A new low in TV time/commercial management

[steelreserve]

Those of you who are regulars know how much I hate the ever-present "Touchdown-commercial-kickoff-another-commercial" sequence that seems to happen at least once every game. Well, tonight we possibly had the grand champion of all time. When the Ravens scored their first touchdown, we had the following sequence:

1st and 3 at PIT 3 - (1:11) J.Forsett right guard to PIT 2 for 1 yard (J.Jones).
2nd and 2 at PIT 2 - Timeout BAL

(commercials)

2nd and 2 at PIT 2 - (:32) J.Flacco pass short left to O.Daniels for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Tucker extra point is GOOD.

(commercials)

J.Tucker kicks 65 yards from BLT 35 to end zone, Touchback.

(commercials)

1st and 10 at PIT 20 (:27) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short left to M.Wheaton to PIT 21 for 1 yard (J.Smith; M.Elam). End of quarter.

(commercials)


Yup, a total of two live plays with four sets of commercials. I didn't time it because I don't have OCD or anything, but it had to be close to 10 minutes. Not even an injury or an officials' timeout or anything wrong - just ALLLLLLLL for the cash. This is why Goodell is awesome for increasing league revenues.


Another thing I noticed - no kickoff returns at all, except for one that we ran out of the end zone in desperation at the very end of the game. Goodell may need his slacks dry-cleaned over that, but I'm afraid it doesn't actually do much to promote player safety. If you play professional football, you have probably been violently knocked to the ground somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 times in your life, and I'm sorry, but getting rid of the kickoff in pro games is not going to move the needle. Ruining the product for cover-your-ass window dressing, as always. Someone please get this complete moron out of there.

[bayz101]

Commercial breaks at every pause, usually. Seems to me there was just an unusual amount of pauses in the early part of the game.

[SteelerFanInStl]

Another thing that's killing the NFL for me. The NFL only cares about how much money they make.

[polamalubeast]

It was ridiculous!

[BnG_Hevn]

The game was progressing too quickly. The first quarter flew by so they need to drag it out.

Next time you time it out, consider how fast the game clock is going down. The faster the game goes along, the more commercials. The slower, the less commercials / pre-determined amount of commercials.

[steelreserve]

The game was progressing too quickly. The first quarter flew by so they need to drag it out.

Next time you time it out, consider how fast the game clock is going down. The faster the game goes along, the more commercials. The slower, the less commercials / pre-determined amount of commercials.


That did happen a lot in the not-too-distant past, when we had a shutdown defense and would then go on a grinding 10-minute drive where the clock barely stopped. You'd look up and it would be well into halftime, and the other games would still have like 7:45 to go in the second quarter. That was a sure sign they'd slow it down a ton with commercials in the second half and try to even out the ending times.

When it's the only game on TV (Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night), I think it's just about trying to cram in as many commercials as they can no matter what, because they don't care what time the game finishes, and there's less chance you'll flip the channel, and it's too late to go somewhere. Basically, they've "got you" and they take full advantage of that. Some of the Monday Night games are almost unwatchable; I've seen them go on 3 1/2, even 4 hours because they stop for a commercial break at EVERY opportunity, and maybe in the final 5 minutes of the game they stop taking breaks if they've run out of ads.

[Craic]

Those of you who are regulars know how much I hate the ever-present "Touchdown-commercial-kickoff-another-commercial" sequence that seems to happen at least once every game. Well, tonight we possibly had the grand champion of all time. When the Ravens scored their first touchdown, we had the following sequence:

1st and 3 at PIT 3 - (1:11) J.Forsett right guard to PIT 2 for 1 yard (J.Jones).
2nd and 2 at PIT 2 - Timeout BAL

(commercials)

2nd and 2 at PIT 2 - (:32) J.Flacco pass short left to O.Daniels for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Tucker extra point is GOOD.

(commercials)

J.Tucker kicks 65 yards from BLT 35 to end zone, Touchback.

(commercials)

1st and 10 at PIT 20 (:27) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short left to M.Wheaton to PIT 21 for 1 yard (J.Smith; M.Elam). End of quarter.

(commercials)


Yup, a total of two live plays with four sets of commercials. I didn't time it because I don't have OCD or anything, but it had to be close to 10 minutes. Not even an injury or an officials' timeout or anything wrong - just ALLLLLLLL for the cash. This is why Goodell is awesome for increasing league revenues.

I agree. There's WAY too many commercials and it makes watching the game little to no fun. That's why I ALWAYS either DVR it and watch it an hour or so after it starts, or wait and watch it on NFL Rewind the next day.



Another thing I noticed - no kickoff returns at all, except for one that we ran out of the end zone in desperation at the very end of the game. Goodell may need his slacks dry-cleaned over that, but I'm afraid it doesn't actually do much to promote player safety. If you play professional football, you have probably been violently knocked to the ground somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 times in your life, and I'm sorry, but getting rid of the kickoff in pro games is not going to move the needle. Ruining the product for cover-your-ass window dressing, as always. Someone please get this complete moron out of there.

I just don't get this. Everyone wants "Old Time Football." But, the one move Goodell makes to Old Time Football—moving the kickoff back to where it was before they changed the rule in 1994, everyone screams about. Oh, and just as a reminder, in 1974, they were moved from the 40 back to the 35 yard line.

I have no problem with them moving it up to the 35, because the rule should have never been changed in the first place. It WAS changed precisely to bring about more excitement and more offense. Something that most, including you, have lambasted Goodell and the NFL for.

[Count Steeler]

I just don't get this. Everyone wants "Old Time Football." But, the one move Goodell makes to Old Time Football—moving the kickoff back to where it was before they changed the rule in 1994, everyone screams about. Oh, and just as a reminder, in 1974, they were moved from the 40 back to the 35 yard line.

I have no problem with them moving it up to the 35, because the rule should have never been changed in the first place. It WAS changed precisely to bring about more excitement and more offense. Something that most, including you, have lambasted Goodell and the NFL for.

Now don't tell half the story. The reason the kicks were moved back was the ability of the kickers to punch it through the end zone. When they moved from the 40 to the 35, it was because there were too many touch backs. Same reason they moved it from the 35 to the 30. The kickers keep advancing and get better distances on their kick offs. To move it from the 30 to the 35 almost guarantees most NFL kickers will put it through the end zone.

So yes, as far as where they kick off from, we are again "old school", but the original intent of the move was to make the field longer for the kickers to allow for more returns not less. This move was to ensure less or no kick off returns.

[st33lersguy]

When television shows football games (college and pros), it seems showing the actual game is the lowest thing on the list of priorities. Any minor "excuse" to show 5 minutes of the same stupid commercials we see 5,000 a week, they will jump at the chance like at a cat jumping on a mouse. Just like the NFL draft, which will cut to 5 minutes of commercials WHEN A PICK IS HANDED IN