Sniff. Sniff. Smell that? It’s the beginning of the NFL season and considering where the league was five months ago during the lockout, is there anything that smells sweeter?
But what is it about the NFL that gets sports fans all atwitter? There is not the same amount of anticipation for the baseball or basketball season.
But football? American sports fans can’t get enough of it. It truly has replaced baseball as America’s passion.
But why? I suggest it’s the proliferation of fantasy football. The gambling aspect of the game can’t be discounted either, but I believe a lot more people gamble through fantasy football than they do actually placing bets on games.
Playing fantasy sports games is nothing new. Some form of fantasy baseball has been around for decades, well before it spilled over into football and basketball. But fantasy football appears to have the perfect model. Unlike baseball or basketball, there are only 16 NFL games, once a week. By contrast, NBA, MLB and NHL have several games a week. The NFL provides the perfect rhythm for the fantasy game. True, fantasy players spend a lot of time on their team (or teams, as the case may be), breaking down matchups of their opponents. But at least a player has all week to decide on a lineup. Imagine the time spent having to worry daily about a fantasy baseball or basketball team. Imagine the hours lost at work.
More importantly, fantasy football opened up the game to fans. Instead of focusing on just a favorite team, one a fan would watch for three hours before moving on with the rest of their lives. Now, fantasy players have a vested interest in nearly every game on Sunday (and Monday, and the occasional Thursday and Saturday as well). Now, fantasy football fans can spend upwards of nine hours a day following all the games around the league.
Don’t think that hasn’t had a bearing on the $9-billion industry that NFL football has become.
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Speaking of the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers open the season at home Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. It’s the same matchup that opened the 2010 season, one in which the Seahawks exposed the Niners for the bad team they would eventually finish as, beating San Francisco 31-6.
As has been the case for the last six seasons, the biggest question mark revolves around Alex Smith, who, once again, is cemented as the starting quarterback.
The big question is: why? Why not try to find a replacement for him? Why didn’t they go after the number of free agents available, all who have better track records than Smith? Why not go after the recently released David Garrard from Jacksonville?
My theory is this: because of the lockout, the 49ers did not want to rush into anything. The braintrust must be thinking, we’ll ride out Smith for one more year and then seriously address the position when they have a full off-season to evaluate.
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It makes sense. Given how weak the NFC West is, the 49ers actually do have enough talent to compete for the division title and a spot in the playoffs, with very little chance of doing anything once there. If they don’t make the postseason, it will be no different than the last eight years. I’m sure Harbaugh figures, "Give me a chance to see if I can do something with Smith. If it’s the same old, same old, then we’ll go out and get someone next year.”
Andrew Luck anyone?
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Given their preseason results, there can’t be much hope this year for the Oakland Raiders, who went winless.
Obviously, preseason means little, but the Raiders did not show a whole lot of offensive or defensive firepower, which should be cause for concern.
Jason Campbell is a capable enough quarterback, the perfect game manager. But if the Raiders are to make the move to a playoff contender, he’s going to have to step up and lead the team to wins. But they have to give him more weapons with which to work and I just don’t see that right now.
Granted, the team was wracked with injuries during the preseason, including starting running back Darren McFadden and, as usual, Chaz Schilens and Louis Murphy. While getting those guys back will definitely help the cause, they may not be truly effective until midway through the season.
And by that point, the team could be hopelessly out of contention.
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In the article, "CSM football prepares for season opener,” in the Sept. 7 edition, there was a misspelled name in the CSM Hall of Fame portion of the story.
Ray Balsley is a former CSM men’s basketball and golf coach who will be inducted in the Sept. 23 ceremony.
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