The Super Bowl XXVII MVP said the NFL Network's struggles should be a red flag to owners: "People couldn't get [the channel] in the homes and, all of sudden, fans, me included, were saying, 'I wasn't getting the Thursday night game and I was OK with that.' That’s not a good thing."
Aikman spoke of his worry about the dilution of a product that is currently wildly popular.
"At one time, watching football was an event," Aikman said. "'Monday Night Football' was a big event. Now you get football Sunday, you get it Monday, you get it Thursday and, late in the year, you get it on Saturday."
I have to agree with Aikman that the only Thursday game that I regretted seeing was one where the Houston Texans were playing. That was only because I had Arian Foster as my running back on my Fantasy team.
I think in some ways Fantasy Football might be contributing to both a resurgence in the sport but might also cause a crash as well. I know before this season I really only cared about what team had my players on them and only watched their games.
The season I had Ray Rice on my team was the one that I watched a ton of Ravens games. I haven't watched one since because I don't have anyone from that team anymore. Just like this coming year I would probably not watch many Texans games because I doubt I will get Arian Foster on my team again. If Fantasy Football lost popularity for whatever reason you might see ratings dip right afterward.
However, I will be following the 49ers because I finally settled on a team that I can back. Before that I really didn't care too much about any one team and I would only tune in to the one good matchup per week. That usually meant the Sunday Night Football game and nothing else. I usually don't get up early on Sunday morning to watch any of the early games and I watch the UH game instead of the late morning games.
I think what the NFL needs to do to create lasting fans in areas where there is no home team presence is to section off the country by team. This was similar to how baseball did it in the 80s. There are all sorts of Braves fans out here because TBS used to show all of their games and people followed the team from day to day.
What they need to do is show the Raiders game and then the 49ers game with the hometown feed instead of whatever crappy East Coast game CBS and Fox wants us to watch. I'm so tired of watching Philadelphia playing the Giants or whatever. I doubt there are many fans of either team at all in Hawaii.
I'm not really sure how much of a following these teams have outside of the East Coast in general as well. The idea of "America's Team" is long gone as far as I can tell. So when the Philly/Giants game is on I check my roster and say I have Victor Cruz on my team so I watch the game. If I have no one on either team I just switch over to Antiques Roadshow. My experience might not be typical but I have always enjoyed college football more than the NFL in the first place.
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