How many years has it been since the NFL, its contracted commercial sponsors and TV networks began to promote, present and provoke as its most preferred fans the very folks you would avoid like the plague they have become?
It has been more than 20 years since the league and its TV buddies began to merrily leave the inescapable message that those “fans” dressed, undressed, painted, pasted
and wasted — those so clearly starved for attention — are the game’s very best fans.
Put it this way: When’s the last time you saw a league-attached commercial or promo or a live in-park TV close-up of a an adult, dressed like an adult, seated in the stands with his well-comported family, all trying to calmly and soberly enjoy the game?
Or have such folks become hard to find?
Sow, reap. Last Sunday at the Giants-49ers game in San Francisco, police arrested 29 people for various forms of drunk and/or disorderly conduct. Another
110 “fans” were ejected from Candlestick for behaving the way the NFL and its partners have for years tacitly encouraged them to behave.
That’s 139 people. Baa, baa black sheep, that’s the same as three busloads full.
Yep, NFL games are no place to bring your kid — unless your kid can make bail.
Small wonder why young and not-so young adults now call drinking, before they head out for a night of bar or party drinking, “pregaming.” Enter drunk, get drunker — just like the NFL “experience.”
But the NFL and its commercial partners, already given at least a generation to cut it out, have no better ideas.
Of course, if NFL execs and team owners and their corporate guests were made to sit in the stands, as opposed to climate-controlled luxury boxes, perhaps they would see the light — the Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light — when some booze-muscled, cross-eyed drunk, foul-mouthed, trouble-seeking “fan” falls in their laps.
After all, such devoted,
demonstrative fans — the kind the NFL prefers— aren’t hard to find. Shoot, they’ll find you.
Must be nice to be able to change pick after the fact
Last week, Mike Francesa claimed to listeners that before Super Bowl XLII, he picked the Patriots to beat the Giants, 20-17. With the Pats a 13-point favorite, that would have made Francesa a winner.
In fact, though, it was with great conviction and authority, that Francesa predicted, on the air, a 35-17 Pats win. The tape must be right there, at WFAN for all to again hear. What’s that? It seems to have disappeared? Not again!
Or as reader Greg Marotta put it, “Listen, I could listen to a guy lie all day — if he at least made me laugh.”
* This just in: Don Elbaum, the boxing and music promoter and a casting-call character among characters, says, “I love the Giants with the points next Sunday.”
Elbaum’s tout should not be taken lightly. He’s one of the most thoughtful and studious gamblers east of Nathan Detroit. He once explained to me his system for choosing a can’t-miss winner every NFL Sunday.
“I’m 12-0 with this system. I can’t lose. Good thing, too, it helps me cover my gambling debts.”
* Our Sports Culture, Nike, ESPN Letter of the Week: From Mike Natale — “A while back I went to a Rutgers-Navy football game in Annapolis, Md. The corps of Midshipmen came out on the field and saluted the visitors before turning to the home crowd. Nice.
“This past Saturday I went to a Rutgers-Georgetown basketball game at the Verizon Center. During the introductions of the Rutgers team, the Georgetown students turned their backs on the court and tried to drown out the introductions. Not so nice.”
Candid comments off camera
How is it that for all the “He told me” and “I spoke with him” reports delivered by ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, none of these exclusives are on camera?
* Andy Musser, gentlemanly play-by-play voice of Philadelphia sports — Phillies, Big Five hoops, Eagles, 76ers — died last week at 74. Musser, for a couple of seasons in the late 1970s, called Knicks telecasts. In the last two years, Philly has lost too many of its cherished sports voices — Musser, Harry Kalas, Richie Ashburn, Les Keiter, Tom Brookshier, Jack Whitaker.
* Nice grab by reader Joel Mandelbaum: Last season the Giants’ season virtually ended with a play by the opponents’ No. 10 — Eagle DeSean Jackson’s punt return for a TD — while this Giants’ season was extended by a No. 10, the fumbled punt by San Francisco’s Kyle Williams.
* Further proof that there’s nothing so stupid that it won’t be repeated: The off-week before the Super Bowl is now being referred to as “the bye week,” as if the NFL has a bye.
* Follow the money, and right to the end: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Nike boss and sport-remover Phil Knight spoke at Joe Paterno’s memorial. Under Paterno, Penn State continued its proud tradition of wearing numbers-only football uniforms — until Knight came calling. Then the only thing added to Penn State’s uniform was a conspicuous Nike logo.
* Hey, no matter the cost, Rutgers wanted to be a big-time football school, and now its big-time football coach, Greg Schiano, after recruiting kids from here, there and everywhere, has bolted for another job — just like it’s done in big-time college football!
* Super Bowl lookalikes: Submitted by Brooklyn’s Bob Bello — Bill Belichick and Anakin Skywalker.
* The dopey and often dishonest public relations campaigns attached to cable TV contract hassles seem to have been designed by high school booster clubs. At the Time-Warner headquarters on 23rd Street, ground floor, front-and-center employees have been ordered to wear Knicks jerseys — as if to show solidarity with fans who have lost MSG Network on T-W’s systems.
Given the food and drink prices at The Garden, how about a few ceremonial face-offs conducted by Wolfgang Puck?
phil.mushnick@nypost.com