NFL Fans, Why Do We Love the NFL When the NFL Doesn't Love Us Back?

The NFL today is, without question, the most popular sports league in the United States. 

Based on TV ratings and its hold on the national conversation MLB, NBA and NHL can only look upon it with envy.

Despite the NFL being on a vaunted stage, it does not mean the league likes the average fan; in fact, the NFL and its owners do things that often shows the fans' love is a one way street.  

Consider these arguments when the NFL and its owners say they have the fans' interest in heart:

The Owners Only Love One Type of Fan

To be truthful, the NFL loves one type of fan, the ones that pay personal seat licenses for the right to buy seasons tickets or even better buy luxury suites and boxes. They love those fans because, unlike paying for normal seats, NFL owners do not share the money from those seats with other teams. 

The general admission fan to the owner means he has to pay around 40% to the other teams per seat. If the owners could figure out a way to convert all the seats to luxury ones, they would do it.  

The average fan simply is not loved because you lose money.

Owners Don’t Care About Your Feelings About The Blackout

This past season it was terrible for blackouts in NFL games. 

Fans in affected blackout markets were angered and often took up to finding offshore web sites that streamed blacked out games. But have you wondered why teams really don’t get upset? 

The reason is that NFL teams already have the TV money. Each year, almost three billion dollars is divided among the 30 teams; the seats that determine if there is a sellout are really just gravy. 

In fact, if the owners had their way, they would blackout every home game. The only reason the average fan gets to see home games is because of politics.

In 1973, the NFL allowed Super Bowl VII to be shown in Los Angeles if the game sold out as an experiment only. All prior Super Bowls till then had been blacked out for the host stadium’s city. According to some accounts, President Nixon asked Commissioner Pete Rozelle to lift the blackout on Washington Redskins games after their success during the Super Bowl run and said no to the President. 

As the legend goes, other politicians wanted to see the Redskins as well and a few weeks before the start of the 1973 season, Congress in an overwhelming manner passed the blackout rules we have today.  

The moral of the story, the NFL’s arrogance can only be defeated by people with greater arrogance—namely, politicians. 

Owners Don’t Listen to their Loving Fans

There are some great owners in the NFL and truly awful ones. 

Fans know who they are, but despite all the howling from fans tired of poor management, raised ticket prices after lousy seasons and the egging on from sports writers, NFL owners don’t listen. 

Why? It’s because teams are owned by a few individuals. 

League rules mandate teams be owned by individual persons and not corporations except the Green Bay Packers, which are community owned. 

As a result, there is little accountability.  

Keep in mind, the owners already have guaranteed TV money, so no matter how lousy the team is, an equal cut is given.

Fans angry at the local blackout, who cares? Remember those luxury boxes? It is money in the pocket, so why listen about complaints of high ticket prices for the average fans?

But best of all, by preventing companies with potentially thousands of shareholders from being an owner of NFL team, it means teams can do fun things like raising those ticket prices or threaten to move your team if the city does not give you a stadium instead of fixing the road.  

The lesson: Accountability matters.

So Why Do Fans Still Love the NFL?

Despite all the NFL actions that should try one’s patience, there are simple reasons for the average fans love of the game. 

One is that NFL football looks great on TV. Unlike other sports, football is designed for TV and replays. The rise of HDTV has only made it even more beautiful to watch.   

Two, it is violent. No matter what people say or how much the NFL pays lip service for player safety, violence sells.

Don’t believe me? Watch any action movie and cut out the violence and see how fun that is.    

Finally, the biggest reason fans love the NFL is gambling. Again, the NFL would have you believe they are saints on the issue and oppose it for a variety of reasons, but the fact remains that gambling feeds the beast.

Just like pornography helped shape our modern Internet world, gambling gave football a reason to watch that lousy Bills-Bengals game late in the season. Still not convinced? Why else does the NFL force teams to disclose their injuries or not make a real effort to stop illegal betting?  

Nobody wants to kill the beast. 

In the end, the NFL is going to really test your love with the upcoming labor fight.

If being gouged for tickets, ignoring the public on blackouts, giving a lousy product and finally potentially cancelling a season does not break your love of the game, it does prove one thing: We are all obsessed with the NFL.