Leading up to the Wild Card weekend, it seemed that everyone in the league was enthusiastically promoting - "for the first time" - how one of the NFL's Wild Card games would be aired exclusively on Peacock. For my part, I felt that this was one step closer to something which I feared would inevitably happen since I was a kid, really.
You see growing up, my family was one of the few who didn't have cable. At the time, it bothered me. Now, I'm actually kind of glad that we "missed out" on many things like that, and not just cable. Also, that we did not have the most updated video game system, or regular trips to Florida (particularly Disney World), or that I did not get the coolest toys or, later, the coolest clothes or haircuts. Going without that kind of stuff made me feel a bit more grounded and - dare I say - less entitled. These days, I sincerely believe that much of America's current problems comes from individuals who grew up with a false sense of entitlement, and I think that traditional American affluence dating back over the decades in the second half of the 20th century actually was a huge contribution to what ails the United States as a country today.
So while the officials promoting this revolutionary coverage on "Peacock," it seems to me that nobody was mentioning the obvious, the elephant in the room if you will. Obviously, this is feels like just the latest sign of greed run amuck in the United States. What used to be accessible to anyone on regular stations is now instead to be found "exclusively" on paid channels.
It feels like this is a first step towards what I suspected was inevitable, and which my father first hinted at way back in the 1980's. Back then, he predicted a future when pretty much anything and everything that would have some mass appeal would be on pay-per-view. I hoped against hope that this would not come to pass, and for now, it still has not. That said, this was one step closer to it.
Needless to say, I did not sign up for Peacock, just to watch this game. If the NFL wants to do this, I am willing to drop watching playoff games, even including my own tradition of watching the Super Bowl. To me, sports used to be an escape from the real world. These days, with players making the wrong kinds of headlines, and with other players (sometimes even the same players who make unfortunate headlines) complaining that they are not making enough money (while most people in fact make a fraction of the amount that they make to play a game), and with greedy owners swindling big stadium contracts from communities, and now with more and more "exclusive" coverage on pay to view channels, my interest feels like it is waning.
Ran into this article, where NBA great Charles Barkley ripped the NFL for excessive greed regarding this whole Peacock exclusive coverage thing. And you know what? I agree with Sir Charles.
Shame on the NFL!
Charles Barkley Rips The NFL Over Playoff Game On Peacock: ‘Greedy Pigs’ #NFL Google News Follow Us BY DOUGLAS CHARLES JANUARY 12, 2024
https://brobible.com/sports/article/charles-barkley-rips-nfl-playoff-game-peacock/?fbclid=IwAR3oKN7x0ajs8fJobil2sfAKdYD8hl3vWa_y1IFyCQEprMnhEl7LyfQMe6E
No comments:
Post a Comment