NOTHING BOOMS LIKE THE NFL, EVEN WITH WATSON, AS IT FIXES KICKOFFS AND OVERTIME
The TV numbers are higher than ever, including streaming, and even another dose of Watson allegations can’t impact a league where any game broadcast in whatever country is watched heavily in America
The league office will roll passive-aggressive eyeballs about Deshaun Watson, who still can’t play quarterback and might lose megamillions in a guaranteed contract. That would be a reprieve in the troubled house of Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam. If Watson is charged amid allegations of sexual assault and battery, in a lawsuit filed Monday, the Browns could point to paragraph 42 in his paperwork.
It states why a player must “hereby represent and warrant,” especially after he was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct and served an 11-game suspension two years ago. That way, the Browns wouldn’t have to pay the remainder of his $230 million deal, which amounts to $46 million a season. Roger Goodell can shrug. Haslam will go down in infamy after one of the worst trades in sports history.
“Deshaun strongly denies the allegations in the Jane Doe lawsuit filed,” attorney Rusty Hardin said Wednesday. “We have asked him not to comment further while this matter works its way through the courts, but we are comfortable he will ultimately be vindicated. We will be ready to defend this case in court at the appropriate time, but don't intend to conduct our defense in the media. We would ask that people be patient while the legal process runs its course.”
He can play. He can suck. Is Joe Flacco still around?
Otherwise, the NFL won’t place Watson on the commissioner’s exempt list without formal charges while the league begins an investigation. As an entertainment product, very little is wrong with professional football in America. The average TV audience in Week 1 — including 29.2 million on the first night and 23.9 million for Tom Brady’s debut — averaged 21 million. That’s the highest opening number in the books, along with a 12 percent bumpup on streaming platforms. Which means paying for all four digital devices — Amazon, Peacock, Netflix and ESPN+ — costs a fan an extra $1,000-plus in addition to please-cut-the-cord cable bills.
“A great start with the viewership. It was great to be back and a lot to be excited about," said Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of NFL Media.
Know how many viewers watched at least a portion of one game?
One hundred and twenty-three million.
If Robert Kraft continues to be thrown overboard in trying to enter the Hall of Fame, let him fight with the voters. They know the New England owner was involved in the Spygate and Deflategate scandals and that he tried to deceive filmmaker Alex Gibney when he made the AppleTV+ docuseries called “The Dynasty,” as ESPN reported this week. The league is not impacting Kraft’s failed campaign. Let him sweat.
I see only two issues. One might be unsolvable — the dynamic kickoff, as Goodell calls it. The rules were changed dramatically, with players from both teams lined up near each other and asking a kicker to boot the ball between the 20-yard line and the end zone. All the more reason for, ugh, dull touchbacks. The league was stubborn in placing the ball at the 30-yard line, which doesn’t allow enough leeway for teams to kick off in the zone. So far, only 33.3 percent of 171 dynamic kicks were returned (57) while 111 went for touchbacks. Already, Goodell said discussions are happening.
Might the touchback rule place the ball at the 35-yard line, which would merit more guts and real kicks? Last Thursday night, Harrison Butker booted the ball through the end zone at every opportunity. His team, the Kansas City Chiefs, is chasing its third championship in the last three years. Coach Andy Reid will keep killing it, though Baltimore linebacker Kyle Van Noy ripped the Chiefs’ training staff for “unacceptable” and “unprofessional” help after he sustained an eye injury. Should the ophthalmologist have arrived earlier? That’s an issue for Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, not the league.
The NFL should fix the overtime period. Each team deserves a chance to have the football during the 10 minutes — even after the Detroit Lions drove for a 70-yard touchdown in 4:41 and won 26-20 without giving the ball to the Los Angeles Rams. Matthew Stafford deserved a chance to throw once. TV numbers were growing Sunday night. Even Cris Collinsworth, in the NBC booth, botched the rule and figured the Lions could win with a field goal. Not true, just a touchdown, which was wrong.
“You start thinking about it, right? You start thinking about how much do you need before you're gonna go line up and kick it? You start thinking about which side do you want your kicker to be able to kick it from?” Collinsworth said.
“Try to score, don't let the Rams have a chance to even touch the ball,” said Mike Tirico, meaning punch in the touchdown.
In theory, the Lions shouldn’t have won with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. The go-home rule may come back to haunt the Rams in the postseason. A correction is needed from on-high.
Yet amid Watson and Kraft and whatever else is happening, Goodell was smiling after he returned from Brazil, where 14 million watched on Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia and Green Bay. They found streaming in central Wisconsin!
“Just look around. It’s a global sport,” the commissioner said. “This is going to put us on a rocket ship.”
We’re already on it.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.