By Jaboner Jackson 8 a.m. | The NFL offseason trudges on in 2013 with the NFL enjoying unparalleled economic success due to a favorable Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed two years ago and lucrative television contracts with CBS, FOX, ESPN, and NBC inked shortly thereafter. However, current success comes with a price. Although the NFL will continue to expand its economic profitability and spectator influence this decade, the league has made tangible changes to the product of professional football that will cause irreparable long-term financial and spectator damage. Specifically, economic and spectator contraction will start to manifest during the next era of the CBA, during which media contracts will once again be upwards negotiated, but for the final time. The NFL Five Factor Death Spiral has begun.
1. No Fun League | Professionalism sells advertising space but it does not elicit fan passion. Although the NFL can be commended for curtailing on-field player excesses, such as choreographed touchdown celebrations, such actions have the simultaneous effect of limiting player personality, therefore forcing the NFL to construct player personalities rather than having them created organically.
Nicknames have disappeared in the NFL. When Deacon Jones of the Los Angeles Rams died last week, another part of the Fearsome Foursome became a part of NFL lore. The Oakland Raiders had The Mad Bomber (Daryle Lamonica) and The Assassin (Jack Tatum), two nicknames that the NFL would be loath to associate with modern players. The Pittsburgh Steelers had Mean Joe Greene, who even played on his violent reputation in the classic Coca-Cola commercial below. Fans knew the nicknames of players because they represented their on-field personalities.
But such is no longer the case. Even though the Baltimore Ravens won the 2013 Super Bowl and have future Hall of Famers in Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, most fans would be hard pressed to state their nicknames. And Ed "The Ball Hawk" Reed or Ray "Ray Ray" Lewis just sound plain amateurish. Even the sport's two most popular figures, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, lack legitimate nicknames. Their personalities have been created through commercials for Dodge Darts and Papa John's Pizza rather than because of their on-field personalities.
The NFL used to promote the violence of the sport. Now it shuns away from it. Vanilla is the new normal. The violent style of play that garnished fan attention and created player personality has become a legitimate safety concern for the NFL, which brings us to the second step in the NFL Five Factor Death Spiral…
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In Part 2, footballphds.com investigates how Legitimate Safety Concerns will contribute to the NFL's Five Factor Death Spiral.
Jaboner Jackson
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