Take on the NFL, gripes

[wdm1219inpenna]

It appears almost without question or doubt, that the National Football League is the most successful, and most efficiently run sports business of all the major sports leagues in America.

That being said, I have a few gripes that I wanted to share, and to see if you concur, or disagree.

In no particular order....

#1 - The new referee uniforms. Those wide stripes, YIPES!!!! Go back to the classic look like college uses!

#2 - Post-season officiating. While the Super Bowl officiating was also subpar, consider too the terrible call made on Polamalu in the Indy playoff game. These are supposed to be the "best of the best"?

#3 - Why can they not put an official in the announcer's booth? Since it seems the tv announcers have access to so many angles, etc. I suppose one reason is concern that they might somehow influence the official to make a wrong call?

#4 - Everything has a sponsor! The first down line is brought to you by......this is the Visa halftime report, EVERYTHING has a freaking sponsor! And then when they come back FROM commercials, to show closeups of the cheerleaders, they put the giant sponsor logos over them..... Why BOTHER?!?!?!

#5 - Why do some officials say "Prior to the snap, false start"? OBVIOUSLY it was PRIOR to the snap! I've noticed this being said less this year however...

#6 - Commercials after kickoffs. I can understand ONCE in a while, but why must they do so after EVERY kick off, save the opening and 2nd half kickoff? I guess I should be GRATEFUL that they don't cut away for a commercial then too!!!

#7 - FOX pregame show. No more Jillian Barberie, that sucks. Joe Buck taking over for JB, then leaving to go announce, that sucks. The other guy, Craig, sitting in for him at halftime, he's ok. Why doesn't FOX just use HIM instead? I hate that FOX goes "on location" now, and the acoustics for their pregame show sucks.

I'm sure I will think of more, but these all come to mind off the top of my head.

Regards,

Bill McD.

[The_Admiral]

Responses:

#1 - I agree. I've sort of gotten used to them, but they're still ugly.

#2 - I suppose it was just a weird year where lots of bad calls snuck by. Maybe this year it'll be tighter for no real reason.

#3 - You answered your own question.

#4 - Not a problem unique to just one league.

#5 - Hah, never noticed the redundancy that I didn't notice.

#6 - I agree. Sometimes it's hard to follow a game I don't care about when there are so many breaks.

#7 - I agree. This was a real brainfart. I preferred the studio to this setup, with loud obnoxious fans yelling all the time. It's like watching the Today show.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

#4 - Everything has a sponsor! The first down line is brought to you by......this is the Visa halftime report, EVERYTHING has a freaking sponsor! And then when they come back FROM commercials, to show closeups of the cheerleaders, they put the giant sponsor logos over them..... Why BOTHER?!?!?!

Don't let this guy ever watch Auto Racing.

[dfwabel]

1-Their uniforms are gorwing on me. Previous posts on this subject mentioned the NFL patened the design in an effort to keep companies to associate the game official's image with their product during their a game telecast. If true, brilliant!

2-Last season, they returned to "all star" officiating crews after going with the regular season crews from 2003 and 2004 playoffs. They should keep the entire crew format.

3-NFL instant replay has the game referee make the decision, in NCAA, it is the replay official who makes the call then tells the referee.

4-If you don't like sponsors, get your money ready for Pay-per-View.

5-"Prior to the snap," indicates that it's a dead ball foul. All other calls, unless you hear, "after the play," is a live ball foul. Two separate sections of the rule book.

7-After 5 weeks, don't you mean, "Curt Menefee"?

[Sport]

believe it or not some people actually make a living off of all that advertising you're complaining about, people like my father, and probably myself one day.

[The Nation]

#4....check out the CFL, ads on the field, ads on uniforms, ads on the side walls...be thankful homi.

[Epiphanic]

#2 - Post-season officiating. While the Super Bowl officiating was also subpar, consider too the terrible call made on Polamalu in the Indy playoff game. These are supposed to be the "best of the best"?

Part of it is the fact that football is so hard to officiate anyway. The difference between "pass interference" and "illegal contact down field" is when the ball is thrown. Can someone honestly watch a WR and a DB jostling 40 yards down field and still know when the ball is thrown to make the correct call? It's tough.

#5 - Why do some officials say "Prior to the snap, false start"? OBVIOUSLY it was PRIOR to the snap! I've noticed this being said less this year however...

At the risk of offending die-hard football fans, mind the audience.

#6 - Commercials after kickoffs. I can understand ONCE in a while, but why must they do so after EVERY kick off, save the opening and 2nd half kickoff? I guess I should be GRATEFUL that they don't cut away for a commercial then too!!!

What else are you supposed to do when there's 35 seconds between each 4 second play? Maybe they should show one commerical after every play. (Joking, of course.)

#7 - FOX pregame show. No more Jillian Barberie, that sucks. Joe Buck taking over for JB, then leaving to go announce, that sucks. The other guy, Craig, sitting in for him at halftime, he's ok. Why doesn't FOX just use HIM instead? I hate that FOX goes "on location" now, and the acoustics for their pregame show sucks.

I think that the "on location" bit is to mix it up because JB left. I agree that they should have Craig do the whole thing and have Joe Buck announce baseball. and Jillian Barberie is coming back. I believe this Sunday. So you can take that one off your list.

[pcgd]

Part of the reason the Refs MIGHT not be as good as they can be (this is a big giant Might because honestly, they're pretty damn good) is they aren't full time employees. But if you go to full time, you could lose some of the better refs that are also successful (sometimes more so) outside of football.

[BlueSky]

Re the incessant commercials, I have a Saints-Bears game on tape from 1977 and it's a trip because the commercial breaks are more like in a regular show, like every 15 minutes. Each team had a couple of possessions before a commercial came on.

About everything being sponsored, just be thankful there are no logos (aside from Reebok) on the uni's yet. They may look like the Arena league someday.