With the Cold War victory over communism, Pope John Paul II — himself a victim of Marxism-Leninism in Poland — stepped forward to denounce the ideology in one of his most profound encyclicals, Centesimus Annus. His denouncement was no surprise but what did surprise his supporters was the pope’s simultaneous critique of excessive capitalism, and particularly materialism, consumerism and commercialism.
The pope was especially concerned about young people. He urged them to “not go from the slavery of the Communist regime to the slavery of consumerism.” He said that “young people are threatened … by the evil use of advertising techniques.” He urged society to “protect young people from today’s flourishing civilization of consumerism.”
It might seem like a leap to jump from these papal pronouncements to the NFL, but alas, your intrepid columnist shall do just that. Besides, I’m paid big bucks to engage in these philosophical pontifications.
I could list numerous examples of excessive consumerism in American-Western culture. Look at how Christmas has been turned into a worship not of the sacred but of stuff. But when it comes to commercialism run amok, I can’t think of a more blatant example than the National Football League. Roger Goodell’s NFL.
Applying crass commercialism to an NFL broadcast is as simple as enduring the commercials. I’m talking not about individual ads but the sheer volume. The number of commercial breaks during an NFL game is obscene. There are so many that the games are unwatchable. In fact, they ruin the game even if you’re at the stadium. The repeated TV timeouts leave fans numbed into silence in their seats. I’ve witnessed occasions of smashed-drunk fans (wasted from multiple $15 beers) falling asleep in boredom. Watching a game in person at a stadium is agonizing.
Some networks are worse than others. Fox is shameless. And of course, as we saw last Sunday, the Super Bowl is all about ads. Non-football fans tune in for the much ballyhooed yet strikingly unimaginative commercials that companies pay gazillions for.
Then there’s the halftime show, itself a massive spectacle of material excess. Notably, the halftime shows for the first dozen or so Super Bowls were mere college marching bands. By the 1990s, that began changing dramatically. The NFL started featuring pop stars like Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, Paul McCartney, Jessica Simpson. The raunchier and more sexual, the better. It blew up in 2004 with the infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction.”
Super Bowl aside, every NFL game season-wide is an exercise in excess. Try this experiment: Go on YouTube and watch a Steelers game from the late 1970s. The commercial breaks were few and short. Viewers were treated to an actual game on the field, with commentators providing insight throughout. The networks didn’t slavishly bolt for yet another stupid ad at every dropped flag.
The NFL does this, of course, for three reasons: money, money, money.
And now, the NFL wants an 18-game season (maybe even 20), pushing the season into late February, and is even considering expanding from 32 to 40 teams. Where will it find eight new cities? The answer is abroad, in Europe — with long flights for players. The expanded cold-weather schedule and travel will destroy players. Does the NFL care? It cares about money. Pure greed.
The NFL embodies the worst excesses of commercialism.
