You know what bothers me?
What gets in my chest cavity, and causes me so much fury that I want grab something heavy, and throw it through glass?
Let me tell you what infuriates me to unbelievable extremes.
What drives me absolutely bonkers is television commercial advertisements.
What bothers me even more then television commercial advertisements is their constant interruption when I am trying to watch a live sporting event.
No live sporting event is ravaged with more crude interruptions at the most inopportune times then that of the National Football League.
Just when a game is about to start, and the players begin to leave the side lines to take the field, inevitably, Jim Nantz, or Joe Buck, or Al Michaels or Mike Tirico say: “We will step aside for a moment, …your big game is up next.”
Just after the networks live coverage has: “stepped aside”, I am bombarded with nonsense and advertisements about cell phones, and cars, and lipitor and old lady cleaning supplies. All of which I have no interest in spending even a penny of my hard earned money on! Then, just after my disgust for all these sales angels reaches it’s apex, I get the particular networks television-programming lineup. “Watch our crappy comedy this Tuesday”. Or, “watch our detective drama this Thursday”. Or “tune in for our reality T.V. series Monday Night starting at 8:00pm”.
And of all these garbage shows, I am not going to watch a single one of them anyway. Why: because all these shows themselves will be loaded with more TV commercials about cell phones and cars and lipior and old lady cleaning supplies.
Freaking infuriating!
Then my announcer of the week says: “welcome back”. I watch one team kick the ball off to the other team, and as soon as a member of the kicking team tackles the receiver, I get the same vomit all over again. Jim Nantz, or Joe Buck, or Al Michaels or Mike Tirrico say: “We will step aside for a moment, 14:57 left in the first quarter.” Three seconds off the clock between commercial breaks!
More useless advertisements about T.V. shows, and American cars that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.
Then the game comes back on, and two plays later, a member of the defensive line sprains his ankle, and cant get up off the turf.
What happens next?
Not a side line report, or a pre recorded interview segment with the games quarterback, or some commentary with interesting or inside camera shots of the stadium.
Nope instead we get an injury time-out, and another commercial break.
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The NFL will receive just over three billion dollars from their television contracts this season. (Approximately 650million from NBC, 620million from CBS, 713million from FOX, and 1.1billion from ESPN.) And the NFL caters to these networks in every way imaginable. They let the networks call the shots once the game has begun. And the Directors in the production trailers hold more authority over an NFL game, then any head official does on the field.
While researching this subject matter, I found the following segment from Wikipedia.com and pasted it directly into this blog. I found the information truly appalling!
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Commercial breaks
During each half of a network-televised game, there are ten prescribed commercial breaks following the official kickoff. Two are firmly scheduled, and eight others are worked in during breaks in the play.[25]
Pre-scheduled commercial breaks:
· The end of the first (or third) quarter
· The two-minute warning of the second (or fourth) quarter
Other instances used for commercial breaks (eight total required per half):
· A timeout called by either team
· Instant replay stoppage
· Game stoppage after a score
· Game stoppage after a kickoff or punt (excluding the opening kickoff of each half)
· Game stoppage after a turnover
· Injury timeout
Two commercial breaks during the typical 12-minute halftime period are considered separate.
Networks are more apt to front-load their commercials in the first and third quarters, to prevent an overrun in the second and fourth quarters respectively. If a team calls a timeout and the network decides to use it for a commercial break, a representative from the broadcast crew stationed on the sidelines wearing orange sleeves makes a crossing motion with his hands to alert the officials. The referee declares it a "two-minute timeout."
Once a broadcast has fulfilled the 8 "random" breaks, game stoppages are no longer needed for commercials. The orange sleeve will hold his hands down in a twirl motion to alert the officials. If a team calls a timeout, the referee will declare it a "30-second timeout." Once any timeout in a half is declared a 30-second timeout, all remaining timeouts will be of the same duration.
Since the 10 total commercial breaks for the second half are to be finished prior to the end of regulation, commercial breaks are rarely needed in overtime situations. In many cases, overtime periods are conducted without any commercials. This also allows the extended broadcast to finish in a timely manner.
(Wikipedia.com)
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It blew my mind to read the NFL’s network policy written so clearly in stone.
I knew as an avid football fan that the NFL and the networks were raking us all over the coals. But it wasnt until I did a goggle search, that I found out just how badly.
Since the average commercial break is 45 to 60 seconds in time, that’s over 30 minutes of commercials during a typical three-hour game.
But wait,there's more.
Just because a Network has front loaded its commercials and has met their required breaks, does not mean they will not try to fit in more if the game allows them to do so.
What the fan is left with is a feeling of wonderment. Questioning weather him/or her is watching an NFL football game or "the home shopping network".
This is obviously tolerated by fans most of all on Super Bowl Sunday. This is when most fans look forward to new, interesting, and funny advertisements debuting specifically for the big game. However, even then it leaves the specifics of the game watered down and diluted so badly that the athletes themselves are drastically affected.
Consider that fact that while the average football fan spends 45 to 60 seconds, ten times a half, frustrated in front of their T.V. set, the average player is doing the same thing while standing in a huddle. The fans and the players waiting for the sponsors to finishs their harrasment.
At least in baseball a commercial break in between innings does not impinge on the action of the game. (Not that its any less infuriating for a fan.) In baseball the teams have to change positions. One team has to either enter the dugout or exit it. And in the NBA and NHL their clocks are also stopped much less frequently for scheduled time outs then in the NFL. Their games just don’t allow the opportunities to stop the athletes and cut away from the action. (Not that they dont try!)
But that’s just not the case in the NFL. The NFL is about production before sport!
Football players frequently struggle to find a rhythm or pace, or a reason or rhyme to the constant stoppage of play, as a result of the random commercial. Now although these warriors of the gridiron are probably as frustrated as I am, you will never hear a single one of them complain. And why should they?
Standing around doing nothing is what is paying their million dollar salaries, maybe even more so then what they are doing in-between these moments of killing idol time while the commercials play out.
