While any football is “better than none, at least from the safety of your living room,” it is “going to take some work on the part of the broadcasters, and some suspension of disbelief for the audience,” to pretend like things are normal this NFL season, according to Bill Goodykoontz of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Fox piped in crowd noise for the Cardinals-49ers game despite their being no crowd at Levi’s Stadium. Goodykoontz: “We’re not fooled — it’s not as if we don’t know that the stadium is empty.” Fans my “crave normalcy, even when we have to fake it,” but things “are definitely not normal right now” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 9/15). Meanwhile, in Baltimore, David Zurawik wrote he was “hoping the return this weekend of TV football as I have known it since my childhood would draw me in enough to provide some escape or a bit of relief from the mental stress and emotional grind of COVID-19.” But this weekend’s slate of action “didn’t deliver anything more than a momentary distraction for me” (BALTIMORE SUN, 9/14).
WEEK 1 LOCAL REPORTS: In Boston, Chad Finn reports the Patriots' 21-11 victory over the Dolphins "earned a 30.8 overnight rating" in the Boston market Sunday in the 1:00-4:15pm ET window on WBZ-CBS. The rating is "slightly lower than usual." Meanwhile, Tom Brady’s debut with the Bucs -- a 34-23 loss to the Saints -- "drew a 22.1 rating" in the 4:30-7:45pm window on WFXT-Fox (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/15). In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal reports Bears-Lions on WFLD-Fox "averaged a 23.9 household rating" locally. That is a "whopping 32% decline from the 2019 opener on NBC, which averaged a 35.3 household rating in the Chicago market, but only a 4% decline from the Bears' first noon telecast last season." It is "noteworthy the number of high-quality options sports viewers had during the Bears opener Sunday," with Cubs P Alec Mills’ no-hitter among them (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/15).
