'NO FUN' FOR FANS
Goodell-Jones feud moot as NFL product decays
REMOVE, for a moment, the national anthem knee-takers, the internal warfare between self-interest lobbyist Jerry Jones and feckless Roger Goodell, and all the other issues that plague the NFL before and after games.
None of those matters matter as the game grows more insufferable for intelligent, TV-watching fans and ticket-buying customers to endure, let alone enjoy.
Consider three games that were seen here Sunday afternoon, starting with the Jets at the Buccaneers.
The Bucs’ 67,000-seat stadium was, at best, half full, evidence of consumers expecting very little for a lot of time and money. The first three plays — two called back for penalties — further foretold the game’s future.
Viewers of the CBS telecast were treated like morons.
First, as a mere aside that lacked much relevance, Kevin Harlan told us that wide receiver and kick-returner Jeremy Kerley, who twice caught five passes in each of two Jets’ wins, would not be playing, suspended for four games after a failed drug test.
Soon, Harlan said Bucs receiver Mike Evans, “The NFL’s No. 1 receiver, according to Pro Football Focus, a season ago,” would not be playing because he also was suspended.
So as not to offend a fool — choosing to offend us in Evans’ place — Harlan did not say why Evans was suspended: a full-throttle, blindside attack that furthered a sideline brawl a week earlier.
And when injured Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston repeatedly was shown on the sidelines, neither Harlan nor Rich Gannon men- tioned that Winston wasn’t too injured, last week, to ignite the brawl that led to Evans’ suspension.
So this game, a 15-10 slog — with 13 punts and 14 penalties — was pre-afflicted by the misconduct of professionals.
Next, CBS took us to the close of regulation between the Jaguars and a team now known as the Los Angeles Chargers, also played to a half-empty stadium. CBS arrived with 1:33 left in regulation — just in time to witness the game won, then lost then headed to overtime, not on acts of football, but on acts of misconduct: An end-zone taunting penalty on the Jags, an unnecessary roughness call against the Chargers. What else is new?
Next, on FOX, Giants- 49ers played to an empty house. The game’s first two plays led to flags, one for misconduct, a late hit.
Although 0-9, the Niners inexorably performed acts of excessive self-aggrandizement after any reasonably efficient play. Receiver Louis Murphy, upon catching a 8-yard pass, rose, then regally walked forward another 10 yards before flamboyantly dropping the ball in nauseating self-admiration.
What did announcers Chris Myers and Moose Johnston say about that? What do you think they said? Nothing! Again, rather than offend a fool, they offended their audience with the kind of silent pandering that’s forcing the right-headed to abandon this “sport” as reflected in steadily diminished TV ratings.
At least as nauseating was the post-play behavior of three Niners’ defensive backs after Giants receiver Tavarres King was separated from the ball with a brutal shot that reasonably could have left him crippled. The defensive backs didn’t wait to see if King was dead or alive; they went into wild, joyous celebration of the hit. College men. Professionals. Members, as is King, of the NFLPA.
And what did Myers and Johnston say about this? Not a damned thing.
NFL Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea once confessed he no longer watches NFL games as they “look like pro wrestling.” That was in 2003. The game has regressed since then.
Meanwhile, at $62.5 million it was clear that’s not enough for Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins to tackle anyone, even if wellrested, as he was after being suspended from the previous game for misconduct.
And we’re supposed to have a rooting interest in Jerry Jones versus Roger Goodell, one eager to stake his reputation on a creep such as Ezekiel Elliott, the other who claims that “PSLs are good investments” and invites even more allabout-me behavior — the rehearsed kind — as “spontaneous fun”?
Their ship is sinking and they’re fighting over who gets the suite with the best view of the ocean.