“RTP Weekend”

After two weekends with NFL “London Games” on the schedule, the league has every team playing in the US this weekend.  There are three remaining “overseas games” left on the schedule for 2022:

1. Broncos/Jags – – London – – October 30
2. Seahawks/Bucs – – Munich – – November 13
3. Niners/Cards – – Mexico City – – November 21 (Monday Night)

Growing the game internationally is an important thing for the NFL owners.  Adding Germany to the list of international venues this year recognizes that Germany was key to the existence of NFL Europe “back in the day”.  Munich is a city with about 1.5M people so it is a reasonable venue for the league to “test the waters” for American football interest in another large European country.  London and Mexico City have already hosted regular season NFL games and the return of the league to those sites recognizes successful fan support in both cities.

Assuming that all goes swimmingly in Munich next month, it would not be surprising to see more regular season games played outside the US in the near future.  Assuming that to be the case, it will be interesting to see if the NFL chooses to try yet another new venue or to add a second game to either Munich or Mexico City – – or both.

Or here is another proposition:

• The existence of fan support in the UK has been established; fans turn out in significant numbers for games in London and there are US-based fans who travel from the US to see their teams play there.
• Suppose the NFL schedules 8 games in London in a season testing the interest in the UK to a larger number of events each year.  The NFL can do this without hurting home attendance for the teams going “across the pond” by scheduling all 16 teams from the conference that has nine home games on its schedule due to the odd number of games in a season.
• For example, the NFC hosts 9 games this year; the AFC hosted 9 games last year and will host 9 games next year.  So, if the teams involved in those putative 8 London Games next year were all AFC teams, then each AFC team would get to play 8 games at home and would not lose the revenue from a schedule with 8  “home games”.
• In addition to “growing the game” under such a scheduling regimen, I think the NFL would likely increase the number of purchases of things like NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL All-Access as fans in the UK become more invested in specific NFL teams.

The NFL has a stated goal to become an enterprise that generates $25B annually in revenue.  Increasing international contributions to the revenue stream will certainly not hinder the achievement of that objective…

The issue discussed above is one where I have an idea to contribute to the discussion.  The next issue is also related to the NFL, and it is one I really do not have a good idea for resolving it.  I refer to officiating and how the rules have seemingly put officials in a position where they make ”proper” calls that make no sense when viewed by an objective observer.  I want to leave out of the discussion here any and all comments by fanboys of individual teams.  I am talking about someone like me – – a fan of the game who watches games involving teams where I have no immutable rooting interest.  Two such games happened last weekend and both involved roughing the passer calls that simply do not pass the eyeball test.

1. Grady Jackson (Falcons) sacked Tom Brady (Bucs) on a third down play that would have led to a punt giving the Falcons who trailed in the game an opportunity to close the gap.  Jackson was called for roughing the passer for “throwing Brady to the ground”.  Excuse me, but that is what “sacking the QB” is all about.  Jackson did not body slam Brady; he did not pancake Brady; he did not spear him or hit Brady on the head.  He tackled Tom Brady and was called for roughing the passer.  Horrible call…  Maybe it was the right call but it was a horrible call.
2. About 24 hours later, Chris Jones (Chiefs) strip-sacked Derek Carr (Raiders) and Jones – not Carr – had possession of the ball when the two players hit the ground.  Jones was called for roughing the passer because he landed on Carr with his full body weight.  Even that assertion is called into some question by the replay but at the time the players hit the ground, it was Jones who had the ball; Carr was no longer a “passer” any more than was Coach Josh McDaniels who was on the sidelines.  Again, a horrible call…  Maybe it was the right call but it was a horrible call.

The initial reaction from Troy Aikman in the broadcast booth and from Chris Jones after the game is that – maybe – the NFL needs to add “roughing the passer” to the list of things that can be challenged/reviewed on replay.  Maybe that is the answer but if it is the answer, it will come at a cost.  NFL games fit comfortably into a time span of between three and three-and-a-half hours.  That makes those games attractive to TV networks on Sundays.  If the games stretch out to 4-hour events, the networks will have a choice to make, and none would be particularly attractive:

• Back up starting times to 12:00 noon Eastern time – – or even 11:30 AM – – so that the doubleheader games will be over by 7:30 at night.  Such a change could interfere with church going on Sundays and the NFL probably does not want to get into a tit-for-tat with pastors across the country.
• Start the doubleheader games at 3:30 Eastern Time and live with the fact that the end of the early games will necessarily overlap with the start of the doubleheader games.
• Let the games go as is and run the risk of the double header game running over the start of the Sunday Night game.

Adding more replays can ONLY add to the time it takes to finish a game; there is no logical scenario where adding replay makes the game get from kickoff to final gun more rapidly.  The NFL should not want to make games longer than they are; replay time already acts to drain emotion and adrenaline from the games.  Having said that, the NFL must do something to avoid another weekend like last weekend.  It should go down in NFL lore as “Roughing The Passer Weekend” or “RTP Weekend” for short.

Finally, having alluded to a potential conflict between the NFL Sunday games and churchgoing above, let me close with this observation by H. L. Mencken:

“A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………