We are finally at Super Bowl week. It seems it has been 2 months since the Conference Championship games. No other sport allows 2 weeks in between its semifinal games and its ultimate championship. The NFL gets away with this because it wants the media to hype the game. However, for fans, this is the ultimate screw job. Instead of playing right away, the teams then get out of rythym.
For both the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots, they have been the recipients of two bye weeks within a month. The first bye week was at the end of the season through the Divisional playoffs and now again in between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.
Without a football game to watch, sports fans had to go to other events such as the Australian Open tennis tournament, college basketball, the NBA, the NHL, oh, that’s right, there’s no NHL. But anyway, the sports choices were very slim last week. But finally, we can get to the game as the media has had little or nothing to to do in the bye week.
Players like the extra week because they can heal their injuries. Coaches like the extra week so they can prepare and also make the necessary arrangements for travel and tickets. Networks like it so they can take their time to really promote the game. But the media hates it because they have to wait and it’s totally unfair to the fans who have faithfully followed the game.
Plus, the NFL likes extending its season into February so its network partners can make more money in advertising rates and so it can get more money from the networks.
One can argue that the one week wait gives fans a better game, but the last Super Bowl with one week in between was a blowout and last year’s Super Bowl that had a two week wait was a dandy. But I prefer the one week so we can have a nice end to the season instead of waiting so long. Sometimes the hype outweighs the game and we get an anticlimatic contest.
The NFL will not be going back to a one week wait anytime soon and fans will have to suffer through more hype than a P.T. Barnum circus.
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