In his column on ESPN.com, Chris Mortensen wrote on the
NFL, "I don't care what anybody says, this has not been
pretty football. It has even been bad football." Under the
header, "NFL '99: Not A Pretty Picture," Mortensen added
that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFLPA Exec Dir Gene
Upshaw should be "pretty concerned about the state" of the
NFL, even "worried." Mortensen: "The economics of the game,
practically and emotionally, are taking its toll on the NFL.
And the league keeps expanding. You do understand that
expansion is about economics, regardless of a diluted
product, don't you?" (ESPN.com, 11/10). In Ft. Worth,
Charean Williams writes, "Although attendance and TV ratings
are up, almost everyone agrees the NFL has been hard to
watch this season" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 11/11). NFL
Senior VP/Football Operations George Young, on why 43 of 128
games this season "have been decided" by three points or
less: "Parity does not mean mediocrity. It means
competitiveness. We want our games to be competitive and
entertaining. Listen, TV ratings are up. Stadiums are sold
out 85 percent of the time, compared to 72 percent a year
ago. Obviously, the people are voting with their fannies in
the seats." ESPN.com's Greg Garber reported that parity
"apparently, sells" as through eight weeks, the NFL's
average paid attendance was 65,154, up 1,134 over last
year's "all-time season record" of 64,020 (ESPN.com, 11/10).
NEW TRADITION? DAILY VARIETY's Bierbaum & Bernstein
report that the NFL will unveil "what it hopes will become a
holiday tradition" on Thanksgiving, when it features live
halftime entertainment during NFL games on Fox and CBS. The
band Third Eye Blind "will perform" during halftime of the
Bears-Lions game on Fox, while country music singer Clint
Black "will take the stage" at halftime of the Dolphins-
Cowboys game on CBS. Each musical act will last for nine
minutes, "expanding the usual" halftime of each game from 12
to 18 minutes with "no commercial time ... cut." Bierbaum &
Bernstein write that this "stunt comes" when ratings on all
four nets covering the NFL are "up vs. last year or, at
worst, breaking even" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/11).