I feel the NFL is losing its appeal

[Phurfur 70]

The two biggest days for our FF league were:

 

1. The NFL Draft – Every year we had a draft party that usually ran from 11AM to bar time. This was the day we chose our draft positions and it kicked off our FF season. Rukes were discussed and we voted on any changes.

 

2. On the Saturday before opening day we held our FF draft, we all knew this and everyone was always there. Since opening day moved to Thursday we have not had a draft with everyone present.

 

With the draft and opening day on a Thursday it really takes the fun out of what was a great tradition. I am wondering how long it will be before I lose interest in FF and the NFL. I can feel it coming.

 

I’ve been playing since 1994.

[DankNuggs 305]

I own Cliff Charpentier's 1988 FF Digest, when it was a thick paperback book...

 

I learned spreadsheets on my Mac Classic by using them for FF game scoring and standings...

 

 

I also agree that the lack of a live draft really hurts the dymanic of a FF league... We typically have 60-70% in attendance...but last year we were forced into online drafting, which sucks...

[pimptastic69 0]

The two biggest days for our FF league were:

 

1. The NFL Draft – Every year we had a draft party that usually ran from 11AM to bar time. This was the day we chose our draft positions and it kicked off our FF season. Rukes were discussed and we voted on any changes.

 

2. On the Saturday before opening day we held our FF draft, we all knew this and everyone was always there. Since opening day moved to Thursday we have not had a draft with everyone present.

 

With the draft and opening day on a Thursday it really takes the fun out of what was a great tradition. I am wondering how long it will be before I lose interest in FF and the NFL. I can feel it coming.

 

I’ve been playing since 1994.

 

You know you can do this stuff on computers now?

[Phurfur 70]

You know you can do this stuff on computers now?

 

What, buy a keg and party? Please tell me how you do this.

[Evil Genius 0]

On-line drafting is for the lazy or those without friends in a given town. Or the pool is just an excuse for a gambling fix, not a genuine circle of friends and football heads.

 

Assuming that's not you (or your crutch), tell your buttwad friends to make the effort to attend.

 

And schedule your LIVE draft for the Saturday or Sunday before the opening Thursday.

 

1) Use your head - use incentives (like BBQ or a cute sticker girl) to get those ba$tards in person

2) Make the effort. Encourage others to do the same, or replace with those who will.

 

I am the Commish of three leagues. Live drafts, mid-season party, SuperBowl parties. These things keep the leagues together.

[pimptastic69 0]

On-line drafting is for the lazy or those without friends in a given town. Or the pool is just an excuse for a gambling fix, not a genuine circle of friends and football heads.

 

Assuming that's not you (or your crutch), tell your buttwad friends to make the effort to attend.

 

And schedule your LIVE draft for the Saturday or Sunday before the opening Thursday.

 

1) Use your head - use incentives (like BBQ or a cute sticker girl) to get those ba$tards in person

2) Make the effort. Encourage others to do the same, or replace with those who will.

 

I am the Commish of three leagues. Live drafts, mid-season party, SuperBowl parties. These things keep the leagues together.

 

I get all that. But in this day and age, trying to get everyone together for a draft party is hard enough. I have trouble getting everyone together for a draft because many of the players are in multiple leagues holding drafts at or about the same time. If it's a long standing league, it's quite possible that some of the players have moved out of town and can't simply can't make it to a live draft. Dude's get married and have kids and stuff. Eventually, you're not as available as you used to be.

 

Everyone for a league meeting? Good luck with that.

 

I appreciate old school traditions, but some people need to drop the screwdriver in favor of the cordless drill.

[Evil Genius 0]

Dude's get married and have kids and stuff. Eventually, you're not as available as you used to be.

 

Everyone for a league meeting? Good luck with that.

 

I appreciate old school traditions, but some people need to drop the screwdriver in favor of the cordless drill.

 

You're rationalizing. Stop that.

 

Have your draft earlier than the others. Steal their frickin thunder.

 

I am 39 years old. I am not as available as I used to be, either, but screw it. People are just lazy and rude. Stop making excuses for the lack of courtesy, organization and commitment in our society and start taking some responsibility.

 

If a guy won't pull his weight, I dump his ass from my pools and get more interested persons. I use barbeques and parties and girls and booze to create a lot of fun. If that doesn't appeal to a given dude enough for him to tell his wife he needs a 'sitter for an afternoon, then I will find somebody to whom it does. I deserve that much respect for organizing it all - maybe you do too.

 

Make the bloody effort or stop complaining. That's a good message for everybody, not just Football heads.

[jerryskids 5,205]

The two biggest days for our FF league were:

 

1. The NFL Draft – Every year we had a draft party that usually ran from 11AM to bar time. This was the day we chose our draft positions and it kicked off our FF season. Rukes were discussed and we voted on any changes.

 

2. On the Saturday before opening day we held our FF draft, we all knew this and everyone was always there. Since opening day moved to Thursday we have not had a draft with everyone present.

 

With the draft and opening day on a Thursday it really takes the fun out of what was a great tradition. I am wondering how long it will be before I lose interest in FF and the NFL. I can feel it coming.

 

I’ve been playing since 1994.

Amen brutha. When I joined my main $$$ keeper league (which consists of friends), the first game was a Sunday, and we would go to the commish's house at 9AM the Saturday before. Wives/GFs would drop us off, we'd drink bloodies and beers and start making stupid drunk picks midway through, then the wives/GFs would pick up our drunk asses and we'd tell them how we got Jerry Porter in the 3rd round#@! like they gave a fock.

 

Times change, people move away (including the commish). I tried getting those still around to my house for a quasi-"live" draft (online but people present), but the Thursday thing killed it. Our league is adamant about NOT drafting until the final cuts are made. It's not worth arguing for a Wednesday night pretend party.

[Boston Three Party 6]

The two biggest days for our FF league were:

 

1. The NFL Draft – Every year we had a draft party that usually ran from 11AM to bar time. This was the day we chose our draft positions and it kicked off our FF season. Rukes were discussed and we voted on any changes.

 

2. On the Saturday before opening day we held our FF draft, we all knew this and everyone was always there. Since opening day moved to Thursday we have not had a draft with everyone present.

 

With the draft and opening day on a Thursday it really takes the fun out of what was a great tradition. I am wondering how long it will be before I lose interest in FF and the NFL. I can feel it coming.

 

I’ve been playing since 1994.

 

I'm doing what most people do - take off Friday!

[kutulu 1,545]

I'm glad the early part of the draft is Thursday and Friday night ...frees up my weekend. I don't need to watch rounds 4-7.

[Truck Jackson 0]

They still draft on Saturday, just not the start of it, you can still party all day, do everything you described.

 

 

And I don't see how opening day being on a Thursday means that there isn't a Saturday before opening day, how could that have changed anything.

[LordOpie 0]

I love the NFL draft starting with round one on a separate day. The first pick in the second round has always been 'valuable', but now, with 12 hours for teams to re-set their boards and negotiate with the first few teams of round two, it'll make it all that much more fun.

[surferskin 30]

Meh, I couldn't give a sh1t about moving the draft to thursday...actually, I kinda like the idea but I really do hate thursday night football. College football has already shown how to water down your product with football every night of the focking week and the NFL just follows suit. Thursday night from the fantasy football perspective is particularly sucky...I HATE deciding lineups that early.

[Phurfur 70]

Amen brutha. When I joined my main $$$ keeper league (which consists of friends), the first game was a Sunday, and we would go to the commish's house at 9AM the Saturday before. Wives/GFs would drop us off, we'd drink bloodies and beers and start making stupid drunk picks midway through, then the wives/GFs would pick up our drunk asses and we'd tell them how we got Jerry Porter in the 3rd round#@! like they gave a fock.

 

Times change, people move away (including the commish). I tried getting those still around to my house for a quasi-"live" draft (online but people present), but the Thursday thing killed it. Our league is adamant about NOT drafting until the final cuts are made. It's not worth arguing for a Wednesday night pretend party.

 

 

Yup, my point to all is that things have changed and I am losing interest in the NFL and FF. I think over exposure is part of it too.

[Phurfur 70]

Meh, I couldn't give a sh1t about moving the draft to thursday...actually, I kinda like the idea but I really do hate thursday night football. College football has already shown how to water down your product with football every night of the focking week and the NFL just follows suit. Thursday night from the fantasy football perspective is particularly sucky...I HATE deciding lineups that early.

 

 

Yup!

[doughboys_2002 11]

I gave up on FBaseball, Basketball, Hockey, and Nascar, but have held on to FF...live drafts and paper sheets handed out every week, to Suckball, I mean Fanball. Football is going away from tradition and giving in to the peons that make up a minute group of fans!

 

I hate this money grabbing by owners that voted on the new overtime rules...and these ungrateful players that "can't feed" there families on 10 mill a year! If owners and players stopped being so greedy and lowered there money grubbing ways more fans could go to games. They are watering down the product for more money and the true football fans are the ones that suffer!

 

But it's so hard to give up FF!

[Raider 84 29]

Baseball and every other sport sucks compared to foobtall. I don't see it losing any appeal. If anything I don't think players should be penalized for scoring a TD, especially a game winning TD. It is one thing if the celebration is planned, but not because of emotion. Otherwise the NFL is by far the greatest sport.

[Joey Gladstone 33]

Football and all its related functions should only occur on weekends. The only exceptions are MNF and Thanksgiving.

 

This isn't the America I once knew

[NorthernVike 2,080]

Football and all its related functions should only occur on weekends. The only exceptions are MNF and Thanksgiving.

 

This isn't the America I once knew

 

 

Obama

[buffalobillsffl2003 0]

There should just be Sunday games at 1 and 4... no Sunday night game, and one Monday night game.

 

That's it... that's enough.

[LordOpie 0]

I think y'all should hug it out.

[davidbostonisgood 2]

And what's up with Roger Goodell not allowing David Boston to play in the NFL??

 

Just because he's a freak of nature? What the heck, he let's Calvin "i get triple covered" Johnson play....... what gives!?

[Yippie Skippy 0]

Football and all its related functions should only occur on weekends. The only exceptions are MNF and Thanksgiving.

 

This isn't the America I once knew

 

How American is it to stand in the way of a business trying to make more money??

[Phurfur 70]

I'm doing what most people do - take off Friday!

 

 

I already take the Monday after the SB off. I will add that it would be better to have the SB on a Saturday.

[Phurfur 70]

How American is it to stand in the way of a business trying to make more money??

 

 

This is my point, in their attempt to make more money they going to lose fans too. I feel I will be one of those fans.

[Yippie Skippy 0]

This is my point, in their attempt to make more money they going to lose fans too. I feel I will be one of those fans.

 

The reality is that pro sports is a business. Every business attempts to make more money. It is not like all of the sudden the NFL is trying to make more money. The NFL has always tried to make more money one way or another, so for that to be the reason why you'd no longer be a fan just doesn't make much sense to me.

 

I think that the majority of fans, myself included, enjoy Sunday night games and the few Thursday games each season.

[FeelingMN 273]

As it is now, I don't mind how the league is run. Thursday night is fine for a game....the draft....whatever. Now if they continue to saturate the week with games or other league functions, and it gets to the point where the NFL is always being played in some capacity...that would get old.

 

Another thing not mentioned....the NFL in London. Right now, one game per year.....fine. But there has been talk about holding the SB there.....that would spoil it a bit for me....and if they expand to a European division....fock that.....that's where I retire as a fan of the NFL.

[Phurfur 70]

The reality is that pro sports is a business. Every business attempts to make more money. It is not like all of the sudden the NFL is trying to make more money. The NFL has always tried to make more money one way or another, so for that to be the reason why you'd no longer be a fan just doesn't make much sense to me.

 

I think that the majority of fans, myself included, enjoy Sunday night games and the few Thursday games each season.

 

 

I am saying the changes they are making are slowly curbing my interest in the game, that is all. Last year I found myself missing kick offs on Thursday, Sunday and Monday night.

[titans&bucs&bearsohmy! 2,745]

I don't mind Thursday games. It gives me a chance to see teams that I don't usually get to see play.

 

The draft on a weeknight blows. Now, instead of watching the first round prognosticating in a beer soaked haze with my buddies, I get to watch it at home with my wife. Or rather, in another room while she watches something else. Yay, that'll be a blast.

 

And the Superbowl on Sunday night has always blown. Just like having the BCS title game on a weeknight blows.

 

I predict that the NFL will ruin itself through overexpansion. There already at least five teams every year that are simply non competative. They will add more, and make it worse. That, and adding games to the schedule, will lead to more games watching too inept QB's get smacked around all day in a 3-6 game.

[RoadLizard 73]

There is some appeal lost to the actual NFL but the FF aspect is actually prety good. Even with RBBC and even WRBC its still fun to try and field a fantasy team and win a league. Especially a league thats been together a while. As for the NFL itself - Ive grown tired of rampant free agency, teams breaking up every year, contracts that arent worth the paper their written on, cinderella one-hit wonders that ruin the playoffs and/or Super Bowl, and various other things.

 

The TV coverage is also becoming a chore to sit through. Commercials after every focking kickoff, punt, extra point, etc, etc. Games take way too long to actually finish. Instant reply is also obnoxious and KILLS the flow of the game. I feel theres a lot they could do to streamline the game and keep it flowing nicely. Its like NBA fouls and free throws - that sh!t makes the NBA unwatchable. Or, pitching changes in baseball which make that sport unbearble as well.

 

Blame the money. Its that simple.

 

At least last year the RIGHT teams made it to the Super Bowl instead of some wildcard sh!t team(like the Jets).

 

And, if the fantasy element went away or became too hard to deal with, the NFL would lose a HUGE part of their fanbase since many people watch games just for the fantasy interest. Otherwise, theres hardly a reason to watch many of these games since lots of the prime time matchups are boring and pointless. Id like to see them fix some of this stuff but its unlikely they ever will. Like I said, if the fantasy element went away Id watch only a handful of games per year and pretty much be out of the loop. So would lots of other guys I know.

[Dr. Octopus 0]

2. On the Saturday before opening day we held our FF draft, we all knew this and everyone was always there. Since opening day moved to Thursday we have not had a draft with everyone present.

 

I think that you could still draft on this day. Only one game has been played and if some one wants to over pay for Justin Gage's two TD game that happned on Thursday - all the better for the rest of you.