Part 2: (The Reasons Behind Why) The NFL Network Is Doing A Disservice To NFL History, NFL Films and Fans
By Jim Conroy
The NFL Network Is Becoming Unwatchable Television
NFL Network’s Nicole Zaloumis is the only worthwhile reason to watch NFL AM. Courtesy bing images.
No doubt that money is the bottom line for Goodell, Bornstein and Katz. And when it’s about money substance is usually the first to go as it has in the NFL Network’s case. But with Katz and Bornstein it is also a change of PHILOSOPHY. Turn on the NFL Network today or any day and you will find mostly unwatchable television. Bornstein and Katz spread 3 hours of marginal programming across 14 hours Monday through Friday:
- “NFL AM” is a 2 hour morning show that is repeated from 6am to 2pm.
- “NFL Total Access” is a one hour show that first airs at 7pm and is repeated at 11pm, then repeated again from 2am to 6am.
What network would ever do this? ESPN would. So it is no surprise that with the Emmy award winning programming available to former ESPN executives Bornstein and Katz, they would make such a startling decision.
A network would have to be very arrogant, pompous and or ignorant to think they can survive by televising 3 actual new hours of programming across 14 hours every day. With the hundreds of channels most of America has access to, who is going to watch a network with programming like that?
Another Former NFL Films Employee Rips the NFL Network, Bornstein and Katz
In the 2011 Domowitch Daily News article, Ray Didinger a former Emmy-winning producer and writer who left NFL Films in 2008 said:
"“We’d be discussing programming for the upcoming season. Every time we would propose an NFL Films-type look at something, the term that we used to get kicked back at us from time to time was, ‘dinosaur television.’ They’d (Bornstein and Katz) say: “That stuff is dated. Been done before. People have seen it. We’re going to change the way football is presented on television.”"
If the Bornstein and Katz intentions were to change the way football is presented on television then congratulations are in order to the slick snake oil salesman who have gotten cable networks to pay them to air this gibberish. Maybe the people in charge of cable’s Time Warner were smarter than the rest as they refused to charge its customers more for the NFL Network and thus refused to carry the NFL Network for 9 years.
With No One left to Annihilate the NFL Is Now Cannibalizing Its History
For the NFL Films Company and its employees it was 2003 when “Big Brother” former ESPN execs Bornstein and Katz took over. Courtesy bing images
George Orwell considered perhaps the twentieth century’s best chronicler of English culture and author of the famous book “1984” a classic novel of big brother surveillance and control in a totalitarian government, once said:
"“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”"
NFL Films is the history of the league, ignoring it is a monumental mistake. Goodell, Bornstein and Katz are destroying NFL Films by eradicating its history. Today’s players don’t know the history of the league or the men who paved the way for them. It is up to the Commissioner and his organization to teach these players about its history. Goodell
Unfortunately for NFL Films and its fans. George Orwell was right. Courtesy bing images.
changed the yearly rookie symposium from San Diego to Aurora Ohio just outside of Canton so the players can visit the Hall of Fame to learn about the history of the NFL. What better way is there for the players to learn the history of the NFL every day on their own Network?
Local Media Blasts NFL Network Too
Besides former longtime NFL Films employees expressing their disdain at what NFL Films has become, everyone and I mean everyone I talk to who is familiar with NFL Films – in the days before it got into the hands of Bornstein and Katz, is upset over what the NFL Network is doing.
John Batcho a media member in my hometown affectionately known by all as “Mr. Sports” because of his “Rain Man” like recall of sporting events going back 40 years, has a spectacular collection of classic NFL Films and NFL games which is so extraordinary, it could fill the programming on the NFL Network for years upon years to come without ever showing a repeat, said this about the NFL Network:
"“It is so bad today. I mean awful. All the actual classic NFL games are in the hands of private guys who hoard them and ask a kings ransom when their egos decide to release them; very, very sad. NFL and NFL films should be transferring, releasing and showing these videos on the NFL Network. However there is not a likely chance of this as it is about money, money, money and you can bet Katz and crew do this for betterment of finances, the content no longer matters and today’s audience is young males who ironically have no money to spend, the true irony.”"