The Dictatorship of the NFL

It is Thursday night and I am sitting at the bar in one of my many locals. They are playing the Thursday night, random, Week Five (I think) NFL game on their big screen, with the full volume of the NFL Network announcers on their PA system.

This is not a sports bar.

There are roughly 25 patrons sitting in the bar; I would say it is maybe a quarter of its capacity. Of those 25, maybe 3 or 4 are watching the football game. I am sitting at the bar, intently watching the O's-Yankees game, with the bartender who, keeps telling that, if he was allowed, he would put the game on the big screen, instead of the random NFL game.

So why has the NFL game become the Thursday night, must-have bar entertainment to the point where run-of-the-mill, non-sports bars think they absolutely have to show it?

Is it because:

A) On a Thursday night, everybody wants to watch the NFL? Nah, that ain't it. It can't be. (See above for the 12% rating in the bar.)

B) The NFL has become the definitive hipster sport? Basically, people will go out and say that they are watching the NFL game, when, really, they could not care less. They just want to say that they were out watching the NFL, because it is what they think they are expected to be doing. Because it's cool.

C) Bars just figure they have to follow the herd and all play the NFL game? This probably has something to do with beer reps from the major boring breweries that have sponsorship deals with the NFL and are pushing some sort of beer special or promo on bars that play the damn game. Fine, bar owners, take the payola, but do you not think there might be a buck or two to be made in counter-progamming? What if you were the bar to which people who did not watch the NFL flocked? I am betting there would be money to be made in going that route

D) Some combination of B and C?

Well, D is what I am going for...



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