WP:NFL Needs New TV Game Plan

[TK]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19903-2003Nov9.html

NFL Needs New TV Game Plan

By Matt Bonesteel

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 10, 2003; Page D02

Of the nine "Monday Night Football" games so far this season (unlike ABC, we don't consider the Redskins-Jets season opener, which was on a Thursday, to be a Monday night game), it can be safely said that only three (Cowboys-Giants on Sept. 15, Colts-Bucs on Oct. 6 and Patriots-Broncos last week) have been exciting. That leaves ABC with six Mondays when people stopped watching at halftime. This has been a problem for years, and it isn't going to get better until the NFL mandates some changes when its next television contract ends after the 2005 season.

It's certainly not going to improve this season. The remaining Monday night games: Eagles-Packers (not bad), Steelers-49ers (bleh), Giants-Bucs (could have playoff importance, but the Giants are rarely watchable on any day), Titans-Jets (a stinker unless the Jets again get things rolling late), Rams-Browns (gag), Eagles-Dolphins (maybe good, maybe not) and Packers-Raiders (ooh, Green Bay's second-stringers against an Oakland team that is already doing a pretty good St. Bonaventure impersonation -- let me set the VCR now!).

The NFL has only itself to blame for this with its parity-at-all-costs approach. Making up the schedule in the spring has become a useless folly, since there's no guarantee that a playoff team from the year before is going to replicate that success the next season (hello, Oakland). But there are steps it could take.

First, it should insist that ABC give up its Monday night monopoly.

Now, of course, ABC would object to this, but the NFL could divide up the Monday night games between all the networks it deals with, but give the network with the Super Bowl fewer games. If this plan were in place this season, Fox and ABC would each get, say, seven Monday night games, with CBS getting three (the opener, for balance's sake, plus two more) since it's televising the Super Bowl.

This would preclude any complaints about the next step in this grand plan: that the NFL not determine Monday night games until two weeks or so ahead of time. Just think, instead of getting Pittsburgh-San Francisco next Monday, the NFL could look at the standings and schedule and say, "Gee, that Patriots-Cowboys game is sure shaping up to be a corker. Let's put that on prime time with no televised competition against it."

Just think of the great games this plan would produce, at the same time satisfying the networks. Every Monday would be considered a marquee game.

Most people don't get to see any marquee games at all, since league rules dictate the home team get full coverage in its home city. That and the fact that the NFL and DirecTV don't let cable companies carry the NFL Sunday Ticket package, an inane, financially unwise rule that deserves another column of its own.

Many owners would be vociferously opposed to this. They'd complain that it'd be too hard to reserve the stadium space, that it wouldn't give them enough time to plan. Hooey. If the league can move a game from San Diego to Phoenix with about seven hours' notice, think of what it could do with two weeks' notice. Coaches and players would moan about unplanned short weeks.

But guess what: The NFL always gets its way. Salary cap. Check. Instant replay. Check. Outlawing any and all contact with the quarterback, as well as all but the most Puritan displays of emotion. Check. In this case, it could demand agreement by pointing to its brand-new NFL Network. "You don't like it, fine. We'll just televise all the Monday night games ourselves, the networks be damned."

The addition of John Madden hasn't provided much of a ratings boost, nor has foisting mainstream music acts on the audience (enough with Aerosmith already). If they're truly in a gimmicky mood, this is the gimmick to use.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

[Zen-like Todd]

Umm... what about the people who pay for season tickets and can't change their monday night plans on two weeks notice just because the NFL decides to move their game time?