Posted on 09/26/2006 6:01:32 AM PDT by LS
I watched the full TiVo-d MNF football this morning, and was a little disturbed by some of the things that I heard.
First off, I rooted for the Saints. I like their team, and they are a classic "underdog" story. I hope they win every game until they lose to my Cowboys in the NFC Championship.
BUT . . . the message that seemed to come across---I could be wrong---was that football "was" the future of NO, that it was all the city had. Having Spike Lee in the booth didn't help, but beyond that, it seemed like the reconstruction of the SuperDome, which, I'm guessing, was done overwhelmingly with tax dollars was kind of the wrong message to be sending.
I could have missed it, but I didn't see the "success stories" being featured of the private companies that had come back (have any?) or the private-sector's successful rebuilding of communities. (They did mention Harry Connick, Jr.'s program, but didn't really focus on its success.
I guess my concern is that the underlying feeling was that if ALL a city has is a football team---no political leaders who can rally the public, no civic leaders who can create an atmosphere of confidence, and no entrepreneurs (aside from Emeril, who has done a whale of a job) who are creating jobs---then you don't have much.
Now, I do think it could be a reasonable business strategy to re-build from the "inside out," and bring back tourism, sports teams, restaurants, hotels, etc. But that would require something the MNF team didn't want to touch: the incredible corruption of Nagin and the LA scene, and the necessity of having a strong, reliable police force that will make tourists feel safe. (Last couple of times I was in NO, I did not feel safe.)
Am I making too much of this, or were others here troubled?
ESPN football coverage is an insult. They have no respect for the game. They are selling or promoting or gossiping about things of which they have no knowlege and does not pertain to football. In a preseason game they showed more pictures of the guys in the booth than they did of the game. They interviewed Jerry Jones in the booth and kept showing these four guys talking all the time about Terrell Owens. I thought I was watching a male Monday Night version of the the View only Jerry Jones has a better plastic surgeon than any of those witches on the View.
I turned it off when Spike came on.
I agree.
I can't warm up to Theismann, Kornheiser and Tirico.
Next year, they ought to bring Madden and Michaels back to MNF.
They're not that great - but they're much better than the current crew.
What he's doing mostly is LOSING.
Vick is a talent, no doubt, but he was a fool to leave VT early - he could have been an all-timer in college.
There must be a way to better use his ability in the NFL but until then he and the Falcons are going nowhere.
All I heard was that MORON John Kornhusker, Kornholer, Kornjag or whatever the mope's name is, blather on about NO still not being rebuilt.
It got so bad I almost did 'an Elvis' and shot the TV.
I don't know where they found that jackass, but they better lose him -- and fast. (Is Howard Cosell still available?/s)
I've always enjoyed my trips to NOLA. The food is awesome and I love the French Quarter..take lots of spending money cause they have fun shops. Nice Zoo and Aquarium. Driving can be a bit scary and the roads not the best, but it was always an event! lol
I haven't kept up with how the zoo and aquarium are doing, but I have heard that the Quarter faired well. I haven't been since the storm, but it used to really capture my attention how you'd go from basically a slum area to the French Quarter just one street over. And lots of characters who don't mind stopping for photo ops!
NFL football -- particularly nationally televised events -- is nothing more than a high-priced entertainment extravaganza, and has become increasingly dull for serious football fans as the "entertainment" aspect of it becomes more extraneous/ridiculous/etc.
Spike Lee in the booth is no different than Janet Jackson doing a halftime show, which was no different than Terrell Owens and some slutty broad doing a promo for an asinine show like "Desperate Housewives."
Someone like Vince Lombardi would have left football to coach women's volleyball if the NFL had tried to pollute itself this way back in his day.
Please don't ask for links on this -- I haven't been able to find them. That being said, I remember when Los Angeles was looking into a team (the team went to Houston and cost that lovely city $2 billion in public funds) the NFL (and LA Board member Mark Ridley-Thomas) tried to convince us that teams generate revenue, but there were several definitive studies that demonstrated that it is a net loss and, at best a break-even proposition.
That's why we don't have a team. Every now and then LA can show collective intelligence.
I will watch MNF with the mute on as long as the little bald pansy is in the booth. This is the absolute worst threesome covering sports today, hands down. No wonder NASCAR is becoming THE sport in the US. You would never hear the pitiful Oprahish commentary of last night coming from a NASCAR broadcast booth.
They suck
He does a good job on PTI of keeping his politics out of the discussions but maybe Disney wants him to step it up a bit.
You seem to be about the sanest person on this thread.
Anyone that did not expect the f'ball game to be secondary to what the NFL pitched in $55Mil to fix up, thereby kicking in their share to repair a huge revenue/jobs producer for that city, pegs pretty high on the naive scale.
What I heard last night was a city saying "We're Back". It reminded me of what we heard from NYC after 9/11. I thought any political stuff was played down, and I appreciated the savvy to not PO over half of a potential market from even Spike Lee.
This city knows that it needs to re-establish its revenue base to rebuild and they let the country know last night that NO will have things to see and places to visit for tourists.
None of the info - mercial aspects of the MNF broadcast bothered me at all.
"Hooking up the whole NFL thing with Greenday and U-2 bothered me."
Oh yeah, that too. Goth Boy was just starting that September song and I immediately turned it. Number one son complained and I told him it could also be viewed upstairs.
Pre Katrina: Texas.
I wondered about that, too. Especially when you see some neighborhoods looking exactly as they did a year ago, as if flattened by a bomb. I think they'd like to think that this will help with visitors coming in and spending money, creating jobs, building the economy. IF they can host another Super Bowl soon, and get other tourism dollars rolling again, it would be helpful, a real help toward rebuilding. But it doesn't do much for the families still displaced. Or the levees. It seems awkward, to say the least, that FEMA can shell out that kind of dough, part of it (I gather from other posts) a gift, not even a loan, while families with mortgages on what is now nothing aren't getting a similar 'gift'.
"NFL football is nothing more than a high-priced entertainment extravaganza, and has become increasingly dull for serious football fans"
You're insane. Football has never been better or more popular. The league really made some good decisions with realignment and free agency. These are the NFL's glory days.
Most of the money spent down there was money down a drain, or perhaps a sewer would be a better analogy.
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