Gridiron ghosts

Sports Illustrated has a good article this week about the battle between long-retired NFL players and the players union -- and in particular their grudge against Executive Director Gene Upshaw -- over retirement and disability benefits. The writer, Gary Smith, is sympathetic to Upshaw -- the former players' real beef, Smith implies, is with the owners -- but he certainly gives the old guard a fair hearing.

The article should quiet anyone who begrudges superstar athletes, particularly in the NFL, their astronomical salaries. Imagine working your whole life for a career that may very well be over within 10 years, and that could leave you crippled and addled by the time you turn 50? I'm not sure it's such a great deal.

The honeymoon is over

I listened to about a half-hour's worth of sports radio this morning, and it sounded like more people were blaming Mike Tomlin's play calling than Ben Rothliesberger's poor first-half performance for the Steelers' heartbreaking loss to Jacksonville last night.

Two decisions stand out: The two-point conversion attempt from the 12 yard line following the holding penalty that wiped out Hines Ward's end zone reception, and the quarterback draw on 3rd-and-6 late in the fourth quarter with the Steelers protecting a one-point lead. A couple of callers accused Tomlin of "playing not to lose" rather than playing to win.

If that was the case, then Tomlin made what I would characterize as a Cowher-esque mistake. Wasn't one of the knocks on Cowher that he wasn't aggressive enough in putting games away? Then again, being overly conservative seems to be a characteristic of a lot of NFL coaches -- why else do so many punt on fourth down when the odds favor going for it?

During Super Bowl XXXVI, John Madden said that the Patriots, with 90 seconds left and no timeouts, should run out the clock and go into overtime. Instead, they drove down the field and got the game-winning field goal. For that matter, doesn't Bill Belichick go for it on fourth down even when he has a comfortable lead? Maybe that's why the Patriots are 16-0 and about to rendevous with history.

Because the Man won't let me watch football

I wonder how Al Sharpton feels about this nonsense:

Churches in Indiana and across the country are scrapping traditional Super Bowl viewing parties in wake of the NFL’s stance that mass viewings of the game on big screen TV’s would violate copyright law.

The issue came to light Thursday when the Star reported that the NFL had told Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis that its plans for a Super Bowl watch party in front a big screen TV would be illegal.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Thursday the league stands by its interpretation of copyright law and would look into any violators that comes to the league’s attention. The main concern for the league, Aiello said, is groups that charge admission to watch games and those that use a TV screen larger than 55 inches to show the game.

No Fun League, indeed.

P.S.--Don't watch "Seinfeld"

The way the Rev. Al Sharpton tells it, you'd think that the Declaration of Independence asserts the inalienable right to life, liberty and cheap cable television:

You would think that a channel called the NFL Network would have a lot of game coverage, but really it only offers eight games each week -- games that have been rescheduled to Thursday and Saturday nights and that do not even feature your home team. For only eight extra games, the NFL Network wants to quadruple its rates to nearly a dollar per subscriber per month, digging even deeper into working families' wallets.

Sports teams and leagues have been creating their own TV networks for years. But this NFL power grab has even prompted Congress to question if the league is violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by using its monopoly control over pro-football television rights to force unreasonable price hikes on consumers. If the NFL -- the fattest cat of all among sports leagues -- gets away with bamboozling consumers, then every sport will be emboldened to follow suit, littering our cable bills with additional price increases.

That is why Time Warner and Cablevision have decided not to carry the network, arguing that most viewers -- including most football fans -- would not want to be forced to pay premium fees for a few games in which they may have little or no interest. The NFL has demanded that cable carriers put the NFL Network in basic channel lineups, meaning everyone pays the price, even viewers who don't watch football.

I suppose we should be glad that he's execrating the NFL and not trying to provoke a race war. (I wonder if Time Warner and Cablevision are signing any checks for Al.) By the way, Chris Briem over at NullSpace tells us that Pennsylvania's own senior senator, Arlen Specter, is leading the charge to strip the NFL of its antitrust exemption.

Um, isn't there a war on?