I guess there's football on right now. I'm writing a blog post about not watching, rather than planting my rear on my couch with a beer. I've a feeling that's not what the NFL has in mind with this whole Thursday night game thing.
I've never found the Thursday night games especially compelling. There was always something nice about the NFL being limited--I could get stuff done on Saturday and spend Sunday sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of guacamole or salsa and a bag of chips, and not feel too awfully guilty about it. I could watch MNF knowing I'd worked all day, and (when I lived on the West Coast) knowing I could do homework after the game, and that it football would then go away for the rest of the week. I could look forward to the novelty of Thursday football on Thanksgiving--and it didn't matter that it was always the Cowboys (who I hate) and Lions (who just weren't often very good, but could be fun to watch), because it was so unusual. Now we have imbalanced Sunday slates with crappy games picked for market reasons, Monday night double-headers, an extra Thanksgiving game added, and a game every other Thursday, too. On top of the saturation, I frequently have no particular interest in the Thursday match-ups (or Monday, either), certainly not enough to have gone out looking for a place to watch when they aired only on the NFL station.
For me, football always functioned best when it wasn't competing with anything else, and all I had to do was enjoy the game. Now, with its encroachment into the rest of the week, it feels to me like the bulk of it competes with the rest of my life, which limits the amount I can realistically consume, and then when I go to do that, there is nothing that appeals anyway--the Niners and Packers aren't often broadcast here in Virginia, and when they are, they're in those national games that I don't generally make time to watch anyway. Whereas I used to call up all the box scores and run through stats, I just don't do it multiple times per week, much less schedule my life around football.
But today I was in a decent place with my work, and thought maybe I'd carve out some time to at least watch the start of the game if it was on my TV (CBS now, as well as NFL Network--at least I think so, but can't confirm, since I didn't actually watch). Then I looked to see who was playing. Steelers-Ravens. Oh, this is good. Not only do we now have a game representing a league (really a product--let's call it what it is) that is trying to take over my life in increasingly uninspiring/unappealing ways, but also one that encapsulates ugly moral issues like sexual assault and domestic violence
So instead I sat upstairs and talked with my kids (who were supposed to be in bed by then anyway, but I audibled when we had a rough night), checked my email, and read a book by a Spokane Indian about Indians (who never, by the way, seem to call themselves "Redskins" non-Indian contentions that that's a positive term).
I guess I'm not the guy the NFL is trying to appeal to (though frankly, that's probably a smart marketing move, one of the things the NFL excels in).
You probably won't believe this, but I also didn't watch. In fact, I'm watching Hell's Kitchen on Hulu instead. The Thursday night broadcasts are always horrible, and unless the Packers are playing I'm not watching. You would need to hook me up to a machine that shocks me periodically to make me watch Joe Flacco play on a Thursday night.
ReplyDeleteIn college, we might have loved this Thursday night football thing. These days, only if we care about the teams.
i was watching, than past the 2nd quarter i stopped. mostly becasue i don't give one once of fuck towards the ravens and the steelers. oh cool!!! the nfl was at it's best when it was on sundays and mondays. now it's on thurs, sun, mon and once college football is over, saturdays. it's to much. goodell is a money grubbing attorney, so we all bought into his bullshit. i was a huge fan of him when he put a big emphasis on head trauma, my capstone thesis and eric being a neurologist probably has a vested interest as well, but than he said 18 games!!! and i'm goign to fine players 250k a hit...but at the same time, doing nothing to coaches that teach this shit.... so back to the original topic thursday night football...no. i'm not gonna watch much...also not gonna watch the 2 fucking monday night games the jets and the giants play....get over yourself east coast, all apologizes to jason, i hate the east coast. i hate the journalists that cover it, i hate the networks that show it. the east coach as a brand is shit. from college football, syracuse? mlf, nationals (please 1 year in 30 is nothing to brag about assholes), nba (nets, ahahahahahah) stop it. stop it!!!8*
ReplyDeletekayden agrees...he just pooped
ReplyDeleteKayden, I thank you for your support.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminders about head trauma and an 18-game schedule, which I forgot to mention. No worries hating this coast--I live here and despise the games I get in broadcast because apparently everyone along 95 must be a NY or Washington fan. I kind of get it, but it's terrible.