Don’t Blink, You’ll Miss NFL Coverage
Posted: June 30, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
The NFL is restricting all news organizations to video clips of no more than 45 seconds.
This is understandable, if irritating. In the growing internet marketplace, where ad revenue is growing, team sites are competing with local and national press for viewers and hence, ad dollars. Since practices take place on team property the teams are within their rights to limit access.
As a site with no press access, I don’t mind. It pushes the local news outfits closer to me. In the long run, however, I don’t think this will work. The NFL is trying to monopolize the internet, a medium that thrives on resisting media limitations. I guess it comes down to how much Mickey and Nick you can take.
Paranoia the Destroyer
The Redskins, always tinkering with camp.
You’ll recall that back in the Norv Turner ’90s, owner Daniel Snyder charged admission for one of his camps. The league has a policy in place that makes camp free to the public but restricts opposing scouts from attending. When the Redskins charged for camp, scouts were permitted to attend, as long as they paid their fee like everybody else.
The Cowboys had a scout at Redskins practice every day that year and gave him some credit for their sweep of Washington.
Needless to say, the policy did not continue.
This year the Redskins are limited public access to only 8 practices. When you factor in the two a day/one a day pattern NFL clubs have not adopted for camp, that means only five days of camp are open to fan eyes.
And you thought the Cowboys camp was short.
Joe Gibbs must have some wild changes up his sleeve. You think the single wing is coming back?
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9 Responses to “Don’t Blink, You’ll Miss NFL Coverage”
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I’ve always been surprised that training camp and some practices have been open to the public.
Maybe it’s just a money and liabilty thing. If they can’t charge admission but are liable for the attendees injuries or deaths, then I can see their point. Charging fans could at least cover their insurance fees.
Back when the Cowboys trained in Thousand Oaks, Ca, I used to ride my bike to camp every day. To my recollection, they had camp for more than 2 weeks and fans were permitted at all practices. Fans did not have to pay to watch practice (only scrimmages) and you actually got to get up close and meet the players.
I don’t ever remember a time where someone almost got hurt. Nobody sat on the field and there were few better security guards than Ed Jones, Jim Jeffcoat and Nate Newton.
Were it not for these experiences, it is unlikely I would be a fan today. Somehow, I doubt very much that teams are moving back to this type of experience. It really is unfortunate.
I was in Oxnard at last years training camp for three days. I really enjoyed the experience. I think limiting or eliminating fans access to the training camps will hurt the NFL in the long term. I remember those kids lining up for the autographs. Those kids will be shut out and the fan base will dwindle accordingly. Bad policy.
Cowboysman,
there is zero risk of death. The practices are held on a fenced field. A punt may be shanked into a crowd and hurt somebody but it would take some prexisting condition meeting a football for serious injury to occur.
The riskiest event I’ve ever seen at a camp was when a woman walked onto a practice field and went for Troy Aikman. And it was Aikman who later said he feared for his safety, cause he didn’t know if the woman was a crazy stalker with some weapon on her person.
This looks like paranoia on Joe Gibbs’ part, pure and simple. And its awful PR, something Dan Snyder, who made his fortune in advertising, should know.
What would they gain from restricting public access? Do you really think their offense or defense could change signifigantly? Are they trying to protect their young QB from fan critcism?
Maybe they plan to focus on merchandising those days?
Its lame that its already hard enough to look at highlights on youtube; I wouldn’t look there if NFL.com carried them, no problem.
The NFL brings in more revenue than MLB, NBA, and NHL combined. So, what they have been doing has been working very well. The wide and unrestricted access to NFL clips and video have been part of the experience that has produced a sports juggernaut unlike anything the world has ever seen. While the NFL has many smart minds, sometimes they seem to overthink an issue and come up with a ridiculous rule. This seems to be one of those. Before changing any type of rule that deals with the public’s access to the NFL, it should be considered in depth and very carefully. The owners shouldn’t ever forget that the golden goose is the public, and hurting the golden goose usually produces negative results.
Raf, Okay. I just threw that in case someone, somewhere, once dropped dead at a training camp.