Roger Goodell is Smart, Not Nice

I am totally sick and tired of hearing about Roger Goodell's decision to allow the Patriots / Giants game to be simulcast on two other networks. Every sports writer and television wonk is praising him and he's everywhere this week saying the fans deserved to see the game. Mule Fritters! Under the contract, the other networks had to show the same exact commercials that NFL Network was showing! Hello?! They had a commercial for NFL Network at every break - complete with new commercials poking fun at cable companies for not carrying the network and splashing their website iwantnflnetwork.com at the bottom of every self-promoting spot. So please, can we stop pretending this was done out of the Goodness of Goodell's heart? The networks slept with their own Lex Luther in my opinion - high ratings for one night but knowing they were promoting the NFL Network which is a direct competitor. I don't want to make the NFL out to be the bad guy either because from what I've read, they are offering the cable companies a slew of free 30 second spots on telecasts where they are free to keep the money that is generated from them. If the NFL feels like it has the best product out there - why shouldn't they be able to create their own network and make more money off of their games than what they get if they sell the rights to the game to another network? Isn't it the same thing as Firestone tires opening their own stores to make more money off of their tires than the percentage they get from Pep Boys when they resell them? If it's not - then somebody will have to explain the difference to me. They have a product and they want to develop their own method of distribution. Last time I checked, that was legal.

Gumbel Doesn't Do It For Me

I'm not sure America's whitest black man should be doing NFL games for the NFL Network. Bryant Gumbel is good at some things. His intelligent and thoughtful voice is best left sometimes to what I call "quasi-news". He is good on his HBO show about peripheral sports stories and he was OK I guess on the national morning show he did for so many years. That's what he does. When I think of him as an announcer, I think the best job for him is the fluff pieces they do on the athletes for the Olympics. That's vastly different from calling a football game. Two examples of this stuck out like a sore thumb to me last night. The first was when he was telling the story of how the Browns' QB's wife got initiated so to speak into the spouse's club last week when he was called to duty in the middle of the game due to Charlie Frye getting hurt. Gumbel said something that made me cringe and he not only said it once, he said it twice! He started this gem off by saying "I heard a cute story.......". Collinsworth broke in to say something about the action on the field and then Bryant started again "I heard a cute story....". Listen, all over America there are guys...big guys....big manly man guys.....sitting in recliners eating potato chips and drinking bad beer that are waiting to hear something intelligent about what the offense is trying to do to the defense and what the defense is doing to try to stop it. We don't want to hear a Bryant Gumbel "cute" story about the QB's wife up in the stands. If you do have to tell it, please don't start it off in that whiny voice like you're talking to three old ladies over tea. Bryant is a poser in this regard and he does it all the time on his HBO show. When he wants to ask a question and add emphasis, he'll take off his glasses and put one of the arms in his mouth or something. I think he thinks it makes him look more intelligent. He crosses his arms....furrows his brow. He's almost like a Ron Burgandy caricature sometimes. The second thing he said that made me laugh was his use of the word "attitudinally". Remember the big guy in the chair drinking beer? He doesn't like his football announcers asking single worded questions while overemphasizing the raising of their voice pitch at the end of the word to that of a 12-year-old boy that just got hit in the nuts while playing dodge ball. That's why John Madden is still on TV and not Dennis Miller. He asked the question in reference to Bill Cowher's mindset. "Attitudinally?". Wow. What a tool.

NFL RePlay Kicks Butt!

Have you seen NFL RePlay on NFL Network? It's really cool. They condense an NFL game down to 90 minutes by starting the next play as soon as the previous play ends. It's much different than last year's version. Last year they had Game Of The Week and it was a capsule of what happened and it was done by NFL Films with voice over by Harry Kalas. RePlay has the original call unfiltered. The other cool thing is, when there is a key play, they bring up the people that were involved in the play or the call in another window and they talk about the play from the press conference right after the game. When they were showing Heath Miller's td for instance, they kept showing different angles and had Cowher's, Saban's and Mile Peiora's (head of NFL officiating) comments running at the same time. They also mix in replays from NFL Films for the spectacular plays and it's amazing how much "artier?" they look as opposed to the live feed. I'm not sure how many games they are going to do this to every week, but it will really allow me to see more football than I currently do. I think it's an amazing feature for serious fans.

Cut That Meat! Cut That Meat!

Do you remember when Pearl Jam first came out and they had videos for Evenflow, Alive and the superb Jeremy? They were blowing up and Eddie wasn't comfortable with the whole celebrity/fame thing so they kind of went semi-underground by holding back the interviews and not doing any more videos for years. I wish Peyton Manning would sit down and watch an hour of NFL Network. Maybe he too would get sick of seeing his face and hearing his slow drawl. I've never seen something so sickening as all the TV time Peyton, Eli and Archie get. Numerous outlets like to call them cute things like the "First Family of Football" and blah blah blah. Interesting. How many Super Bowl wins do they have between the three of them? Wins? How many Super Bowl appearances do they have between them? Zero. Right. It seems like every other commercial or sideline report last night was focusing on the Sunday night matchup until I had to hear John Madden pontificate on what their mother will be thinking from the stands. I think she'll be thinking - "I think they should have dated more in highschool". I saw one outtake last night on either ESPN or NFL Network where they were all at a table and they were asked to imitate each other. Oh My God...how much more of this CRAP do I have to put up with? And then to hear the cute little story about having a family dinner and Peyton acted like he was taking notes on Eli. Brilliant! My God, the comic talent of that man! Peyton's face is all over the NFL and he seems to be in every commercial on NFL Network. If you're a fan of his, that's just peachy, but if you get off on watching Joey Porter bury him, then it's a problem. I have no issue with him personally. He's a good guy. It was noble to donate time and effort during Katrina. However, I think he should dial back his endorsements and commercials. He is toying around with backlash if you ask me by oversaturating the airwaves with his mug. Archie cracks me up too. How good is it for the game if the undisputed #1 pick holds the team with the first pick hostage every year? Play within the system. You shouldn't get to pick and choose who you want to play for when you're a rookie. I respect Peyton's game and he has plenty of it. Still, the only way to shrug the current tag that he can't win the big game....is to win the big game. Last time I checked....he doesn't play defense and he can't pass block for himself so it might not be this year either.