Posted on 10/28/2010 7:25:37 PM PDT by the scotsman
(excerpt)
'With all the sudden blather surrounding “devastating hits” in football, the NFL has managed to deflect attention from the fact that the owners plan on canceling the 2011 season. This plan is not lost on the TV networks, who will not only have to shell out $4 billion to NFL owners for a whole lotta nothin‘, but will have to come up with alternative programming on Sundays and Mondays — programming that won’t own the Nielsen ratings like the NFL does.
NBC might be just ahead of the curve on this matter. If the 2011 season disappears, the Peacock Network will still be able to show football on Sunday nights — just not the same football you might be accustomed to seeing.
NBC Sports and its partner Universal Sports Network, which is currently an over-the-air digital subchannel for most local NBC affiliates, bought the broadcast rights to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand starting in September of next year. Both networks plan to show all 48 matches, with the bulk of them shown live on Universal Sports.'
(Excerpt) Read more at davesfootballblog.com ...
They’re wearing pink for an incredibly worthwhile charity.
That was my question too. You can’t tell me the network guys weren’t stupid enough to not cover a contingency like that.
When there was a strike about 50 years ago, folks got used to watching Canadian Football. Love those wide fields.
Rugby is considered a lot more accessible to a mass American audience - similar enough to the football they are used to, that even somebody who has only ever watched the American game can work out roughly what is going on straight away.
I will be watching. It is high time that Rugby stepped into the spotlight. A real man’s sport.
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