IF you didn’t know that the NFL was being serious, you’d have rejected this comedy as too short on subtlety for satire, too obvious for even sarcasm.
As late as Friday, the NFL made it abundantly clear to both Fox and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority that no commercials promoting gambling in Vegas would be permitted, nationally or regionally, during yesterday’s Super Bowl telecast.
One ad for Vegas, absent any mention or images of gambling, did appear on Fox’s pregame, two hours before kickoff.
While the NFL’s position provides the league with a noble social veneer, the league’s real position on gambling has always been closer to Brer Rabbit’s protestations about being thrown into the briar patch.
For example, this season the NFL threw itself, head and logo-first, into the promotion of fantasy leagues, which are no less a gambling enterprise than roulette or straight bets on NFL games.
The league not only pushed fantasy leagues, its TV networks, every game, all game, loaded up on stat graphics in service to fantasy leaguers. What does the NFL think that fantasy leaguers play for, bottle caps? They play for cash, the cash they wagered; there are weekly and end-of season winners. And losers.
Fantasy leaguers see NFL games the same as sports gamblers. They don’t see the game; they see their action. They root for their money. And they immeasurably help TV ratings. And while the NFL encourages everyone to have a bet on its games and players, the NFL firmly objects to gambling ads on the Super Bowl. That’s rich.
*
John Rocker’s reputation and baseball career were destroyed after he spit some bigoted, ignorant words. Snoop
Dogg, on the other hand, as a matter of commerce, raps hateful, bigoted, violent, racist, misogynistic, vulgar lyrics. He’s also a video pornographer. He has grown fabulously wealthy as a social vandal. And we’re supposed to love him!
Saturday evening’s Ch. 4 newscast found sports anchor Deb Kaufman mirthfully speaking over clips of a Super Bowl-related kids’ football game – ironically enough, to benefit inner city kids – run by Snoop Dogg. Kaufman and Ch. 4 News were just the latest to pander to this creep despite the fact that they could never and would never detail on the air the words and images that he sells. If they did, it would be hard to simultaneously portray him as worthy of stardom and our delighted admiration.
*
Fox’s James Brown, during the pre-game, reported that when Terry Bradshaw was asked for ID before entering the stadium, “He showed the security guard the initials on his belt buckle.” . . . Fox pre-game panelists took turns reminding us, “Don’t underestimate Donovan McNabb.” But who underestimates Donovan McNabb? Most of the rest of the pregame was spent selling Fox programming and movies.
The Nets’ Jacque Vaughn is a superb interview. Tuesday, after Bulls-Nets, YES’ Kelly Tripucka didn’t have to pull teeth. Vaughn, Academic All-American at Kansas, not only answered the questions, he provided examples and details . . . Sold! The Lakers’ website turns your cursor into the McDonald’s golden arches. We kid you not.
Gary Bettman yesterday met with the nation’s largest cable systems to demand a rebate to subscribers for lost NHL
games. Yeah, sure . . . Sid Rosenberg, big-time NYC sports radio host, last week said he was surprised to learn that Arnold Palmer is alive. “I thought he was dead.”
Nice job by Ch. 2 News, paying some good-angle attention to Yale’s win at Columbia Friday. Yale is coached by James Jones, Columbia by his brother, Joe.
—-
You betcha
Official 2004 NFL Fantasy Football trophy
Athough NFL insists it’s anti-gambling, NFL.com, the league’s official website offers a variety of Fantasy Football
products, including this trophy, which can be given to the league’s winner to supplement his earnings.
BUY IT NOW: $79.99