For those non Americans who are not aware of American football they just have to know that it is the biggest entertainment business in the USA. Entertainment equals viewership and viewership equals money, big money, because viewership sells soap and everything else.The uninitiated may just have picked up in their news media that the sport is in a turmoil as a result of some of its player’s off the field domestic and child abuse violence.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL IS A CULT FUNDED BY BILLIONS
NFL a multibillion operation
Baseball maybe America’s traditional game much like cricket is England’s time honored past time but just like soccer, (Association Football) is where the focus is at across the pond, football, (American), is where it is at in the “Homeland”. For a short season of about 20 weeks it is all that fans eat, drink, and talk about. Just some bare money facts to make the point. American Football is under the aegis of the National Football League, (NFL). The TV channels pay over $5 billion a year for the rights to televise the games and the NFL now have their own TV cable channel as well. Advertisers at games including the Super Bowl payed another $5 billion and $2.1 billion is chalked up in merchandising according to Pelligrino and Associates. The NFL aim is $25 billion a year in revenue within 12 years.
None of this includes what the clubs, (franchises), rake in with ticket sales of over a half a billion a year not to mention what they net from local advertising and sponsorship. Twenty of the 32 teams according to Forbes are worth over $1billion. Forbes statistics show that the Dallas Cowboys franchise is worth $3.2 billion. There is only sports club worth more than in the whole world and that is the Madrid city owned Real Madrid, $3.4 billion. (No team on the planet has more recognition than the latter.) Fourteen of the owners are among the top 400 richest in the world…. “And so it goes….”
College Football is bigger business than College Courses
This hysteria does not stop at the National level it only begins there. College football is mega mega bucks with the Football Coach having a higher salary than the College President in virtually every instance. ESPN, in 2008, analyzed the football income of 120 Colleges. None of the 120 had football revenues of less than $10 million, the top 50 earners had $50 million or more, the leading twenty odd $75 million and the heady ten over $90 million each. At the top of the pyramid is Alabama College - “The Crimson Circle” at $123 million, TheTexan “Longhorns at $120 million, Ohio State “Badgers” $115 million and The Florida Gaters at $106 million.
The whole College Sports endeavor is a $16 billion a year pursuit.
It starts in the High Schools
The adulation of the game and its participants starts in the High Schools. The local newspapers run inserts on the school’s football prowess. There are half page photographs of the stars and full reports on the games. In small towns the whole population turns out on a Friday night to cheer them on. Many of those will be watching College Football on Saturday and all the NFL on Sunday and Monday and Thursday nights. The Sunday weekly games are prime time events and even the American Tennis Open Finals are scheduled not to interfere with the football. The SuperBowl which decides which Team is crowned “World Champions” was watched by an 111,000,000 audience this year.
Football a central cultural phenomenon in the USA
By now some of the uninitiated may have got the message. Football plays a central role in American culture. It is an obsession, it is a gigantic cultish exercise, it is the opium of the masses, it is the subject of many many conversations, arguments and feuds. There is massive legal and illegal betting on even College games. The NFL has devised a past time entitled “Fantasy Football” where groups pick their imaginary teams and the winner is decided on how each of their players in their fantasy team performed in their respective matches. So fans can take solace from the fact that their favored team may have lost but at least they fared better with their “Fantasy Side”.
A game of brutality and skill
Just one final word about the game itself before one inevitably asks what on earth can go wrong? The endeavor itself is a mixture of naked brutality not seen outside of the boxing ring and sophistication, intelligence and skill of a degree not obvious to the naked eye. To the unknowing each contest is akin to the Coliseum where the Christians are thrown to the lions. The crunching of helmets, the merciless tackling and the barbarous melees all add up to one helluva battle. This admixed with the movement and crisscrossing of players to become unmarked and then receive the ball from a throw some 50 yards away make this a spectacle for the connoisseur and the bloodthirsty fan. All these seemingly random incidents having been worked and rehearsed with boards and diagrams and even analyzed instantly by the battalions of coaches with print outs from the last play. Not to be cynical but Jay H. Ell must point one other feature of the hoopla - frequent breaks in the flow of the game allowing, in the SuperBowl as the most expensive example, for the screening of commercials lasting 30 seconds each at $4 million a throw.
WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?
What have you done bad for me lately?
Plenty has gone wrong but as is Jay H. Ell’s wont let’s start at the end. Ray Rice a superstar running back of the Baltimore Ravens was caught on video pulling his unconscious fiancee by the hair outside of an elevator. Now the NFL has a conduct policy which contains the usual expectations of behavior and when they might discipline a player. It includes the mandatory criteria of criminal behavior, drugs, betting tra la la and the generic provision, “Conduct that undermines and puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL Clubs or NFL players”. So Rice presumably under this provision was suspended for two games by the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, who is salaried at $44 million a year. The leniency of the sentence provoked an outcry which reached pandemonium when another video surfaced from within the elevator which showed Rice downing his future wife with a vicious blow. A controversy followed where it was alleged that Rice had shared this with Goodell already and or Goodell had seen the video. On the basis of the new video Goodell indefinitely suspended Rice whose goodself is under a $35 million contract. Goodell, who is still under fire for his handling of the whole affair, has apologized and promised to clean the whole NFL act up but the media still want his resignation.
Then current disaster number two involves a charge of child abuse against an even bigger star running back Adrian Petersen who is currently paid $14 million a year and on an $80 million arrangement . Petersen has admitted hitting his four year old son with a switch and the now inevitable video revelations of the marks that it left were there for all to see. Minnesota Vikings management said he would be on the bench for the game but when all hell broke lose they deactivated him. They then reactivated him before finally axing him and announcing he was not in the teams future. The burning question is where was our $44 million commissioner in all of this.
NFL’s players history of violence and and what the new policy is
This has all been going on for a long long time but apparently till now had not reached the bar to seriously brake the barrier of “conduct that could undermine and put at risk the integrity of the NFL”. In a USA Today report they note since the year 2000 there have been 800 arrests and criminal convictions involving active NFL players. Of these there were 90 domestic violence cases none of which drew more than a one game suspension. (No wonder Goodell thought a two games suspension for Rice would show he was serious).
Arising out of the recent tumult the beleaguered Goodell has announced a new disciplinary policy for the NFL - for the first offense a six month suspension and for the second a ban from the sport forever. To detail the problems that Goodsell faces - Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers was charged with felony domestic violence. He has been released on bail. Should Goodell automatically suspend him? Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors but is appealing. According to legal authorities he has a good chance on appeal because the 911 tapes paint a different story. So a process needs to be outlined as how the NFL will react to an allegation as opposed to a conviction and how to act there after.
In the not so distant past, November 2013, A. J. Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings was charged with attempting to choke his girlfriend. He was suspended for 4 games and Commissioner Goodell immediately reversed the decision. Even though Jefferson was subsequently found guilty nothing further has been done. Dez Bryant in July 2012 was charged with assaulting his mother and he was discharged on condition that he had anger management treatment. The NFL did not suspend him and imposed a strict set of conduct rules on him.
So it appears that the NFL is all over the show with it’s disciplining for domestic violence. However, there are two bottom lines. One is they have not to date taken it very seriously and the other is that they have put no logical understandable policy, where due process is included in place, to show what they are going to do now.
NFL disregard for its players well being.
The NFlL faced a class action law suit brought about by 4,500 former players in that they failed to protect them from repeated injuries, concealing the dangers inherent in this type of recurrent trauma and then did nothing to compensate them. These players were diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, (CTE). They had clinical conditions ranging from death, Alzheimers, dementia and severe depression as a result of repeated concussions sustained during their playing career. This class action suit was resolved when the NFL offered to fork out close on a billion for players diagnosed with CTE. Included in the settlement was diagnostic aids and research. However, this settlement has been challenged as it only compensates those with defined CTE and ignores up to 15,000 others.
This show is far from over and while initially inexplicably garnered very little media follow up (obviously not seen as a medium for selling soap and other goodies), is sure to resurface as the melodrama on the NFL continues.
College Footballers revolt.
Several groups of College players have instituted litigation against their ruling bodies or Universities at what they consider to be the inequity of receiving virtually no compensation when their college is raking in, literally millions. The most celebrated of these is the Northwestern College Football team that successfully sued to form a Union. The National Labour Relations Board ruled, in effect, that they were underpaid employees. All they receive is their tuition and have to work sometimes 60 hours a week at football. Their demands are very limited and include a Trust Fund to allow former players to finish their degrees and an increase in their scholarships. The decision has been appealed by the University. The governing body of college sports the National Council of Athletic Associations and five of the organizing bodies of College Football are also being sued by players in different areas to improve their financial standing.
While these instances do not involve the NFL per se they add to the gestalt of exploitation of players and values for the sake of profit.
WHY NOW
Why all this attention now on the NFL on their policy of treating domestic and other violence with a light non violent slap on the hand and a “boys will be boys” attitude. Well the changed world that no longer tolerates this aggression to women and children has finally penetrated into the inner sanctum of the most holy of holies. Up till now they couldn't have cared less. There is no way that they would have removed an Adrain Petersen from the scene who has dazzled and entertained tens of millions of viewers. That could affect the ratings and that would affect the advertising and their value as a commodity.
Now they have found that by overlooking this behavior they can effect the bottom line. Changes in society include the recent major thrusts to decrease sexual violence in the Colleges and Military. The heavies have weighed in on it and even the President has voiced his concern and certain Universities are under scrutiny in order to prevent all these incidents being ignored. Senator Gillibrand from the Senate forced the armed forces to get serious about sexual aggression having had the Military Justice Improvement Act passed. The New Republic has just published a major feature entitled “We Are All Feminists Now”. It discusses in detail the gargantuan amount of attention that the Feminist issues are receiving. One of the contributors emphasize that the number one issue is sexual violence and notes that, “We have done a pretty good job of fighting this in country”. All this societal change has passed the NFL by till the latest scandals.
It cannot be coincidence that the actions of certain NFL sponsors have mobilized one of the last bastions of the old boys club into action. Obviously the sponsors feel being associated with such an organization will not help them sell their soap or whatever.
The following has already transpired.
* Proctor and Gamble have withdrawn their deal to have NFL players wear pink gums, the football fields to have pink ribbons and other NFL activities to promote awareness about Breast Cancer. This has to have been worth mega mega bucks.
* The Radisson Hotels have withdrawn sponsorship from the Minnesota Vikings as a result of their handling of the Adrain Petersen saga.
* Anheuser -Busch have issued a statement that is wholly dissatisfied with the NFL’s handling of these issues and is reconsidering its $1.2 billion contract with them.
* PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, has served notice that she finds the behavior of some players “repugnant” and they have a $6.2 deal with the NFL.
* Nike has cancelled its sponsorship of Adrian Petersen.
WHAT NOW?
How this all pans out at the end of the day is largely dependent on two factors. One whether the media follow it up or not and secondly, how Goodell and the NFL enact a plan to deal with the issues and institute damage control. Thus far Goodell, except for his “mea culpa” statements, has not shown that he has the ability to put together a coherent policy. He even obviously did not foresee that his arbitrary indefinite suspension on Rice following his initial two game suspension would lead to litigation. The NFL could axe Goodell but that would be acknowledging that they were in almost irretrievable mess. Goodell’s axing would really give the story legs with press conferences with him, the new commissioner, the NFL players and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.
What about the obsessed fans? They will not get their “circuses” if no-one will pay for them. However, they do represent the constituency that this whole house of cards is built on. The fans are fickle. As long as they have someone to scream for and someone to hate they could switch. Nobody watched ice hockey in Illinois till the Blackhawks started winning and their ratings exceeded other sports teams and the play offs reached Prime Time. Also soccer is played by far more people in the USA than American Football which is basically a spectator sport so the switch could come there.
Jay H. Ell however believes that the NFL will survive this crisis but it could be the beginning of the end especially if the CTE litigation gains more and more traction. Jay H.Ell, at the risk of being lynched, wishes this was the biggest problem the USA faced.
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