This morning Phil Mushnick, sports muckraker extraordinaire, takes batting practice against one of our favs, Bud Selig. For those of you new or passing through, that was a joke. Bud Selig has, from this blogger’s not so always humble perch, singlehandedly ruined a spectacular professional sport and turned it into QVC.
Mushnick: “By now, I suppose, we’re supposed to accept it, roll with it. Baseball’s Selig Era cultivated a strain of shamelessness that trades common sense and common decency for, well, how much ya got? So, take it or leave it. And get over it.
I’m trying. But it’s not taking.”
And then Mushnick does what any self-respecting (football) fan would do- he takes a step back and sees that Goodell and the NFL are going down that same path:
“Incidentally, when the Giants and Jets don’t sell out because of their PSL ticket extortions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be forced to change the TV blackout rules rather than risk the New York market. And he’ll claim that the bad economy is to blame. But Giants and Jets patrons have remained through previous hard times. The economy will be blamed for the NFL’s greed.”
Here, I believe Mushnick may err on a minor technicality.. The Giants (and Jets) will likely sell out. You just won’t see all the seats filled. The Giants will find some corporate s**kers to pony up the dough for the remaining $20K PSLs and $700 seats that serve all you can eat. Oh, and how we wish that Mushnick will be right and somehow, some way, they all do not get sold. The embarrassment will be palpable. As it is, the Giants should be embarrassed that their hardcore fans passed up on PSLs in DROVES. And that is the reality, the perspective that Mushnick reminds us of today.
Just remember that games ending at midnight in winter time, 18 game seasons going through the month of February, PSLs, flex game schedules that hold ticket holder schedules hostage, cable pilfering.. these are just SOME of the many ways that the NFL is going to war to grab every last dollar from your wallet.
If you are reading this blog it means you are passionate about the Giants and NFL football. The voice of this blog, along with people like Mushnick, want to remind you that at a certain price, it is not worth it anymore. It was a very sad day when one of this blogger’s best friends, a guy who I went to the 1986 NFC Championship with, could not stay up for the end of the Panther game this December. He had work (early enough) the next morning and smartly, that was his priority. There once was a time when games did not flex and December games were played in the sunshine at 1PM. Today, they know they’ll get someone to buy the seat, so they put it on television to max out the dollar. Tomorrow? That is someone else’s problem. Tomorrow they will have Selig-ed themselves out when people stop attending and even stop viewing. 500 saves? What’s a save?
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