For NFL fans, the televised blackout of Saturday's night's game Tampa Bay Bucs vs. the Kansas City Chiefs is a disappointment on a number of levels. It interrupts what would have been 5 consecutive nights of televised professional football (beginning last night with the New England-Atlanta game on Fox, picked up tonight by a Cincinnati-Philly game on Fox, followed up on Sunday Night football on NBC with Brett Favre and his Vikings going to San Francisco, before climaxing Monday night on ESPN with Arizona-Tennessee)
But let's face it: It's the second week of the preseason, which means it might be watchable for a quarter, but certainly not past the first half, unless you A) have a friend or relative playing B) really, really care about seeing how the rookies look, or C) have absolutely no social life whatsoever.
NFL exhibition games are the ultimate tease: After 7-plus months of hardcore cold turkey no football, they delight fans with the excitement of the upcoming season. However, seriously, after a quarter or so at most, they generally become unwatchable, something that becomes less bearable each year we are lucky enough to be on this earth to suffer from.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gets that. That's why he's intent on increasing the regular season to 18 games, and cutting the pre-season down to just two.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.