ESPN loves the NFL

I think I'm different than your normal American 23 year old. I like football. But I don't love football. I don't obsess over it. I get excited over important games. Every now and then I get way into a game. But again, I don't live for the sport. I get annoyed at the stop-and-go of the sport. The "5 seconds of an incomplete pass followed by 35 seconds of replay and stats" that happens every play. I love baseball. People tell me baseball is boring. I disagree. Baseball is perfect for me. There's no politics of running the clock out or making sure you run out of bounds to stop the clock.

The problem I have? ESPN loves the NFL. I wish there was a stronger word I could use to emphasize it. They totally live for it. I tweeted last night, ESPN might as well be called NFL Network 2. Just last week, the NFL and ESPN agreed to a $15.2 billion contract for coverage of the NFL on ESPN.

$15.2 billion. For that price, you could buy every team in the NBA and still have $4 billion. You could buy every team in NHL twice.

It's an absurd amount of money when you think that ESPN really only has 16 games on it's network. Part of what this deal also entails is more NFL coverage on ESPN. ESPN's pregame show is now 3 hours instead of 2. Everyday they have (as far as I can see on ESPN.com's site) two hour long shows dedicated to what's going on in the NFL.

In case you know nothing about the NFL, nothing really significant happens between Tuesday and Saturday for most teams. So the idea of having at least 2+ hours a day dedicated to nothing is absolutely outrageous.

I get why it is like this. The NFL is the most popular league in pro sports. Why not dedicate more of your programming to something so popular? However, I don't think it can be done at the expense of everyone else. There's still a race to October for most of the MLB. The NHL season is about to get it's game together. College football has always been more exciting to me than the NFL (less BS, more teams, exciting games. BCS is the only problem)

The problem is, as with all media, ESPN is dictating what's "important" in sports. Since they are setting up a huge deal with the NFL, it's natural they are going to give the NFL much more time than the other leagues. And that's worse for leagues that don't work with ESPN (cough NHL cough)

Yesterday I listened to the Around The Horn and Pardon The Interruption podcasts. The first 2 of 3 segments were completely dedicated to the NFL. You're going to tell me that's not on purpose? It's a pro NFL bias. And most of the country doesn't mind because they can't get enough football. I've already had enough, and it's only been the opening week.

What can be done about it? Well, for me I think I'm going to be making the jump to the MLB Network. I don't like the idea of these Network's run by the leagues, because they can be too corporate and just BS. But I need my baseball fix. I've heard MLB Network has been having better coverage than ESPN for a while now. Change is never easy when you're used to something after 10 years.

Meanwhile, ESPN will brainwash you until you bleed for the NFL. Don't give in!