The NFL has clearly taken its scripting too far:
It was fitting that the NFL dropped the “Super” from “Wild Card Weekend.” The final audience numbers were less than super. Via the Associated Press, the six games played from Saturday to Monday night averaged 28.3 million per game. That’s a 9.3-percent drop from last year’s 31.2 million average.
It didn’t help that five of the games weren’t close.
My impression is that a) enough serious fans have figured out the NFL scripting process that they’ve lost interest in games where the winner is already decided and b) some of the coaches are protesting the script by refusing to keep the games that they’ve been ordered to lose close.
Both the television crews and the announcers often signal the script beforehand, so when you see it twice in a row, as Vikings fans did with the Lions and the Rams games, it’s hard to miss. And when lifelong fans turn off the game in the first quarter of what is still a close game, because they correctly anticipate the outcome, it’s clear that the NFL has gone too far in the massaging of its entertainment product.
I think the reason the Vikings were so exasperated was that it wasn’t just the second week in a row, but the second time that season against the Rams that the obvious fix was in. And if you watched the faces of KOC and Sam Bradford during the two most recent games, you didn’t see any signs of frustration or disappointment, they’re both borderline expressionless and their postgame comments were almost comically generic.
“Well, we just have to do better next time. Obviously I have to do a better job.”
Harrison Smith wouldn’t be in on it, give his position at safety, but he’s obviously figured it out too. One of the big tells about the Vikings’ comprehensive lack of effort was the way the defensive captain and best tackler on the team, nicknamed Hitman due to how hard he hits, put in an effort that looked like Deion Sanders making a business decision in his Prime Time prime on the running play that led to LA’s first touchdown.
The sad thing is that the NFL is absolutely right to put a thumb on the scale after halftime in order to keep the games close. Another amazing comeback that falls just short is acceptable because too many casual fans simply won’t watch genuine blowouts. But forcing teams to throw the game in order to stick to the script is counterproductive, because it’s becoming apparent that the players are increasingly less willing to keep it close when they have to throw the game. And eventually, someone is going to get frustrated enough to blow the whistle no matter how many tens of millions they’re being paid annually. It might be legal for the NFL to not hold genuine sporting events, but that would definitely upset the gambling applecart that is propping up the league’s advertising revenues.