Larry Brown Sports

Statistics can sometimes be misleading. Attendance numbers are no exception. But that doesn’t mean they are not interesting to examine.

Here are some numbers to think about. As of week seven, the New York Jets are the only team to have totaled over 500,000 fans in attendance — both at home and on the road. No surprise there. The real surprise is the team that follows them. No, it’s not Dallas or Green Bay. Drum roll please. Did you think it would be Carolina? The Panthers have attracted over 482,000 people to their games.

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We told you earlier about how the NFL has begun taking the right steps to minimize head shots by handing out hefty fines for brutal hits that occurred over the weekend.  We might be taking that back.  The fines are still a good idea, but is it morally correct for the NFL to be profiting from memorabilia that has to do with those same illegal hits?

Pro Football Talk has brought to our attention that the photo above is available in the NFL.com photo store for a price of anywhere from $15.95 to $249.95, depending on the size you’d like to purchase.  Huh?  So the hits are dangerous, illegal, and unacceptable, but it’s okay to sell them as wall ornaments?  Something’s not right here.

If the NFL is trying to send a message, they need to send it through all mediums.  Selling a photo of the an illegal hit is simply glorifying the play and implying that it’s an exciting part of the game.  If that’s the way the league’s going to treat the situation, they shouldn’t expect anyone to take them seriously.

As I’m sure we’ve all noticed, the NFL has gone above and beyond in recognizing National Breast Cancer Awareness Month on game days.  Since the beginning of October, players have been sporting all sorts of pink accessories including wristbands, chinstraps, and cleats in an effort to help raise awareness for a genuinely good cause.

However, there is one change that may not be sitting well with the players.  After there were some rumblings that players were having trouble with the footballs being used during October, ESPN analyst Tim Hasselbeck claims he text messaged some quarterbacks who said the balls “have been a disaster.”  According to Hasselbeck, quarterbacks have been complaining that the balls, which feature the pink ribbon breast cancer logo, get slick because they are brand new.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has refuted the claim, saying the balls are no different from regular balls.  However, if enough quarterbacks say they’re having an issue, I don’t see why they can’t do away with that one small piece of the cause.  Having a popular and marketable organization like the NFL work to raise awareness about breast cancer is obviously a tremendous idea, but there are plenty of other ways it can be done.  Players are doing their best to sport pink in any way they can and I don’t think it would affect the cause to make a small change.

Then again, it’s the NFL and nothing irritates the league more than players trying to call the shots.  Otherwise, we’d all be able to sleep at night knowing there will be football in 2011.

The NFL has ordered Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) to remove a brief, but infamous, clip of Randy Moss pretending to moon the Lambeau Field crowd from his campaign ad.  I have to say, I’m with Shutdown Corner on this one in thinking the NFL is doing Feingold a favor.  I don’t even understand what he’s trying to get at and I’m sure people from Wisconsin don’t need to see that again.  See for yourself:

I’ll admit, I’ve done the same thing with a few school projects before.  A few of my friends and I have been known to see a sports clip or something and vow to force it into our PowerPoint presentation one way or another.  It usually goes over well with the sports fans in the class and is a complete miss with everyone else, oftentimes including the teacher.  That’s pretty much what I see happening here with Feingold’s campaign.

What should the NFL do to assure fans an incident like Spygate will never occur again?  Throw some microphones on the centers so everyone can hear the names of your plays, that way teams don’t have to steal the play-calls — they can just have them.

The NFL has asked teams to consider allowing their centers to wear a microphone which would allow fans at home to hear what’s going on inside the huddle.  Of course, doing so would be optional.  For whatever reason, the Bengals decided to let their center wear one last Sunday when they played the Patriots.  Maybe they thought they had nothing to lose since the Pats would steal the plays one way or another no matter how secretive they tried to be?

All joking aside, I don’t see why any NFL team would agree to this.  If you broadcast the name of your play to the public and then go out and execute that play, aren’t you letting the opponent in on a few secrets?  I suppose teams could always use it to their advantage and not even run the actual play that they call in an attempt to throw the opposition off, but I don’t see why coaches would want to make more work for themselves during an already brief week of preparation.

I guess a feature like this is cool for people at home, but the signals are likely going to be complete Gibberish to the casual fan anyway.  If this becomes popular I’ll be extremely surprised.

Source:
Microphones on centers create strategic concerns [ProFootballTalk]

On Friday, we brought you our predictions for how the AFC will shake up throughout the 2010 season.  We gave you our picks to win the division, make the playoffs, and reach the Super Bowl.  Today, we bring you the same for the NFC, plus our 2010 Super Bowl champion and individual award winners.  Let’s get right to it.

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We know, we’re a day late with this. But we promise last night’s game between the Saints and Vikings did nothing to change our outlook on 2010.  We’ve taken some time to think about all 32 NFL teams and where we think they’ll finish the year.  We also weigh in on who will take home the hardware and who goes home empty-handed.  Today, we bring you our predictions for the AFC. Check back tomorrow for the NFC, along with our picks to win the Super Bowl and individual award-winners. Without further ado, here are our AFC predictions for the 2010 NFL season:

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