I spent around 3 years drafting only Giants and Jets players so that I would never have to root against my own teams. It hamstrung my fabtasy teams, but it was fun. After a few years I had grown to enjoy FF enough that now I play any players, though of course I still have a strong homer-centric bent.
You could easily play FF without conflict by drafting only Steelers and any team the Steelers don’t face that year. That would give you 19 teams to draft from each year.
Agreed. I feel the NFL has long since sucked the fun out of the game in pursuit of the allmighty dollar. What really saddens me is that the NCAA is following the No Fun League’s lead.
I hate the blackout policy. They get paid money to show the games on TV too. If they fall 1000 seats short, the game is blacked out in the home market… Short term greed causes people to forget about the game and the team after awhile. You can not imagine how many Lions games have been blacked out.
Feh. The Buccaneers have had all but one home game blacked out, and we’re good.
Last time I saw a Yotes game on TV, half the 100 section seats were empty. Buy two tickets and get half the stadium to yourself!
You’re advocating FOR out-of-control fans in the stands? No way! If I pay hundreds of dollars to go to a game, why would I want to listen to screaming, cursing, and fighting fans?
I don’t think NFL games have been “blue-collar” (which, from the above definition, is more like “trailer trash”) since the 1970s if not earlier. The only major sport that actively seem to market to that demographic is NASCAR, and even they have made attempts to go upscale.
The NFL has been a victim of it’s own success, I think the biggest aspect of declining attendance is the success of their television programming. I know people with multi-TV setups in their basement just so they can watch multiple games at once. When you get a setup like that, why would you bother going and freezing your ass off in person?
I’m with you on the fighting, and I suppose I could be convinced about excessive cursing, but screaming? Fans damn well better be screaming when the opposing team has the ball. That’s their job.
When we lived in Dallas my sister loved going to Ranger Stadium to watch baseball (especially on dollar hot dog day) but she didn’t care for going to Texas Stadium to watch the Cowboys play. Her reasons echo yours. Too many obnoxious angry drunks whereas the baseball games were more laid back and friendly.
Rising ticket prices and the other costs associated with going to a game is something that’s been talked about for a number of years now. I remember Bill Maher on “Politically Incorrect” lamenting the high price of tickets for basketball games were starting to shut working class people out of going to games. I wouldn’t doubt that high prices are keeping people away from the games during turbulent economic times.