Pages

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Are You Ready For More Football?

I love football.  I love the strategy, the athletics, the march down the field toward the endzone.  And there is nothing more enjoyable then a Sunday afternoon on the couch watching the game(s).  But truth be told, too much of a good thing can be too much.  So I find Sunday Night and Monday Night Football to test my enjoyable, unless of course it is my team.  And still, it is difficult to stay up to the bitter end. 

So when I read that the NFL is considering adding a second football game to the Thursday schedule, my heart sinks.  "The NFL's belief is that adding another Thursday game would generate more national interest, plus it would give the league a chance to sell rights to another round of games."  It may also be that not enough people are watching the NFL Network while in-market teams get the simulcast on a broadcast channel.  Truth is that the search for more money is what will likely find a cable network bidding for a second Thursday game.  But I believe it is also killing future fan interest in the game that I love.  Too much of a good thing can indeed be too much.

In an earlier blog, I wrote about the DirecTv agreement expiring next year and who might want to buy those rights.  I suggested that an OTT platform like Apple TV or Netflix or Amazon could afford the investment and attract additional subscribers to their base.  That kind of viewership deal makes sense, a second Thursday night game does not.  It pushes one more game off the Sunday afternoon line-up.  And as a fan, reduces the impact of watching results of games across the day.  It simply extends the game week too far.  My vote, let's limit football to Sunday and Monday.  Enough is enough.