Study Shows Domestic Violence Increases after Upset Loss in NFL

In a study published online earlier this week by The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2011, Vol. 126, pp. 1-41), two California physicians have reported that domestic violence against women increases significantly in areas where the home fans’ National Football League (NFL) teams just suffered an upset loss at home.

In the article, Family Violence and Football: The Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Violent Behavior, authors David Card and Gordon Dahl report their findings after studying the results of NFL games and comparing those to local police reports of family violence that occurred in a small window immediately following the conclusion of the game. Their study matched NFL game outcomes and family violence reports of six teams: Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans.

When a team lost at home in a game it was favored to win by at least four points, the study discovered a 10% increase in at-home domestic violence by men against women in the local area of the losing franchise. The percentage doubled to 20% when the team lost to a rival.

“Taken together, our findings suggest that emotional cues based on the outcomes of professional football games exert a relatively strong effect on the occurrence of family violence.” (p. 3)

The authors did report that domestic violence cases are still much more frequent during holidays—typically a peak time for domestic violence incidents—although the spike following an NFL team’s loss was approximately equal to the domestic violence reports that occur on hot days, also generally a time when domestic violence cases increase.

“In our case, NFL football games are likely to bring couples together, and the emotional cues associated with televised games place women at an elevated risk of abuse.” (p. 38)

Full journal article: The Quarterly Journal of Economics

NFL Labor Dispute 101 with Braham Dabscheck

Just when sports fans were starting to turn their attention away from the NFL labor dispute and toward NCAA March Madness, the fighting between the players and owners has taken center stage once again. And during a time when buzzer-beating underdogs advancing in the NCAA Tournament typically captivates the nation, it’s quite a feat that the NFL has been thrust back into the proverbial water cooler discussions.

San Diego Chargers linebacker Kevin Burnett put the NFL dispute back into spotlight by these comments earlier this week to XX Sports Radio in San Diego about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell:

“Goodell’s full of it. He’s a liar. You’re a blatant liar. ‘It’s our league, it’s we, we love the players, we want the league,’ but what have you done for the players? What have you done, in all honesty, to improve the game, besides fine guys, besides take money away from guys, besides change a game that you’ve never played? … He’s done nothing to improve the game.”

While the players and owners kept comments to themselves during the mediation process, since the NFLPA has decertified, a group of players has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and its owners, and the owners have locked out the players, the public verbal sparring has begun once again.

But for those without a law degree or intimate knowledge of player associations, sport leagues, and labor relations, much of what the two sides are bickering about can be a bit confusing. That’s why Fitness Information Technology has turned to Braham Dabscheck for a primer we’ll call NFL Labor Relations 101. Dabscheck, a senior fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne in Australia, is an industrial relations scholar who has conducted research on professional team sports for nearly four decades. He is also the author of a new release, Reading Baseball: Books, Biographies, and the Business of the Game.

Q: With the players’ union decertifying and 10 players filing an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL owners, who as a result locked out the players, which side holds more power at this point?

Dabscheck: “There will be different answers for the short- (off-season) and long-term (when next season should begin). A lockout is an aggressive act by employers attempting to force workers/players to accept their terms and conditions. In the short run it will negatively affect the players. Once the season is scheduled to start, if the lockout continues, the players don’t buckle, and there is no play, that will hurt the owners more. Why? Because they will obtain no revenue. I feel at this stage both sides are testing each other; wanting to see who will blink first. This may suggest that the dispute will drag on to just prior to the new season. If the players haven’t blinked there will be internal pressure from within the owners to lower their eyelids.”

Q: What exactly is an antitrust lawsuit?

Dabscheck: “Owners/leagues introduced rules like the draft, trading, salary caps etc to control players. Such rules (with the exception of baseball) have been found to be in breach of the Sherman Anti Trust Act 1890 (see my chapters 3 and 4). An antitrust suit would be where players challenge such IMPOSED rules as being in violation of such legislation. A way for owners/league to protect such rules from antitrust action is to have them endorsed in a collective bargaining agreement with players/players’ association. This is why the NFLPA has decertified as a Union under the National Labor Relations Act. It removes such protection.”

Q: Is the decertification and lawsuit just a power move or do the players really intend to see the lawsuit run its course?

Dabscheck: “It is both. It is a power move that opens up the owners’ revenue sharing plans, which by definition is a collusive agreement to antitrust action. It is the major bargaining chip at their disposal. To back down would be tantamount to throwing in the towel. The problem for the NFLPA is for players to hold firm. It looks like the action is well supported by players, especially the stars who have the most to lose if the NFL wins.”

Q: Aside from locking out the players, which they have now done, is there anything else the owners can do to try to gain the upper hand in this dispute?

Dabscheck: “If the dispute goes on long enough they would have the option of looking for replacement players, as they have done in the past and as American corporations do in other disputes. This will help to raise the temperature. Fans and commentators may regard this as a devaluation of the NFL product. In short, this is a tactic that has to be played most carefully.”

Q: Will both sides continue to negotiate even though a group of players is suing the owners and the owners have locked out the players?

Dabscheck: “Yes. Negotiations will occur formally and informally. Also, various intermediaries will be active behind the scenes.”

Q: Can you give us your best projection of how this will play out and how, if at all, the 2011 NFL season will be affected?

Dabscheck: “This is a tough question. It looks like the owners want a fight. They may or may not be solid on this. The NFL has experienced much growth and success in recent years. The owners will feel less inclined to fight when they start to experience costs (loss of revenue). Assuming the players don’t capitulate, the 2011 season may be disrupted. If the owners (or enough of them) perceive that the players aren’t likely to cave in and the use of replacement players will cause different types of problems, they owners will have an incentive to lower their eyelids.”

Fantasy football lockout might deal with real numbers

To some, the idea of playing in a fantasy sport league may seem childish and unnecessary; to others it’s a way of life. With $800 million spent last year on fantasy leagues alone, the leagues are hard to ignore. As the industry becomes more widely followed and the fans become more involved, it’s hard to imagine a year without the excitement of drafts and statistics. Some players might say fantasy sports are mostly about having fun, making money, and competing against friends, but the industry is much more complicated. In the probable event that the NFL has a lockout this year, what happens to fantasy football will be much more than simply locking out fans from playing for entertainment.

 There are entire shows on ESPN dedicated to fantasy football statistics, keeping fantasy footballers up-to-date with all of their players.  Many companies are banking on the amount of interest fantasy football incurs each season, such as Yahoo and CBS. According to CNBC online, there are an estimated 21 million fantasy football players bringing in millions of dollars for the industry, and the amount of players continues to grow each year. CNBC also said that 60 percent of the leagues cost money to join and the average league costs $60-80 per team. With statistics like that, it’s easy to see how the leagues bring in such a significant amount of money. For most people, fantasy football wouldn’t be their first concern in the case of a lockout, although for some, it could mean a great financial loss. Advertisers who make money on fantasy football websites and businesses that offer fantasy football software would be greatly affected. For Art of the Fan, a website devoted entirely to fantasy football merchandise, priding itself on original t-shirt designs and the perfect gift for the fantasy fanatic, next season may mean few if any buyers. In the event of a lockout, websites and businesses such as Art of the Fan will have no one to turn to for recourse. The NFL doesn’t endorse this small business along with other similarly small businesses and will have no obligation to help them during the lockout.  

ESPN tells the story of a man named Nathan Harrington who was on medical leave from his job and was subsequently evicted from his apartment, leaving him, his fiancé and their son homeless. Luckily for him, he had his fantasy team to pull him through. He checked friend’s computers, library, and nursing home computers to keep up with his team. His time and effort finally paid off when he came in first in the league on ESPN, making $2,500 that would ultimately help find a way off of the street. What would have happened to Nathan Harrington if the season had been canceled? Fantasy football gave him and his family a second chance. Obviously, while this is a not a scenario that is highly likely for the average American, but it is something to think about in the upcoming months.

Many leagues use pre-draft boards to organize members and players.

Fantasy draft parties make up a large part of fantasy revenue for businesses. On Squidoo you can find tips for what not to do in when you become a fantasy football coach. Yahoo also features a community site, Associated Content,where you can find an extensive list of tips for planning your next NFL draft party. If planning your own party is not for you, you can head over to bars like Hooters that held a staggering 25,000 draft parties this year, offering free draft kits with each reservation.

Most of the discussion on the possibility of an NFL lockout revolves around effects it will have on the owners and player’s union but the true victims in this situation could be the fans. Without a fantasy football season to concentrate on, fans may turn to other fantasy sports, leaving fantasy football in the dust. Similarly, without an NFL season for fans to follow, other leagues may grow in popularity, such as the MLB, NBA and NHL.  During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Ken Dryden, former NHL goaltender stated, “You never want to give a fan a chance to find out whether it was passion or habit.” The lockout could potentially benefit other sports leagues by taking the most popular sport in America out of the entertainment scene. Time magazine online states that, “for fans, well, no football wouldn’t just be a bitter disappointment that could rearrange their fall weekend schedules, but also a betrayal of intense loyalty that could permanently damage America’s best sports brand.” It’s not just going to affect the sport for one season; this cancellation could mean the loss of fans for many years to come. Those who aren’t already lifelong fans may decide that football isn’t worth the time and money spent following the teams.

There are young men, some as young as eight years old, who dedicate their lives to perfecting their skills as football players and one day dream of making it to the NFL. What will happen if this lockout turns into more than just one season? Many of the boys and men who have trained their entire lives to play in the NFL may lose hope for success. For the owners and the players, there are more things than just wage percentages that must factor into the potential 2011 lockout; they should consider the long-term effects the canceled season will bring. There are millions of fans and businesses who will suffer from this lockout which could potentially harm the football industry for years to come. After all, without fans, there wouldn’t be any football.



Former Super Bowl MVP Offers Tips On Thriving In High-Pressure Game

As Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers prepare for Super Bowl XLV, the two starting quarterbacks are likely experiencing a whirlwind of emotions. Anticipation, anxiety, and excitement are just a few of the feelings they must deal with as the big game quickly approaches.

Roethlisberger has been in this situation before, guiding the Steelers to two Super Bowl championships. Rodgers, one would think, would have a more difficult time trying to put aside the added scrutiny, distractions, and immense pressures during the days and hours leading up to America’s most revered sports spectacle.

One quarterback who could advise Rodgers on how to successfully manage his emotions is Phil Simms, who led the New York Giants to a victory over John Elway and the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Simms still holds the Super Bowl completion percentage record after connecting on 22 of 25 passes en route to being named Super Bowl XXI MVP.

“Early in my career I had read many accounts of quarterbacks saying that the Super Bowl game was so big that they could not settle down until the second quarter of the game,” Simms said. “They had a difficult time remembering and focusing on the plays that they ran during the first quarter. And as I read those accounts I recall thinking, ‘If I ever get a chance to play in the Super Bowl, I am not going to waste 25% of that game just trying to settle down.’

“In the two weeks leading up to that game in January 1987, I thought to myself many times, ‘I am not worried about the outcome. I am going to be aggressive and confident in my thinking.’ I remember thinking, ‘I am not afraid to fail.’ Having that mindset just kept me loose and confident leading up to and through the entire game. As I look back over my career, I have often thought, ‘Why didn’t I approach more games like that, or really, why didn’t I approach all my games like that?’”

Simms’ revelation about his mental focus and preparation appears in the foreword he wrote for the forthcoming Living in the Sweet Spot: Preparing for Performance in Sport and Life, published by Fitness Information Technology (FiT). Written by former Olympic rower and America’s Cup sailor Dr. Amy Baltzell, Living in the Sweet Spot provides a fresh look at the integration of sport psychology and positive psychology and gives readers expert guidance as they prepare for life’s big performances.

“As I look back, I realize just how powerful your mind can be when it comes to athletic performance,” said Simms, who is now a lead NFL analyst for CBS Sports. “But I didn’t have a book like Living in the Sweet Spot to help me develop consistency in using my mind to help produce great performances.”

Another former NFL quarterback has found the information presented in Living in the Sweet Spot to be useful in his new position as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, whose home stadium will serve as the site of Super Bowl XLV.

“I’ve always been interested in how to perform better—for myself and now for our players,” said Jason Garrett in his testimonial for the book. “Performance at the highest level is always a challenge. This book provides some excellent practical ideas of how to achieve and sustain high levels of performance from the psychological perspective.”

Simms and Garrett are joined by several other prominent athletes, coaches, musicians, and psychologists who either offer testimonials for Living in the Sweet Spot, or whose experiences, struggles, and subsequent victories over mental obstacles are detailed by Baltzell. A licensed psychologist and professor at Boston University, Baltzell serves as a consultant to many elite athletes and musicians and has been featured in interviews both locally in Boston and nationwide on programs such as CBS Sunday Morning.

“The focus of this book is about how to create and use your habit of positive emotion and focus to prepare for such high-pressure performance moments so you can thrive under pressure,” Baltzell said.

Click here for more information on Living in the Sweet Spot: Preparing for Performance in Sport and Life or to order an advance copy of the book.

Cutler Case Proves Players Need to be Better Educated about Use of Social Media

National Football League players should now have a greater understanding of the impact of social media. Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler certainly is aware of its effects.

In a story that has been well documented, Cutler suffered a knee injury in the second quarter of his team’s NFC Championship game against its long-time rival, the Green Bay Packers. Cutler started the third quarter but quickly exited and failed to play the remainder of the game.

Many of Cutler’s colleagues around the league watching the game on TV immediately grabbed their iPhones, iPads, and other devices and headed to Twitter, where they questioned his toughness, heart, desire, and just about everything else for not playing the rest of the game. Here’s a snippet of some of the tweets by NFL players:

“You dont not play in the NFC championship game cuz your knee hurt, only way I’d come out is if my knee is jus shattered” — Aaron Curry, Seattle Seahawks linebacker

“Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now… When the going gets tough……..QUIT.” — Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars running back

“All I’m saying is that he can finish the game with a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one.” —Jones-Drew

“Cutler u little siSsy…how does it feel that ur back up’s backup is the only 1that can put pts on the board!I bet cutler comes back now!” — Raheem Brock, Seattle Seahawks defensive end

“Cutler…wut a sissy! This is the NFC Championship game! Guaranteed if it was brett farve..he would still be in the game!” —Brock

“If I’m on chicago team jay cutler has to wait till me and the team shower get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!” — Darnell Dockett, Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman

After receiving backlash about his Twitter posts, and after it was revealed Cutler sprained his MCL in his knee, Jones-Drew tried to backtrack on his tweets, insinuating that they were taken out of context, as if there really is “context” in which tweets should be viewed.

With the exploding popularity of social media, players at both the professional and collegiate level need to be schooled on the ramifications of the tweet-what-you-think mentality. Players standing in front of a group of sports reporters generally would never say many of the things they tweet, yet what they post on Twitter is distributed to just as wide an audience — and it’s distributed immediately without filter.

Brad Schultz, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, editor of the Journal of Sports Media, and co-author of Media Relations in Sport, 3^rd Edition, believes that players, and everyone in general, need to be better educated about how they use social media.

“The one thing we’re seeing not just in sports, but in all of our culture, is a lack of recognition of the power and immediacy of the social media,” Schultz said. “People will tweet or post, believing that they are just ‘ranting’ to a few friends. In fact, their comments reach a potentially global audience and have a real sense of permanence.”

Perhaps even more education provided to players by sports information specialists, coaches, administrators, or front office personnel is needed to better educate players about the ramifications of their social media use. But some schools, teams, and leagues are taking it a step further, and supervising, regulating, and sometimes banning players’ use of social media.

“Look at the trouble the North Carolina football program got in last fall when several players were suspended for inappropriate tweets,” Schultz said. “The school now has a coach whose duties include monitoring each player’s social media site and Twitter account. Obviously, it’s a different story in professional leagues, and while the NFL does have a policy in place, the situation needs to be more firmly addressed by individual teams.”

Welcome to Qatar, World Cup Host of 2022

 

 

Warning: The following story is one of satire. As an American and soccer/football enthusiast I reserve the right to make fun of other sovereign nations that outbid my country financially for the World Cup 2022. Who would have thought that a desert land with the third-highest GDP in the world would be able to line the FIFA gods’ coffers more than my own American colleagues? How dare such a tiny country win out against the solid money-machines of the United States, Australia, and Japan.

Qatar will host the World Cup in 2022 after extensively paying off FIFA executives more than the United States.

 

 

Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup:

A pamphlet for soccer fans from the United States

Welcome to Qatar, a peninsular land of vast oil and natural gas reserves. We are roughly the same size as Connecticut, and we have the same population as Phoenix, Arizona. We have never had a World Cup team, but were are surrounded by Middle Eastern countries that have made it to the first or second round—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Iraq. We also had our Under 20 Football Team earn second place in the FIFA World Youth Championship! We love soccer—it’s our favorite sport, just ahead of cricket.

Visitors will find our landscapes breathtaking, if only because the temperature sucks the moisture right out of your lungs. We tried to secure a spot as host of the 2016 World Cup, but lost because we thought it would be best to have the entire South American and European leagues change their schedules in order to play in our “autumn” month of October. But in 2022, we plan on hosting the tournament during our hottest months of June and July, which have average highs of 106 and 114, respectively. Never mind that the heat reflecting off of the sand can reach above 130 (F) degrees! To combat this we will build state-of-the-art stadiums that cool the venues to a respectable 81 (F) degrees. How will we do this? We are investing in billions of dollars in photovoltaic energy that will cool large tanks of water that air will circulate around. Cool air will flood the field and down the backs of the upper decks of each venue. Never mind that stadium architect Jack Boyle says that the design wasn’t “economically viable” for Phoenix, Arizona. Money is no worry! We don’t mind waste, after all, as exemplified that we are the No. 1 country in emissions and CO2 output per capita in the world, just ahead of the United States.

We recognize that our airport only hosted three million passengers a decade ago, compared to 23.3 million at Dulles International Airport on the eastern seaboard of the U.S.—that’s why we’re building a new airport! We started building it so we could win the 2016 Olympics bid, which we lost. We also started building a new city from scratch so we could be a stronger force for bidding for the Olympics and World Cup. We call it Lusail City. We even started building a new stadium before people started to live there! It’s called the Lusail Iconic Stadium, which has a capacity for over 86,000 fans—more than the people that lived in Lusail City until just recently. Isn’t that interesting? The stadium has already served us well after we bought earned the right to host the 2006 Asian Games.

We are on the move, especially after a successful political coup in 1995. We are progressive, even though most people around the Western world don’t think so. For example, we now allow women to drive! We’re also culturally diverse: the majority of people here are not Qatari, instead they are our laborers and servants. We have a really neat system of modern-day slavery called kafeel; but you’ll hear us call it “sponsorship.” We bring over poor, migrant workers from India, the Philippines, Nepal, China, and Africa, and we don’t allow them to change jobs or leave the country without our permission. But do not worry—our rate of sex trafficking and violent crimes against the poor won’t be as showcased as South Africa’s sex trade and murder rate prior to their World Cup debut. We have considered abolishing this slave sponsorship system like our neighbors of Kuwait and Bahrain, but we simply need this labor system in order to continue our quest to host every major sporting event in the world. We’re going to host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals and the 2011 Asian Indoor Games. We already used these laborers to prepare for the 15th Asian Games of 2006 and the 3rd West Asian Games in 2005.

And have no fear, you American, Russian, and European hooligans with a taste for alcohol. We actually serve beer and liquor! Drinks and cocktails are available exclusively in our upscale bars and private clubs for a handsome sum. Beware, though, Sharia Law prohibits you from being drunk or having any alcohol outside these establishments. For this reason, we have one company, and one company alone that has exclusive rights over serving alcoholic beverages, and the income goes directly to the monarchy.

And, finally, please behave in our country. We do not follow the International Court of Justice, and we hold people accountable, again, to a combination of Islamic and civil law. We do not tolerate homosexuality, adultery, or apostasy, and we forbid alcohol and pornography. But don’t worry, if you’re an expatriate, we’ll arrest you under your own law, confine you to a police station, and it’s probable that you won’t be given any type of legal or consular assistance. Your statement for your crime must be translated into Arabic, and it’s your responsibility to ensure your translation is correct.

We have beautiful architecture, world-class educational facilities, and our health care is the best in our region of the world. But we don’t know what we’re going to do when our liquid gold runs out in 37 years from now, which is precisely why we need to party it up while we can. We’ll see you in 2022!

Players Becoming More Outspoken about NFL Safety Measures

Just as the National Football League season heads into the final few weeks and fans’ interest peaks in anticipation of the playoffs, Commissioner Roger Goodell has a growing public relations dilemma.

Reacting in part to several scientific studies recently conducted about the effects of concussions, the NFL has made player safety a priority. One way the league did so was by enforcing rules regarding hitting “defenseless” receivers and striking players “helmet to helmet.” As a result, a bundle of fines and flags have been thrown at the feet of players this season.

But now the NFL may need to react to a groundswell of confusion and anger by players who say they believe the NFL has become too protective, too inconsistent, and too quick to issue fines for players who violate the rules. What’s ironic is that the very players the NFL is attempting to protect from head injuries are the ones complaining about the rules, claiming that aggression is being removed from the game.

While at first it was a select few defensive players who had reputations for being quick-tempered that were speaking out against the NFL’s new crackdown on cracking heads, this week the source of criticism has crossed the line of scrimmage. Offensive players, such as Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward, are now joining the crowd that claims the NFL is unfairly and inconsistently punishing certain defenders for aggressive play on the field.

In fact, Ward, one of the most respected players in the game, went so far as to call the NFL brass “hypocrites” because if player safety was such a concern, he argues the NFL wouldn’t have recently agreed to extend the regular season from 16 to 18 games (although the preseason schedule will be reduced).

While Ward is concerned about his perception that players are being treated unfairly by the NFL, he is also likely looking out for the interest of his own team, because the Steelers have made a reputation of being a hard-hitting defense, and teammate James Harrison has been fined four times for $125,000 by the NFL for hits it deemed were against the rules.

“If they’re so concerned about safety, why are you adding two more games? That right there tells it all,” Ward told a group of reporters. “They don’t care about the safety of the game. If they’re worried about concussions … mandate each player has a new helmet. They don’t do that. They collect money from every helmet (company) that pays them enough money to get their helmets on the field. Now they have three different helmets, and none of them (are) proven that they work.”

But Ward didn’t stop there. He claimed hypocrisy by the NFL on other things, from gambling to alcohol, and truthfully he raises some interesting points.

“Talk about safety, but you add two games. Talk about you don’t want players to drink, but our major endorsement is Coors Light. That’s all you see is beer commercials. … You say you don’t want us to gamble, but you have (point) spreads.”

Ward’s comments have certainly ignited an already hotly debated issue. The NFL, now, must figure out a way to douse the flames while attempting to balance player safety with player satisfaction.

TV Networks Getting Too Involved in Sports Contests?

Much of the country was either asleep or watching Texas polish off the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS on TBS, but late in ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast of the Tennessee Titans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, an odd turn of events occurred and the revelation of why should be unsettling to sports fans and media critics.

With Tennessee leading 23-3 late in the fourth quarter and attempting to run out the clock, Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio began burning his three timeouts. Sports fans have all seen coaches use timeouts late in games when trailing in hopes of pulling off a miraculous comeback, even when logic indicates no comeback is possible. So what Del Rio did by calling timeouts even after the two-minute warning didn’t warrant anything other than a, ‘Oh c’mon, Del Rio, your team has no chance,” reaction. That is, until Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher spoke during his postgame press conference when questioned about why his offense continued to run the ball rather than asking the quarterback to take a knee.

“Jack used his timeouts,” Fisher said. “My understanding is they needed network timeouts, and that’s why Jack used his timeouts. They came over and asked me to do it, but I said, ‘I was hoping to get a first down and kneel on it.’”

That’s right. According to Fisher, ESPN representatives lobbied the coaches of both teams to call timeouts late in the fourth quarter of a game where the outcome was not in doubt simply so they could broadcast commercials.

NFL games typically include five commercial breaks per quarter that were sold by the broadcasting network. Prior to Jacksonville calling timeout, there had only been three advertising breaks in the fourth quarter, with the impending two-minute warning set to provide a fourth. So if neither team had called timeout and Tennessee ran out the clock, which it was content in doing, ESPN would have been one commercial break short in the fourth quarter.

“You can check with Jack. It didn’t bother me at all,” Fisher said. “I believe that they asked them to use them. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it. I just said I would have a hard time using them, because I’m ahead.”

Because of the stoppage in play, Tennessee continued to run the football and running back Chris Johnson broke free for a 35-yard touchdown, pushing the lead to 30-3. So in essence Del Rio succumbing to ESPN’s lobbying caused his team to lose by an even wider margin.

But what if an additional score was not all that happened during the additional plays created by the timeouts? What if a player had gotten seriously injured (several concussions occurred the previous day in the NFL)?

But this isn’t the only time this season on-field action has been affected by TV networks. Notre Dame first-year head coach Brian Kelly openly talked prior to the season about how Notre Dame and NBC executives met to determine how NBC’s length, frequency, and timing of commercial breaks could be altered during its broadcasts of Notre Dame home games to serve as an advantage for the Fighting Irish, who under the guidance of Kelly hoped to employ a fast-paced offense.

Fans had learned to live with the fact that TV networks for years have determined start times for games, whether it be determining the day of the week or the actual tip/kickoff time. College football is now broadcast by ESPN on Saturdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (to the chagrin of high school football fans). And ESPN and other networks that broadcast live sporting events often dictate that start times are pushed back or moved up to inconvenient times for home fans simply for convenience of the networks.

But when TV networks begin lobbying coaches to call timeouts during games, the networks are approaching gonzo journalism status.

NFL’s 18-game season: 8 reasons to think twice about it

Hines Ward has a point. The veteran Steelers’ receiver believes that he might be the “last double-digit guy” to play in the NFL, meaning that once the season is extended to 18 games, most players are going to retire from football before they reach a decade of playing time. Ward, like other NFL athletes, usually has a difficult time finishing out the season—the wear and tear from frequent blocking, tackling, and running can take a mean toll throughout the year for any NFL athlete. ESPN.com mentioned that Ward’s shoulders ache badly with every pass reception, and his legs take heavy wear and tear on artificial turf surfaces, not to mention he gets tackled by some of the world’s biggest and fastest athletes.

Although the proposal for adding two games includes taking away two games from the preseason, there can be no denying the vast differences in pre-season and regular season play when it comes to taking a toll on first-string, first-rate players like Ward.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a large proportion of league owners want the extended season, because, as Goodell says, it “would give fans more games worth watching and eliminate some that are next to meaningless.” Also, it must be noted, the fans aren’t so crazy about the preseason, either.

But let’s call this for what it is: Money. I can guarantee you Goodell isn’t supporting this because of the soft spot in his heart for the fans, and just as well the players certainly want to get paid the most they can get. As the NFL has become more commercialized and organized throughout the years, the seasons have increased in length—in the 1950s, schedules were 12 games long; in the 60s it grew to 14 games. With a longer stretch of 18 games, we’re likely to see a lot of extra money changing hands—through TV channel deals, advertisements, ticket sales, concessions—so far at the expense of the players. But should we care? They, after all, are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, and they are playing to the wishes of the fan base. At least the players don’t seem to be hiding behind the pretense that they are only concerned about injuries and time on the road.

“I might get in trouble, I might get a call, but it’s all about money,” said Steelers safety Ryan Clark. “If you want guys to play 18 games, there is some ways guys are going to have to be compensated for that.” Clark also made a good observation when he said that the NFL is contradicting itself after levying new rules to protect players from concussions and injuries, yet is now pushing to put players into a new realm of injury threats.

Steelers’ Charlie Batch has the dubious distinction of being the team’s player representative, and he, according to ESPN, is opposed to expansion because of the risk of injury, something injury-prone Batch knows well. But even he, like others, admits the concept of a longer season in the 21^st century will be a new beast. But what can we expect to change? What should we look for?

1. Injuries will rise: Yes, there might be an equal amount of games, but seriously folks, preseason football is like watching college lacrosse—mildly entertaining, but in the end nobody outside of the lacrosse community really cares. In the NFL pre-season we get to watch for new talent, unused quarterbacks, and third stringers trying to make the cut, but without the fun and fanfare of a good intercollegiate game. Lackluster performances by the first-tiered starters mar the action, and the heat is dialed way down, compared to the spine-shaking hits and daring passes into double tomahawk coverage that accompanies play later on in the season–when it counts.

2. The hidden talent dynamic will shift: According to technews.com, Peyton Manning and Jeff Saturday,the Colts’ quarterback and center, believe an 18-game season could work severely against undrafted rookies that are trying to make the team. Indianapolis is one of the league’s best at discovering overlooked and hidden talent, and could very well suffer from the advantages of pre-season rookie jubilees. Untested and unproven players will have fewer opportunities to showcase their talents in real games, and will therefore miss out on valuable roster positions.

3. The roster size will expand: As players become injured, strained, and fatigued, someone will have to fill the gaps, so we should anticipate larger drafting pools and a deeper dip into the well of new talent.

4. Network TV wars: This depends on how the NFL sorts out the bye weeks. They might altogether lose the bye weeks (in order to ratchet out a more fluid, regular season schedule), and fuse a schedule that lands games on Thursdays and Saturdays, which might cause the divorce rate to skyrocket. Does this mean we’re going to have more regular games going to cable coverage? It’s already a nasty smack against the blue collar Joes and Janes that can’t afford to watch ESPN for some Monday Night Football action. It just ain’t American.

5. The NCAA might get angry: If games are pushed into Saturday, we’ll be watching two bloated, cumbersome, money-hogging juggernauts slapping each other upside the helmet for financial rights to the Saturday piece of football pie. Think about it. Texas/OU’s Red River Rivalry, or the Cowboy/Redskins game? Some fans will probably spontaneously explode, or fantasy football players won’t have enough time to scout players prior to their fantasy drafts.

6. Losing teams will hurt more financially: By the NFL’s statistics, 14 franchises didn’t make money or were in the red last year. Let’s imagine the Raider fans being asked to pick up a hike in revenue to cover the cost of two more games that nobody wants to attend. You tell them the news, because I’m not going to do it.

7. What about the (not so little) linemen?: Getting personal, Sean Bubin, a friend and former NFL lineman, spoke to me about the dregs of being on the line. Bubin was drafted in 2004 by the Jaguars, and he played for the Lions and Vikings before spending time abroad with the Hamburg Sea Devils for NFL Europe—he retired at the ripe old age of 26. “I seized up—I couldn’t bend my limbs anymore,” said Bubin. “It happens to a lot of us.” Medical News Today cites that the average NFL career length in 2008 was 4.6 years, and only 7% of players made it past Hines Ward’s magic double-digit number of 10 seasons in the league. We may say we’re paying NFL players a boatload of money, but when you waste your body away in four or five years, that money better be worth it. According to the Boston Globe, Bubin only made $360,000 in his final, one-year contract with the New England Patriots.

8. DUI incidents will rise: Okay, so I made this one up, but it sounded good. And I’ll probably be right.

Some Schools Use Millions in Student Fees to Supplement Athletic Revenue

Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano is making more than $2 million per season, and in recent years the University committed to spending more than $100 million to upgrade its football stadium. Meanwhile, student fees contributed nearly $8 million toward Rutger’s athletic department revenue in 2008-09, which equals more than 13% of the revenue generated by Rutgers’ athletics.

According to a USA Today database on athletic department budgets, Rutgers netted less than $200,000 in 2008-09. Take away the nearly $8 million contributed from student fees and the athletic department would have severely overspent.

Rutgers isn’t alone. A recent report by USA Today outlined in detail how some universities are using escalating student fees to support the multi-million dollar budgets of their athletic departments. The practice has some academicians, students, and parents crying foul.

Transparency, or the lack of it, is what has some up in arms, as many universities go to great lengths to make it difficult to discern just how much their athletic departments are benefitting from receiving student fees.

To some, it seems as if the athletic department is the big, bad bully on the block, stealing lunch money from poor students to pay its coaches millions of dollars and build lavish luxury suites for its millionaire alums.

But as Dr. William Kern, chair of the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University, pointed out to Fitness Information Technology, athletic departments aren’t the only units in a university that receive financial support from general funds. Kern and Donald Alexander, also a professor and economist at Western Michigan University, recently conducted a study on the effect of athletic success on state appropriations to universities. Their research will be published in the November issue of the International Journal of Sport Finance.

“There are a number of activities across the university that are subsidized through one means or another,” Kern said. “For example, there are probably a number of academic departments on every campus that don’t generate revenues sufficient to cover the costs of their operations.

“Philosophy might be such a case and the reader can probably think of others in the fine arts where this might also be the case. But we subsidize them because we think they are a necessary part of the university. That argument is easier to justify in the case of philosophy than in the case of non-revenue sports but some would no doubt argue much the same way that sports are an integral part of the university.”

Perhaps the biggest objection with using general funds and state appropriations to support athletic department budgets is the fact that salaries for coaches in football and men’s basketball, in particular, have escalated at a rapid pace during the past decade. It’s now atypical that a coach in one of those two sports at a large university isn’t earning in the neighborhood of $1 million annually, with a select few football coaches earning $3-4 million per year.

In addition, many universities are spending millions to upgrade athletic facilities, not necessarily because they are structurally unfit, but because their rival schools have enhanced their facilities.

“There seems to be an arms race with regard to improvement in facilities and coaches’ salaries, at least in the major sports at large state universities,” Kern said. “This spending is not likely to decline as any individual university that stops spending finds itself at a competitive disadvantage against its rivals. What is really needed to stop this is some sort of rule that constrains spending that applies to all schools. Robert Frank has a nice analysis of this issue in his Knight Commission report of collegiate athletics.”

Frank, an economist at Cornell University, concluded in his 2004 Knight Commission Report that after extensive research, “The empirical literature seems to say that if the overall net effect of athletic success on alumni giving is positive, it is likely to be small.”

Still, while Frank and other economists profess that athletic success has little effect on donations, it should be noted that athletic success is believed to contribute to school loyalty and a student’s enjoyment while on campus.

“Students seem to be demanding more and more amenities associated with their college experience and sports in both participant and spectator forms appear to be a part of that,” Kern said. “Most students don’t seem to want to attend ‘no-frills’ universities that would eliminate these sorts of things and just stick to the basics of instruction.”