04/24/24
October 20, 2010
Refs Ask NFL Coaches to Call More Timeouts: During the game Monday night between the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars, referees asked both head coaches to call more timeouts for TV purposes, Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "[Referee] Mike Carey came across and said, 'Here's the deal. We're two short.' And I said, 'Mike, I can't help you. I'm trying to get a first down and I'm gonna kneel on it.'"
p.s. Mr R, you've linked to a link to the story again.
Thanks. I find cool stuff via Reddit sometimes amid the dreck, but it has the wrong link.
posted by rcade at 02:03 PM on October 20, 2010
There are some gems at Reddit, but I find the Sports section to be filled with the sort of comments that makes me value SpoFi so much, so I tend to avoid it.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 02:05 PM on October 20, 2010
I'm sure this is the kind of policy that the NFL would rather fans not know even exists. What a bunch of moneygrubbers!
posted by bperk at 02:08 PM on October 20, 2010
This is just more evidence that the TV networks are really running the NFL, and other leagues to boot. Why are certain penalties called on the teams that are comfortably leading in a game? The answer is to tighten up the game before everyone switches to "Dancing With the Stars". The league and the officials will answer that they have officiated the game evenly, but a holding call on the offense in a critical 3rd and short situation is not exactly the same as one called when you are already in 3rd and very long, and would be punting on the next snap anyway. The same criticism applies to fouls called on certain players, but not on others, and applies to a suddenly shrunken strike zone for the pitchers of a team that is leading in the standings in the latter stages of the season and whose competition is to be featured on national TV in the near future.
I've watched sports on TV for a very long time, and I never thought much about this until the past 5 or 10 years. It is all too apparent that money is the controlling factor in all of this. It's not for the gambling interests, but for those who sponsor the games. I suppose that if this is the price we pay for being able to watch the games for free, then we should just grin and bear it, but if your favorite team or mine loses a game or even a championship because of this, we won't be grinning.
Really, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this deserves a closer look. I accept the evidence of the JFK assassination, the 9/11 attacks, and even "who shot JR". There is no tooth fairy, and St. Nicholas was real, but not Santa Claus. So, for all of you who say, "Man, is this guy nuts", I'm merely of a suspicious mind.
posted by Howard_T at 02:10 PM on October 20, 2010
Good point HT. It makes me wonder if the NFL will tell refs to call more penalties and then have a 'consult' giving them time to add more commercials if the coaches don't call more timeouts. Or maybe there will be more 'booth reviews' as the game's end nears. Dont' these bast***s make enough money without having to screw with the game?
posted by Shotput at 02:35 PM on October 20, 2010
What if both coaches refuse to call a timeout?
Booth review is a possibility.
Notify the defense that they get a clear shot at the quarterback without penalty to cause an injury timeout?
One of the refs faking their own injury to force a timeout?
They are playing games with our games.
posted by graymatters at 03:23 PM on October 20, 2010
They are playing games with our games.
They clearly aren't our games anymore. The only question is: when did we lose them?
posted by tron7 at 05:00 PM on October 20, 2010
This shit is exactly why I won't watch football despite liking it.
NFL Rewind sounds great! Edit: Looked at it. "You are trying to view this page from a restricted territory." Well, NFL, you just lost my fine Canadian dollars. Fuck you.
Formula One has gone the same way sort of. The reason the safety car was introduced rather than stopping the race in the event of an accident (aggregate races being confusing to some people not withstanding, I'm talking about first lap accidents here) was so the TV window didn't overrun and upset the networks. So the sport was modified for TV purposes.
One reason I won't watch baseball on TV is because of the ad breaks. Come back from break, pitcher throws one pitch, new pitcher called out, ad break again...
MLBTV was a good choice, but I wish they just stuck to showing the field during the ad break. Watch the players change over etc... Instead of a blank screen, the MLBTV logo etc...
My big problem with all things on TV is the number of commercials. I'm dumping cable soon as I can watch the few shows I want to watch legally online, and instead of 3 minutes of commercials, news bumpers, trailers, I get, at most, 1 minute of commercials. For free. Rather than paying $60 a month.
Basically my issue with commercials, apart from the asinine, repetitive nature of them, is that they pull you out of what you're watching. I find hard to keep focused on sports like baseball, football, get really into shows etc... I can't afford a PVR, my VHS is long gone... So I have to watch when it airs...
Which ultimately means I watch almost nothing.
posted by Drood at 05:24 PM on October 20, 2010
The story I've heard is that ESPN (who was broadcasting the game) wanted the game to be extended as much as possible.
Why? Not just for commercials, but so that the end of the game would be AFTER the MLB game was finished?
Why? MLB/TBS doesn't allow in-game highlights to be broadcast on other networks (like ESPN) while the game is still ongoing. That means that ESPN wouldn't be able to start their late SportsCenter broadcast with any baseball highlights.
posted by grum@work at 05:41 PM on October 20, 2010
I have laid out the $40 for NFL Rewind this year which Igives me every regular season game this year and last, in HD, over the net and I have to say the NFL is incredibly watchable when there are zero commercials.
Sunday ticket offers a service called Short Cuts in which they condense the entire game into thirty minutes. It's brilliant.
Of course, it's on eight hours later so I watch in addition to not instead of the actual game. And it's considerably more than $40.
posted by cjets at 07:53 PM on October 20, 2010
"Really, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this deserves a closer look. I accept the evidence of the JFK assassination, the 9/11 attacks, and even "who shot JR". There is no tooth fairy, and St. Nicholas was real, but not Santa Claus. So, for all of you who say, "Man, is this guy nuts", I'm merely of a suspicious mind."
Question everything! Anybody that accepts the Warren Commision and the 9/11 is exactly the kind of sheeple the NFL is banking on. Both of those were farcial ceremonies in deception! With a litttle bit of research, you will awaken from the mind numbing, slumber inducing propaganda machine we call television. The NFL is part of that machine. Never think differently.
posted by sonosmith at 09:14 PM on October 20, 2010
Question everything! Anybody that accepts the Warren Commision and the 9/11 is exactly the kind of sheeple the NFL is banking on. Both of those were farcial ceremonies in deception! With a litttle bit of research, you will awaken from the mind numbing, slumber inducing propaganda machine we call television. The NFL is part of that machine. Never think differently.
Capricorn 1, anyone?
posted by Howard_T at 09:50 PM on October 20, 2010
They clearly aren't our games anymore. The only question is: when did we lose them?
Well from my perspective it's when Goodell took over.
posted by bdaddy at 11:25 PM on October 20, 2010
Howard_T: Bonus points for the OJ connection.
posted by fabulon7 at 04:13 PM on October 21, 2010
I have laid out the $40 for NFL Rewind this year which gives me every regular season game this year and last, in HD, over the net and I have to say the NFL is incredibly watchable when there are zero commercials.
The fact that the play-by-play bookmarking enables me to skip touchbacks, fair catches, other noise plays and long booth reviews means I can watch an entire game with a few rewinds to watch key plays in under 90 minutes.
Asking for timeouts so that you can squeeze more Southwest Air commercials into a dead game is probably going to make me cough up the cash next year too. So clearly it's a nefarious plan from the NFL.
p.s. Mr R, you've linked to a link to the story again.