The media continues to hype up the NFL beyond comprehension.
I have always mused that one of the main reasons the NFL is considered “America’s favorite sport” is because the games are only played once per week. If baseball or basketball had the same week-long build up that, say, a November game between the Bengals and Colts received, then I have no doubt that Yankees-Red Sox would out draw even the most attractive football tilt. This is not to take anything away from a Sunday at your local NFL stadium, which – like a Sunday afternoon at Fenway or Wrigley – continues to be Americana personified, but the media contributes too mightily to football’s current aura of supremacy.
On Sunday, we saw two very mediocre NFL title games. The stakes were high, and there were heartwarming stories emanating from both Denver and Seattle. However, according to an ESPN poll released during Monday’s sportscenter, more than half the country did not know of Kobe Bryant’s 81 point outburst until they arrived at school/work the next day, or later.
I’m pretty sure that, by then, everyone could tell you Jerome Bettis’ life story and how many cumulative hairs were contained on Mike Holmgren and Bill Cowher’s mustaches.
As a freelance writer, I realize that not everyone along the east coast enjoys my “privilege” of being able to stay up late following sports like I do. I was a teacher for three years, and I know not everyone is awake past 11pm, especially on a Sunday night. But the Lakers game ended just after midnight in the east, and obviously, sometime between 9 and 11pm for most other time zones. This story, even with the Monday morning/afternoon talk shows discussing it, should NOT have taken such a backseat to the NFL playoffs. Journalists surely have deadlines, but when it’s 11:15 p.m. and Kobe has 55 points through three quarters, you might want to turn your computer back on.
If you search the recent top sports stories, with an absence of hot stove baseball this month, the NFL stories are overwhelming: Mel Kiper is doing eight versions of his seldom-accurate mock draft (for April), people are already making their plans for Detroit (a great place to have a Super Bowl…not really) and the human interest stories should be hitting the presses by Thursday.
Not only was Kobe’s under-reported night versus Toronto, in many ways, the most remarkable NBA performance in over a decade, but does anyone know that the Olympics are less than a month away? The Olympics, though, only occur every four years and have that international feel to them that Americans are immune and oblivious to, so we won’t read nor hear much about them, sans a Bode Miller update.
Like in politics, the sports media knows what sells, and apparently, the NFL does just that. However, Kobe’s ego needs to be assuaged (no pun intended) this week. His accomplishments have not been noted nearly enough since his legal issues of 2003-2004. Give Kobe this week to bask, and the media can have all next week to descend upon Ford Field and fawn over Matt Hasselbeck and the long hair of various Steeler defensive players.