As the company behind Bud Light, the official beer of the National Football League, Anheuser-Busch InBev has some major pull in professional football. Which is why the company has some strong words for the NFL over recent reports of domestic violence off the field and how the league has handled these situations. Not well at all, basically. [More]
football
NFL Thinks It Can Ask Super Bowl Halftime Acts To Pay To Perform
By 8.19.14
Dear NFL: Do you feel that warm, oozing sensation on your arms? It’s the wax melting on your man-made wings as you fly too close to the sun. In an astounding act of hubris, the NFL is reportedly asking some of the biggest names in music if they would be willing to pay for the privilege of putting on a show during the halftime of the next Super Bowl. [More]
NFL Threatens To Put Games On Cable If Blackout Rules Are Eliminated
By 8.8.14
Last fall, the FCC announced that it would look into whether or not it was time to eliminate blackout rules affecting local sports broadcasts of games that weren’t sold out. Since most MLB, NBA, and NHL teams have moved their broadcasts to regional sports channels and away from over-the-air TV, the only league that would be realistically impacted by the elimination of these decades’ old rules is the NFL, which recently told the FCC that it will pick up its ball and go to pay-TV if it can’t be allowed to black out games anymore. [More]
San Francisco 49ers Player Reportedly Won’t Face Charges For False Bomb Threat At LAX
By 7.1.14
A San Francisco 49ers linebacker reportedly won’t face charges for allegedly making a false bomb threat at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year. [More]
49ers Fan Sues NFL For $50 Million For Letting Teams Sell Locals-Only Tickets
By 4.28.14
During the most recent NFL playoffs, some teams opted to only allow people in certain areas to buy tickets. The idea was to make sure as many home team fans had access to these important games as possible, but some claim it’s an illegally discriminatory practice. [More]
NFL Makes Deal To Simulcast Thursday Night Football Games On CBS
By 2.5.14
It’s been rumored for months that the NFL was looking to somehow increase the often piddling ratings for the Thursday Night Football games and today the league announced that it will be simulcasting many of next season’s Thursday games on both the NFL Network and CBS. [More]
Do Many People Really Buy New TVs For The Super Bowl?
By 1.24.14
If you look around the Internet this week, you’ll see any number of stories advising you on the best TVs (and best deals on those TVs) for watching the upcoming Super Bowl. Given all this attention, you might think that tons of people are rushing to stores to snatch up big screens. But this may be much ado about very little. [More]
Should Season Ticket Holder Seniority Be A Factor In Super Bowl Lotteries?
By 1.23.14
For many sports fans, having season tickets is like a marriage. It’s expensive in the beginning and maybe gets even pricier, but you know when you commit at the start that it’s a relationship meant to last a long time. And heck, maybe you’ll get to go the Super Bowl if you put enough time in and stay loyal. The marriage metaphor falls apart there, but that’s how one disappointed family felt after 50 years of having season tickets. [More]
Should NFL Teams Restrict Out-Of-State Fans From Buying Tickets?
By 1.13.14
Next Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers will travel north to Seattle to face the Seahawks for a spot in the Super Bowl, while the New England Patriots fly west to Denver for a showdown with the Broncos. But if hometown fans of the two visiting teams want to get tickets for either of these games, they’ll have to get them on the secondary market. [More]
Want To Watch NFL Playoffs Online? You’ll Need To Be A Cable Subscriber For Some Games
By 1.3.14
Streaming video technology and broadband speeds have improved to the point where watching live TV online can be almost indistinguishable from the real thing, which is one reason why many people have cut ties with their cable TV providers in recent years. But if those cord-cutters — or any DirecTV subscribers who happen to be away from home — want to watch all of the NFL playoff games online this month, they’ll need to get a friend’s cable company login. [More]
Alaska Airlines Will Let Seattle Passengers Wearing Russell Wilson Jerseys Board Early
By 12.19.13
It pays to be a fan, and not just with the sense of self satisfaction that comes when your team is 12-2 like the Seattle Seahawks. Anyone wearing a jersey bearing quarterback Russell Wilson’s name and number will get to board early on flights out of Seattle on Alaska Airlines. [More]
49ers Ask Neighboring Businesses To Change Work Hours So Team Can Play Monday Night Football
By 12.9.13
Say you’re throwing a big event, like a wedding or a family reunion, at your house. If you’re short on parking, maybe you offer your neighbors a few bucks to let your guests park in their driveways. But it’s probably going too far to ask your neighbors to redo their entire schedule for your party. [More]
Sonic Is Really, Really Sorry About That “Scalp The Redskins/Feed Them Whiskey” Sign
By 12.9.13
Someone at a Missouri Sonic Drive-in chose to express both their support for the Kansas City Chiefs and their utter ignorance by using the restaurant’s sign to post a message that combined nearly every offensive Native American stereotype into one garbled statement. [More]
More Talk Of NFL Adding Thursday Night Games
October 28, 2013
A few weeks back, the NFL denied initial reports that it was kicking around the idea of scheduling additional Thursday night games to bolster the anemic ratings of the lone NFL Network weeknight game, but now an anonymous league exec tells Reuters that the NFL is indeed talking to other cable channels about buying the rights to carry additional Thursday games. [via Reuters] [More]
NFL Wants More Thursday Night Games
By 10.16.13
Now that the NFL has expanded Thursday Night Football on its NFL Network to 13 weeks of the season, establishing the weeknight as an accepted (grudgingly, by some) part of the weekly pro football schedule, the league is reportedly looking to find another broadcaster to carry additional games on Thursdays. [More]
Is NFL’s Change Of Heart On Concussions Genuine Or Just Brand-Protection?
By 10.8.13 — Updated: 4.20.16
In 1994, then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue responded to growing concerns about concussions and brain injury by saying it was a case of mass hysteria resulting from “pack journalism.” What’s followed is two decades of the country’s most popular professional sports league saying it was researching the topic while being accused by some in the medical community of trying to quash evidence of a correlation between playing football and degenerative brain disease. [More]
Which NFL Stadiums Have The Least Expensive Beer?
By 10.4.13
While some NFL teams are still in the thick of the Super Bowl hunt (like the 4-0 Kansas City Chiefs… oh man, do I miss Andy Reid), others are already on the cusp of calling it a rebuilding year and hoping for a decent draft pick in the spring. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself at the stadium, perhaps with the assistance of a beer, if that’s your thing. But which stadiums are going to give you the biggest beer bang for your buck? [More]
United Airlines Offers To Fly Air Force Football Team To Play Naval Academy
By 10.2.13
Though the various colleges representing the U.S. Armed Forces are still operating through the shutdown of the federal government, the transportation budgets for those schools’ sports teams have been frozen while it’s determined whether that money comes from Congressional appropriations or from other sources. This has put this weekend’s football showdown between the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy in jeopardy. Now United Airlines has volunteered to help make the game happen. [More]
