#51 Big Ben.
It doesn’t matter how crappy the QB is. If the stripes want you to win. You’ll win.
So, you are saying they have conversations like this in Manhattan:
GOODELL: Look folks, football has taken a hit in the last few years. The league is mediocre...people find it difficult to really love or really hate a team, there is no emotion in it.
NFL MARKETING PEON 1: Sir, I have an idea. Why don’t we figure out a way to get people involved emotionally....play on their baser emotions?
GOODELL: How do we do that? Weekly stories about the players, their personal lives or such?
NFL MARKETING PEON 1: No, we already do that.
NFL MARKETING PEON 2: How about this? We pump up one team, make them unbeatable, really polarize things. Those who love the winning team will really love them, and the others will really hate them.
GOODELL: We already have that. Is that the best you can do? Christ, they send me these people fresh out of Harvard Business School, and I get tripe like this. I could have thought of that myself.
NFL MARKETING PEON 3: Excuse me...why don’t we make it UNFAIR? Americans LOVE underdogs, especially when they think that those underdogs are being unfairly held down because the playing field is not level.
GOODELL: Hmm...interesting...tell me more.
MARKETING PEON 3: We FIX it. We make it blatant! We put the power of the league squarely behind the winners...pile it on...make it OBVIOUS! We can have the officials make all the calls in favor of the Top Dog! Think of it! I can hear the howls of outrage at the officials! Fans will be on their feet! Everyone will have an opinion...even little old grannies who never watched a football game in their life!
GOODELL: YES! We can make the team appear to people like Darth Vader and the Imperial Storm Troopers! Great idea! What team do we choose?
MARKETING PEON 1: Sir, I suggest the New England Patriots.
GOODALL: Really? Oh, come on. How can we do that? Tom Brady is a nice guy, has a great smile and good skills. How are we going to turn him into Darth Vader for God’s sake?
MARKETING PEON 3: Not Tom Brady. We can just say he is a closet homosexual...not the poster boy they make him out to be. We have to make BELICHICK the bad guy! Think Tom Landry with his hat and his stuffy demeanor, while his teams pounded the competition. Sure, they hated Staubach, but...who did they REALLY hate? Tom Landry! And look at Belechick...he is RIPE for the picking! He even LOOKS like Richard Nixon!
GOODALL: YOU’RE PROMOTED! YOU...(points at MARKETING PEON 2)...clean out your office...you’re out of here. Get me Mike Pereira, head of the NFL Officiating on the phone! He can get those squeaky clean officials to toe the line on this. (Points at MARKETING PEON 3) You’re a sneaky bastard...YOU do it.
How did I know the state you are from before I checked. I think that Big Ben and the Steelers kicked your butt this year.
Seattle, still crying after all these years.