DALLAS — The NFL doesn’t merely owe the 400 fans who were inexcusably and disgracefully locked out of what for them was Stupor Bowl XVL because of unprecedented ineptitude and amateur hour management, or the fans who were herded like cattle for three hours outside ice-riddled Cowboys Stadium before they finally made it to their seats to see a game that at least made many of them feel as if they had gotten some bang for their exorbitant bucks.
The NFL owes every last one of its fans who have made it the Super Bowl champion of sports leagues. It owes them, owes us, no lockout.
Only a few long Roger Staubach bombs from the Grassy Knoll and the Book Depository, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday sounded as if he might be appointing his own Warren Commission to find out what the Three Stooges in charge knew, and when the knew it.
How could the NFL possibly have found itself in a two-minute scramble drill praying for a Hail Mary touchdown?
“If we can come up with a better installation plan for a future event, we’ll do that,” NFL Executive VP of Business Ventures Eric Grubman said.
After years of planning for the event, the seat fiasco was the kind of fumble that makes Joe Pisarcik look like Joe Montana.
“We apologize to those fans that were impacted by this,” Goodell said yesterday. “We are going to work with them, and we are going to do better in the future. We will certainly do a thorough review and get to the bottom of why it all occurred, but we take full responsibility for that as putting on this game. But the one thing we will never do is compromise safety — safety of our fans, safety of our players, anybody involved with our event.”
A lockout now would be even more unconscionable than this Stupor Sunday debacle. The union keeps pleading “Let Us Play.” If the fans had a creative marketing slogan, it would be “Let Us Watch” or “Let Us Bet.” After all, 111 million watched Super Bowl XLV, more viewers than for any other program in U.S. television history.
“We’re excited about the fan reaction from last night,” Goodell said, “and the incredible game that they were all able to see.”
The league has promised those 400 displaced fans triple the face value of their tickets, plus a ticket to next season’s Super Bowl — if there is a next season.
“We have a responsibility to them, not just to give them a seat, but to make a great experience,” said Grubman. “We’re gonna do everything that we possibly can to make sure that they have opportunity in the future to come back to the NFL.”
If the NFL is serious about how much it cares about its fans, the billionaire owners and millionaire players will make the painful sacrifices, and collectively bargain a fair and lasting agreement so all hell does not break loose after March 4. Let Stupor Sunday be an impetus for the NFL to bend over backwards for all
of its fans.
The owners and the union had their first session Saturday, and have committed to at least two more this week. Goodell was asked if he was somewhat optimistic following Round 1.
“The most important thing is we’re talking,” Goodell said, “and we’re communicating, and we have more meetings planned, so that’s a good thing.”
He was asked if he was concerned that Packers-Steelers could be the last game for a while, even beyond August.
“We’re focused entirely on trying to get an agreement done here in the next few weeks,” Goodell said.
It’s all the NFL’s fault, of course. It has made its game an addiction for us. If it is truly the model sports league, it will refuse to allow greed to hold all of us hostage. Because it is playing with fire. Ask Major League Baseball about that.
The NFL will be leaving its own coaches and executives in the dark. It will be screwing up free agency. It will be leaving its players to their own devices, playing catch on some godforsaken high school field somewhere.
Most of all, it will be betraying the public trust. The memorabilia stores were packed during Super Bowl week. Steelers and Packers fans showed up in droves. A Steelers fan interviewed on television made the trip from Pittsburgh without a ticket; he just wanted to be part of the experience. And let’s not even get started on those PSLs.
So Let Us Watch.
Let Us Watch what very well may be the ascension of the next great quarterback, Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers.
Let Us Watch and listen to Rex Ryan.
Let Us Watch Eli Manning try to get the Giants back to the Super Bowl.
Let Us watch Tom Brady and Peyton Manning be Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Let Us Watch Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson and Arian Foster run.
Let Us watch Troy Polamalu wreak havoc.
Let Us Watch Clay Matthews relentlessly pursue quarterbacks.
Let Us Watch Danny Woodhead squirt through holes.
Let Us Watch Calvin Johnson and Roddy White go up and get the ball.
Let Us Watch.
You owe all
of us that, NFL.