Larry O’Connor of the Larry O’Connor WMAL Afternoon Radio Show and I often clash on issues, however I’ve never been more proud of him yesterday when he was talking about the NFL and the networks which broadcast their shows being tone deaf to their fans. And Larry’s idea to put the league back in touch with their fanbase is a simple yet brilliant one – move the NFL from the liberal enclave of Manhattan and put it in the heart of America. Larry gave several suggestions, but one of them was absolutely brilliant. Move the NFL Headquarters to Canton Ohio, where the Pro Football Hall of Fame currently resides.
Much of the mainstream media is located in New York City, aka the home of limousine liberals. And because everyone from media executives to TV news anchors to producers to the people who handle storage are so isolated in their cocoon that they cannot recognize that the overwhelming majority of the people of the US see the media as out of touch with average every day ordinary Americans. Heck even a significant number of Democrats in the US see journalists and the media as out of touch.
Since the NFL is now run in part by CBS/ABC/NBC/ESPN (Fox seems to have escaped the liberal bubble at least for now) and it was the liberal media who kept telling the NFL how great the league was doing by taking on and insulting its fan base, the NFL now needs to do a lot of damage control. And what better way to do some real damage control than to get out of Limousine Liberal Land and go to the Heart Land where the NFL was born – Canton Ohio. As time goes on and more and more people get their TV shows from different sources, the NFL will be able to control its own product without any interference from the liberal bias of the networks – and the league would be saving money also.
Now the NFL may want to keep some things in NYC – Draft Night must stay in the Big Apple for example. However Larry O noted that the networks have become so out of touch that they had John Cleese (Monty Python fame) doing the intro to a recent game. For those of you who missed this bizarre spectacle – Cleese was openly wondering why they call it football when the game is mostly played by catching and throwing and running. Remember a few years ago that the NFL had Hank Williams Jr going “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL” and you knew that “It was Monday Night and we’re ready to fight”. You’d see Navy planes taking off from a carrier and a few good bone crunching hits. But with Cleese you saw him in an English style living room saying the game made no sense to him- that the game really should be called “handball”. How does that relate to someone in Dallas or Houston or even Chicago or Washington DC. This is how far out of touch the networks are with the NFL fan base. The genius who likely came up with this idea tested it out with Monty Python fans only. Personally, I love John Cleese and I still watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail to this day. I even own a Roger the Shrubber T shirt. But Cleese should not be introducing the NFL.
Liberals are so far removed from the average American they can’t understand what makes the average American tick. We love our football, our basketball, our BBQ. We are not Europe, we Americans are a bit rough around the edges, and we don’t like family dynasties. So Commissioner Goodell, do something good for once in your career, and move the NFL HQ away from your wine cooler drinking buddies and come into Middle America– who knows, you may see your ratings go back up again!
14 comments
Liberals do not own the MSM, nor do they own the NFL nor its teams. Fox is a major player in the NFL world. Hell, why not move the NFL to Strasburg, Va.?
NASCAR is hurting from poor ratings and fans have left. What do you blame that on, John? NASCAR=Republican. Where is the NASCAR HQ at, John? What sport is more Republican than NASCAR? And just look at where they were, and where they are now.
Not a whole lot of facts or solutions in your article, John. Your writing generally seems to mirror the Republicans who run Washington these days. Lots of alternative facts and mostly dysfunctional rhetoric.
Hard to go to any of these sports events when all your credit cards are maxed out. People been paying to park at the stadium and then they spend the game tailgating. Same experience, less expense.
I agree. In all honesty, maxed out credit cards, over priced tickets, and oversaturation are the real cause.
Are credit cards maxed out due to the cost of healthcare and the establishment’s wage stagnation?
NFL players taking a knee are are asking for a pay cut, just like the Republican base not wanting the pay raise an increase in minimum wage would guarantee them. Both are stupid.
Top three stores where people actually buy stuff? Aldi’s, DAV, Goodwill. Inflation and low paychecks are killing the Joe’s while Wall Street is back to their old tricks.
Liberals do own the MSM.
You want to argue that point, then you have to argue (1) that the MSM isn’t run from the cities, and (2) that the cities aren’t liberal. OR, and this would be fun to watch, you’d have to argue (3) that even though the cities are liberal and the MSM is run from the cities, that somehow the MSM manages to get the few conservatives who live and work in the city to work for the MSM and that the MSM is somehow then “balanced”. Oh, yeah, that’ll be an amazing argument, I’m sure … especially given polling that shows that newspaper reporters overwhelmingly support liberal candidates. All I can say is that if you want to make that argument, good luck with that!
Jim are you crazy???!!! Liberals do indeed dominate the MSM. For crying out loud, what planet are you living on, Sir? I am an outspoken person and I have been called lots of names in the past because I speak the truth. As an Ashkenazi Jew, I am part of a two-thousand year sub-group of Judaism that has attained unparalleled world-class achievement and influence in science, technology, arts, music, culture, and media. My fellow Ashkenazi exert an influence the American news media, Hollywood, and even in sports (17 of the NFL owners are Ashkenazi) way beyond their small numbers in the population. This accounts for much of the left-lean in the media, and only a blind, deaf, dumb, PC-afflicted fool would deny it.
I could care less what breed you are. Walk into a McDonalds, tell them you are a Ashkenazi Jew, see if it will buy you a cup of coffee or a hamburger. Liberals do not actually own the MSM.
Totally non-sequitir. But let’s try again. Ashkenazi Jews are demonstrably left leaning, right? They vote Democratic about 75% of the time. That has been well documented. When you discard the Orthodox Ashkenazi, who vote Republican (about 60% of the time) and who are about 20% of the American Jewish electorate, that means well over 80% of the non-Orthodox Ashkenazi lean left. Do you want me to go down the list of prominent owners, operators, movers and shakers of the American Media, because I will if I have to. I am afraid you are in D4 – defiant and delusional demographic denial. But don’t feel bad – most of the country as is, as this liberal Jewish news reporter revealed in 2008. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
Average American is such a bs term, just say what you mean, country white people.
I would say “average American” is more suburban rather than rural, and far more diversified than you obviously believe. Most of suberbia is a combination of white and black, with a variety of etnicities, including everything from Latino to Zimbabwean.
And I seriously doubt that the author really meant only “white” when he wrote “Average,” although he certainly meant “partially white,” as any intelligent person would. After all, the country is still majority white, at least for awhile yet.
You seem to be implying racism in your re-interpretation of what his words meant, but I have to assume that wasn’t your intention, since only a fool would believe that acknowledging truths is a racist act.
Not being a “white guy” myself, let me explain what “average American” means. Male or female, age or race not important. Loves their country, works hard to pay their bills. Average American may be a Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. Goes to some type of Christian church, does a bit of volunteer work in their community, either for their church or for some charitable organization. Makes somewhere between 40-125,000 per year. Loves their family and uses sports as their escape for a few hours per week. They may or may not actually agree with the NFL players who are protesting about injustices, but do not think that protesting during the Star Spangled Banner is a good way to protest.
I’m so totally not “average” then lol.
I do, however, respect our flag, because to me that is paying respect to the people around me, because we are all in this together.
Canton is 25% black, which is double the national average.
Manhattan is a big part of the NFL’s problem and I remember when they moved there and thought, “It is going to be downhill from here,” and it has been.
The NFL’s moves are so baffling and tone deaf they are difficult to comprehend. However, I’m glad they are being so stupid. I’ve wanted to drop them for years and just couldn’t let go. This year it has been really easy to ignore them and just not care.
John: You can’t solve the problem by moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic. The NFL behavior is really beyond repatriation and you assessment amounts to 20/20 hindsight. If you want my solution, it is start another professional football league like the lingerie league.
By the way, from recent reading, about 25 of the NFL teams are in Republican areas while the other teams are in Democrat areas. If this is true, the NFL truly did not understand its fans. It looks like the Los Angeles and NYC teams are in Democrat areas and are having trouble. (The Los Angeles population is soccer oriented thanks to open borders. Thus having 4 NFL teams there is proving to be increasingly stupid.)