The victors on the occasion of Super Bowl XLV on Sunday were the Green Bay Packers, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. Aaron Rodgers led the charge, giving the Packers their fourth title in the Super Bowl era.
Some stuttering, plodding, and then a comeback by Pittsburgh that just fell short of its goal, was what characterized this performance. The Packers were scorching in their initial pace, and it was an advantage they never relinquished.
The Steelers, in contrast, seemed to be leaking in their defense, a feature that commentators put down to fatigue and injuries.
Was anybody ultimately concerned by the result? Thick in the background of the match was the disagreements between discontented members of the NFL Players Association and their counterparts, the NFL Management Council.
A short overview on what is rotten in the state of the NFL is instructive. Franchise tags, for one. While the League agreed that franchise tags could be applied starting February 10, the Player’s Association were against it in the absence of a labour agreement.
Another proposal by the NFL is its wish to scrap two pre-season games, for the obvious reason that fans would rather fork out for the regular matches Pre-season matches are merely unnecessary fluff. Two extra regular season games means more revenue, and the sharks on both sides are not entirely sure about how the extra revenue will be shared.
NFL watchers deem this dispute a matter of cash versus those with bigger cash reserves. Millionaires are pitted against billionaires, the wealthy against the super wealthy. The current agreement, sealed in 2006, is rickety. Cash-mad, the participants in this game are ready for a seemingly senseless lockout. It is therefore hard to empathize with any of the parties, including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association director DeMaurice Smith.
‘They are playing games with each other,’ writes Monte Poole, ‘orchestrating campaigns designed to catch any drop of sympathy the public may have’ (Silicon Valley Mercury News, Jan 26).
Goodell has been attempting some patchwork on the impending fury that fans will be entitled to show should the disputing parties fail to come to a resolution. He has promised to reduce his annual salary of $10 million to $1 million in the event of a lockout.
Smith’s inevitable response on Twitter: ‘If we have a deal by the Super Bowl, I’ll go down to 68 cents.’
Commentators looking at the Super Bowl felt the gloom in the air.
‘The NFL’s looming lockout definitely hung over the game, black cloud style, and could ruin a lot of the good memories from these past Super Bowls’ (NYU Local, Feb 7).
It is unlikely that a collective bargaining agreement will be in place by March 3. What is more likely is that the NFL will lose fans, disgusted by the puerile unwillingness of either party to reach an agreement in a time when the game has never been more popular.
At most, that punitive consequence will be richly deserved.
Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Hey, supercoach? Choose your own ultimate NFL team and compete with other players for cash prizes in daily competitions on any match. If you’re after the best odds on the NFL, PlayUp is your best bet. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
The extraordinary episodes after his life as an American Football hero quite overshadowed the career of O.J. Simpson, who has died at the age…
The Kansas City Chiefs, steered brilliamtly at the end by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, downed the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime to secure…
San Francisco 49ers will make their eighth appearance in the Super Bowl after a stellar season from a team stacked with real talent across the whole line-up.
The Chiefs are no longer strangers to playing matches in February. What was once a multi-generational 50-year drought has become an almost yearly tradition.
Daniel Faalele and Mitch Wishnowsky have kept their Super Bowl dreams alive, with Baltimore and San Francisco winning the divisional round playoff.
Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots, bringing an end to his 24-year…
