel for the national anthem, then stand respectfully for “God Save the Queen” on foreign soil, it sickened me and angered me...they deserved that loss and the loss of support of many hard-working, patriotic fans of all races, religions and creeds...when I saw the final score later on Sunday, my immediate reaction was one from Seinfeld...that’s a shame...looking forward to my Sunday as I’m free from the NFL...

[Billthedrill]

Great stuff, and thanks for posting! This affair is still in its beginning stages, so no definitive comment is really possible at the moment, but you've brought up some very interesting points. I think that the majority of players are fuzzy at best on precisely what it is their teammates are protesting, and are participating out of a sense of team loyalty that has run them into conflict with the loyalties of their fans and their country. Quite a few people of less than discerning intellect have been persuaded by sheer repetition that America is evil and must be punished, and the peer pressure brought on by others of even less discerning intellect in the popular media has persuaded them into an act of unreasoning vanity. One notices that precisely none of these incredibly high-paid protesters has offered either to quit his job or to donate its proceedings to the disadvantaged. It's all about the optics.

The outrage that is pervasive in those media concerning Colin Kaepernik's failure to land another job in the NFL is a case in point. Mind you, the guy turned down a qualifying offer worth more money than any of us ordinary citizens could hope to see in a lifetime; the outrage is for him paying any price whatever for behaving in a deliberately provocative manner toward what he, and the media, knew perfectly well were perhaps the ultimate hot buttons in American politics. In short, they are the enlightened superiors of a fan-base that they deny has any right even to object.

It isn't turning out like that. They're blaming Trump, but this is older than Trump's Presidency, and his role in the matter was not to take any action within his power as Chief Executive, but merely to speak out. That is all he has done. The people who started this inferno are blaming the guy who pointed his finger at it and said "Fire".

I think that a very large number of people in the sports media who have hooked onto political correctness in their own professional ascension are now stuck with it as their reason for existence, and are likely to go down with it when finally the public has had enough of it. It shouldn't be too difficult to anticipate that blatant disrespect for the flag and the anthem and the people it represents would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The purpose of political agitation is to provoke, and they've managed that brilliantly. Now, the deluge.

[justa-hairyape]

These national anthem protestors just don’t get it at all. There are times when you HAVE to drop politics. For example, when the US sends troops overseas for a significant conflict. The goal of every citizen should be to support the troops and get them back home successfully. Disagreed with the need to send troops on a few occasions, but once they were sent and American life’s were on the line, I stopped the politics and got behind the effort.

[Chainmail]

Well done - really succinct and covers all aspects.

Excellent work.

[jeannineinsd]

The biggest problem they face is that they have too many different kinds of “customers” (fans, TV networks and sponsors), and they may not be able to keep all three of them happy at the same time.

I agree about the too many "customers". I think, dollarwise, the NFL gets more cash from the TV networks that they do directly from fans purchasing tickets to see games in the local stadiums. The TV networks get the cash to pay the NFL from the sponsors. The sponsors are actually paying for the attention (or eyeballs) of the fans watching the game. So, I think this goes around in circles.

I think most seats at local stadiums are already sold for the season, to season ticket holders. I believe the NFL has multi-year contracts with the TV stations. I don't think the NFL will immediately feel a cash pinch if fewer people are viewing the games.

I think the TV Networks, and the media companies in general, are the most vulnerable financially. The networks need the NFL as a content provider. If you look at the Nielsen ratings of most-watched TV shows, football games are always at the top of the list. The singing shows (The Voice, America's Got Talent) and dancing shows (Dancing with the Stars) do well in the ratings, but not as well as football. The network-produced comedies and dramas do not do so well. The networks no longer have the ability to produce entertainment that large numbers of people wish to watch. If people are no longer turning in to football, there goes a large part of their audience, and part of their ability to charge for advertising.

The NFL owners may nor may not change tactics. They may or may not come to appreciate their fans. Time will tell.

My own belief is that the media will not change their focus. They are content to roll left and die. They give the impression they hate America and Americans. I believe the people running those companies will push their politics no matter what, even if their corporations are run into the ground.