TimKesten.com

You do not like professional football as much as you think you do, and the NFL knows it.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Lisa questioned Homer’s desire to gamble on professional football. When Homer told her that it makes the games more exciting, Lisa was confused. “What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football?” she asked. Homer replied with a question of his own, “You like ice cream, don’t you?” He asked, “And don’t you like ice cream better when it’s covered in hot fudge? And mounds of whipped cream?” Well, I ask you, you like the NFL, don’t you? And don’t you like the NFL better when it’s covered in fantasy leagues? And office pools? And Super Bowl parties?

Don’t get me wrong, I know there are plenty of people whose interest in fantasy football leagues and casual betting stems from their interest in the NFL, and not the other way around. There were plenty of people who watched every game, every Sunday, before there were all the extracurricular activities. In fact, there are plenty of people who still do. But with an estimated 30 million people playing fantasy football every year, it is a shrinking population.

I liken it to fishing. If you ask the average guy if he likes fishing, he will likely say, “sure,” because when he thinks of fishing, he thinks of being in the sun with his buddies on a chartered boat in close proximity to a cooler full of beer. Oh, and incidentally having a fishing pole in his hands. That same guy is not likely going to be interested in sitting on a pier, alone, waiting for the tide to move at five in the morning, let alone wading. Similarly, the average guy would probably not sit on a couch by himself watching an out of market game if he didn’t have something else riding on it.

I know the NFL was doing fine before the popularity of fantasy sports, and would likely continue to prosper without it. But given my generation’s short attention span, it is not surprising that there are no less than seven different fantasy games available for play on the NFL’s website alone, including a game targeting the six to fifteen year old demographic, entitled PPK+. On January 25, NFL.com posted a mock fantasy draft for the 2008 season — a little over seven months before the actual season.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with fantasy football or any of the rest of it. In fact, I play fantasy football. But I am keenly aware that without fantasy football, I would not be interested in a game featuring the Bengals and the Cardinals, unless I picked the Bengals in my office pool.  The NFL is willing to bet that you would not be either.

Note: this is something I wrote hoping to use it for something else. I decided to go ahead and put it on here.

January 11, 2008

They were undefeated. 12-0. They won their conference championship. They were granted a BCS bowl bid, a long anticipated matchup with the University of Georgia and finally, most importantly, a chance to prove all the doubters wrong. The Hawaii Rainbows were hoping to be this year’s Boise State. Now, in the upcoming 2008 college football season, no one is going to want to be last year’s Hawaii.

The Rainbows were thrashed by the Bulldogs of Georgia, losing by a final score of 41-10. Their star quarterback, hoping to be a first round draft pick, went from big man on campus to men among boys in one night, after he was sacked seven times and threw three interceptions, all while throwing for a career low 169 yards and no touchdowns.

After the embarrassment of the Sugar Bowl the Rainbows were sent back to Hawaii, licking there wounds, and wondering what had just happened. Their attempt to regroup was cut mercilessly short as just fives day after the loss, coach June Jones was surprisingly wooed away to another college head coaching position. And not even a prestigious one. They lost their beloved coach to Southern Methodist University, whose once proud football program was given the one and only “death penalty” in the history of intercollegiate athletics for rules violation by the NCAA in 1987.

In the five previous years before Jones’ arrival in Hawaii, the Warriors won a total of 12 games. Under Jones, Hawaii compiled a record of 76-41, including 2 Western Athletic Conference Championships, a combined record of 23-4 over the past two seasons and four bowl appearances in the past five years. SMU won exactly one game last year. Not exactly what most would consider a step up for Jones.

Losing their coach to such a downtrodden program was too much for the University of Hawaii to stomach. They fired athletic director, Herman Frazier, one day later. Reportedly, Frazier’s inability to negotiate a contract extension with Junes was a major factor in the decision to release him and buy out the two remaining years on his contract.

In one week Hawaii went from its first BCS bowl bid to a team without a coach, without an athletic director, and facing an off season in which they must now replace both, as well as Colt Brennan, who threw more career touchdown passes as Hawaii’s quarterback than anyone in the NCAA history.

In the year prior to June Jones taking over Hawaii, the rainbows did not win a game. In Jone’s first year, the Warriors improved to 9-4, the biggest single season turnaround in NCAA division one history. Jones said his reason for choosing to leave Hawaii for SMU was the challenge of turning their program around. That is what he came to Hawaii to do, and he did accomplish that. But one must wonder if Jones now believes that his dream of turning Hawaii into one of the nation’s elite programs was just that – a dream.