Economy or Ineptitude?

In the midst of tremendous economic suffering in the United States at the moment, the fallout is reaching the National Football League.

Or is it?

For the first time in quite some time, the NFL is having to enforce its TV blackout rule. The rule is that if you do not sell out your home game, it isn't on television in your market. This is something that happens once in a while in the NFL, but recently it is happening more and more.

There are two reasons that we can turn to to understand why this phenomenom is taking place.

First of all, with the cost of NFL tickets as high as they are, most people simply don't have the expendable cash to spend a couple of hundred dollars on a day at the stadium. Between ticket prices, tailgating, and food and beverages inside the stadium (and souvenirs, especially if you're taking kids to the game), right now people are finding that they're money is better spent somewhere else. Like the rent. Or gasoline for the car.

But there is another reason which is slightly more tangible. Have you seen an NFL game lately? They're getting to be like college games, with their 53-3 drubbings and other scores of the like.

If you look at the numbers, it's not hard to see why some of these teams have tickets left over on Sundays.

Nearly 1/4 of the league is unwatchable at this time. The Raiders, Chiefs, Rams, Lions, Browns, Bucs, Bills, and Titans are absolutely horrendous this season. And there are others that are on the cusp of this ineptitude.

These eight teams that were named represent a quarter of the entire NFL. That means that at this point in time, one out of every four NFL clubs are unwatchable. That's a disgrace. The combined records for these eight miserable teams is 4-36. That's barely a 10 percent winning percentage. Not very good for a league that has boasted such parody over recent years that the two teams that played in the Super Bowl were different just about every season, especially since New England's run has ended.

But if you look at the Super Bowl over the course of the last 10 years or so, aside from the Patriots, the teams that have gone to the big dance has changed almost annually.

I'm not going to go into detail about how horriffic these teams are, other than to say that when the Raiders are on the schedule, it's pretty much considered a bye week, or a glorified walk-through practice.

Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce stated after the game this week that it didn't even seem as if Oakland was trying.

So, chalk it up to whatever reason you want, but the NFL is in a little bit of trouble right now. Don't get me wrong, it's not like they're going bankrupt or anything, but it's not good when one out of every four teams in your league is slightly better than a college team.

So, if the wife is nagging you to go shopping on Sunday, at least you know that if you root for one of these atrocious teams, you won't be missing much. You won't even want to go to the electronics department to watch the game in High-Def while she's busy shopping.