Tag: NFL (Page 30 of 34)

      NFL and Comcast close to an agreement on cable distribution deal

      May 17, 2009 /

      Sports Illustrated’s Peter King is reporting that the NFL is close to a deal with Comcast to begin offering the NFL Network on their cable television package. League officials hope to gain momentum with this current agreement and have it carry over to their upcoming negotiations for a new labor agreement with the players association.

      King also added that the NFL is on the verge of reaching a two-year contract extension with FOX and CBS to continue broadcasting their Sunday game packages. Many feel that NBC will likely follow suit and agree to a similar deal for their Sunday evening game package sometime before the start of the season.

      Here is the breakdown of the potential agreement between the NFL and Comcast:

      NFL Network had been carried on a pay sports tier for Comcast’s 24-million subscribers, and the NFL for years has been arguing its channel should be on the regular digital cable package with the ESPNs and CNNs of the cable TV world. Now that is close to happening. The deal would mean that instead of paying about $7 per month for the channel and other pay-TV sports channels, Comcast subscribers will get NFL Network with its regular digital package — and it will increase the number of TV homes the Network is seen in from about 35 million to close to 50 million. More importantly, it could well pave the way for the NFL to make deals with other cable companies similarly chapped at the league’s demand for huge rights fees for a sports channel with only 24 hours of NFL regular-season game programming per year.

      Many in the league office feared that without a wider distribution of the NFL Network, the owners would have moved to cease operations of the channel. They were getting frustrated with the lack of movement in their five-year battle against Comcast on the network’s distribution rights.

      The NFL will return to the negotiating table later this spring, as talks between the league and the NFL players association will begin on coming to a new collection bargaining agreement.

      NFL, Television

      The Super Bowl in London?

      May 10, 2009 /

      http://en.ce.cn/sports/others/200802/05/W020080205557866161143.jpg

      Ross Tucker at Sports Illustrated has a new column up about the rumors going around about a London Super Bowl in the near future. He writes:

      For the loyal hometown fans, a regular season game is one of the eight glorious days that they look forward to and pay good money for every year. The Super Bowl, on the other hand, is already an outrageously expensive neutral site game. It is pretty much mainly high rollers paying top dollar for the tickets at this point anyway. How many true fans of the teams playing in the game really go to the Super Bowl? The vast majority watch it on TV and wouldn’t be affected at all by a move abroad, assuming issues like weather, field conditions and kickoff time can be worked out.

      I suppose it makes a lot of sense to try and create a more international market for the sport of American football. Mr. Tucker writes elsewhere in his article that basketball and baseball have had “exponential” increases in popularity overseas, and of course the NFL would want to cash in too. A few regular season games have already been held across the pond and the attendance has been pretty high, more than 83,000 for the Saints/Chargers game last year at Wembley Stadium, but the Super Bowl is another beast entirely.

      Having the Super Bowl in London give a lot of people a knee-jerk “the NFL is screwing me again!” reaction, but the truth is that this is capitalism straight up. Just because the NFL is on top in terms of popularity in America, that popularity does not extend to other countries in the least. In fact the London games thus far have seemed more like freak shows for people interested in seeing giant Yanks smashing each other for a few hours rather than opening people up to a new and intricate sport.

      Speaking from personal experience as an English teacher in Los Angeles, even those people living a few miles from any given USC game or a remote click’s distance from watching the sport have no interest in it. The reasons I’ve been given from my mainly Korean students (with some Japanese, Russians, Chinese, and Bulgarians as well) is that American football is not a sport that can be picked up from simple observation. The penalties can be very frustrating for them and the point values really throw people off too.

      I’m not saying it’d be impossible for them to learn the rules (I’ve taught classes proving the exact opposite), but it does show the inability to learn the game passively, or casually. Especially for people whose grasp of the English language is tenuous at best, the rules and intricacies of football seem nonexistent or indecipherable. It’d take one heck of a push by the NFL to break through that barrier. But if any league can become insinuated into a culture, I think the NFL can.

      In fact, they may want to start with video games (that’s how I learned hockey). It’s easy to figure out a sport when you can repeat a specific action as many times as you want. Considering the popularity of gaming systems in Europe, it’d be an obvious step to get the next Madden game out there as prominently as possible. Just an idea…

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, General Sports, NFL, Rumors & Gossip, Super Bowl

      Saints players arrested for indecent exposure, etc…

      May 3, 2009 /

      http://photos.nola.com/photos/tpphotos/1cdcebe9e078641ed3b5ffc81162caba.jpg

      I get to report on athletes breaking the law and making poor life decisions for the first time today. In order to sanctify this inaugural post let me chant the greats for a sec: Please inspire my words to come ye great muses Pete Rose, Michael Vick, Mike Tyson. Oh, and there are so many more I could add, feel free to do so in the comments. Something tells me it’d be a good way to let off some steam.

      – Right. So whatta we got today? Well, YAHOO! SPORTS has an article up about the recent arrest of two New Orleans Saints players, wide receiver Biren Ealy and tight end Kolomona Kapanui:

      Two women, who weren’t identified, were riding in a vehicle when they reportedly saw Ealy and Kapanui urinating in the parking lot of an apartment complex around 12:42 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.

      One of the women told Ealy to stop. Authorities said Ealy turned around while exposing himself and began making lewd comments. Moments later, Kapanui allegedly exposed himself to the driver of the vehicle and made lewd comments, the sheriff’s office said.

      What? Oh man, I thought there’d be something a bit more severe than that coming. What gives here? Alright, I guess this has “intern” written all over it. So we got two professional football players peeing in public, alright I admit that’d get you a ticket. But at the same time, come on…I’m not alone in this am I? How many times have you peed in an isolated public area after a night of drinking? I see 3 guys doing that in downtown LA on my way to return books. I apologize if I’m thoroughly nonplussed by this.

      I suppose the real crime here, and the thing that makes this worse than writing your name in the snow, is the behavior of Ealy and Kapanui after they got busted. I don’t see the need for these two guys to get so sassy with the two people who were bothered by their illegal activities.

      Props to those ladies by the way. If I saw two drunk guys (who were both 6’3” and over 200 lbs) peeing in a dark parking lot late at night, I don’t think a confrontation would be my first instinct.

      Do I really need to get serious about this news though? If I fail to voice some personal rebuke of their behavior do I get in trouble too? I just don’t think it’d make any difference. There’s always gonna be morons out there that can’t behave beyond the level of a school bus full of kindergarteners (and no, that hasn’t happened to me while I was waiting for the light to change), I can’t expect every person who can play a sport to be a model citizen. But that’s certainly no excuse for the athletes who refuse to be one.

      In conclusion, let me just say this: In terms of athletes breaking the law, this incident gets filed under toilet humor and depressingly over-common. Though I can’t believe how hard I’d be laughing at the whole situation were I an anonymous passer-by.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Humor, News, NFL, Rumors & Gossip

      Favre could return next season with the Vikings

      May 3, 2009 /

      NFL sources are telling New York Daily News football columnist Gary Myers that Brett Favre cannot peacefully retire until he gains his revenge on the Green Bay Packers. He wants back into the NFC North Division in order to play the Packers twice next season. Favre wants to play well and show them that it was mistake in trading him away last season.

      Myers is connecting the dots and seeing where this may lead:

      • Favre retired in February, but the New York Jets refused his request to release him, wanting to keep his rights in the event he changed his mind and wanted to play again – he is prone to flip-flop, of course – and Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff stunk up their new $75 million practice facility in the offseason.
      • The Jets traded up to get Mark Sanchez in the draft last weekend and the text-messaging between GM Mike Tannenbaum and Favre intensified. Favre still wanted to completely cut his contractual ties with the Jets. Three days later, the Jets released him. Sources say Favre, who will be 40 in October, wants to keep his options open. Favre released a statement saying, “At this time, I am retired and have no intention of returning to football.”
      The three key words: “At this time.”
      • The Minnesota Vikings are a quarterback short of being a Super Bowl contender, and they need to sell tickets and have been trying for years to get a new stadium.

      Favre’s bitterness is creating this scenario, and he has authorized his agent to indirectly contact the Vikings about playing for them next season. Media reports from Minnesota have reported that the Vikings have had internal discussions about adding Favre to the roster. And many in the NFL believe that we haven’t seen the last of him on a football field. As long as a team is willing to give him a roster spot, Favre will play.

      NFL

      Canseco to headline a MMA card in Japan

      May 3, 2009 /

      Let’s take a look at Jose Canseco’s checklist of things to do in your life:

      1) Become a MVP winner in Major League Baseball. Check, as he won the 1988 American League MVP Award with the Oakland A’s.
      2) Become a star on a television reality show. Check, as he became a cast member in Season five of the Surreal Life on VH-1.
      3) Write a tell-all book on the steroid era in baseball. Check, as he wrote the book entitled Juiced.

      And now you can add headlining a mixed martial art event to his list, as Canseco will fight 7-foot-2 and 330 pound Hong-Man Choi on May 26 in Japan.

      Canseco vs. Choi is one of four matches in DREAM’s “Super Hulk Tournament” organized to boost television ratings. Here is the entire card:
      Super Hulk Tournament (Open-Weight)
      – Jose Canseco vs. Hong-Man Choi
      – Gegard Mousasi vs. Mark Hunt
      – Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa vs. Bob Sapp
      – Jan “The Giant” Nortje vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

      Despite a 1-2 record, Choi is a dangerous MMA fighter due to his size and sheer strength. This is a definite step up from Canseco’s last opponent inside the ring, actor Danny Bonaduce. They boxed to a draw in an exhibition bout last January, and Canseco was also knocked out in a boxing match against former NFL player Vai Sikahema last summer.

      Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, MLB

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