• As much as we’d all love football featuring clean, hard contact without dirty plays, that sounds a little like the magical cheeseburger tree.
• Writer Jason Gay • Questioning the NFL’s efforts to make football safer for players, while recognizing that it would be virtually impossible to institute a system that dropped the injury rate to zero. The author’s comments came as part of a larger discussion of the role that violence plays in football, the commonality of defensive “bounties”, and what might be in store for football in the future as the league continues its renewed focus on the health and safety of players. What do you think? source

• $4,999.99 buy his pants source

• If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it. I hate him and will never respect him.
• James Harrison, linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers • As quoted in an article in Men’s Journal. This isn’t the only vitriol he directed at NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell — Harrison uses an anti-gay slur against him, calls him “the devil,” and accuses the NFL writ large of punishing Steelers players harshly because they are “predominantly black.” Nor do teammates escape criticism; he labels running back Rashard Mendenhall (who you may remember) a “fumble machine,” despite the fact that Mendenhall fumbled only twice last year. It’s clear that Harrison feels he’s been singled out for overly-strident league punishment, and whatever the league’s ultimate reaction to this is, it’s certainly going to validate those feelings. This is quite an implosion. source

• I was at the height of my glory, because I loved dancing and wearing the boots and the hot pants, the tied up shirts, looking really hot. And I was able to dance, I loved football. My dad used to have season tickets, so I was flirting with the guys on the sidelines as much as I could. The organizations make sure that the cheerleaders and the players have minimal contact, but that’s what you try to do. It was great, in the ’70s.
• Actor Phyllis Smith • Speaking of her job dancing on an NFL sideline way back in the 70s. Smith, who plays the similarly named Phyllis Lapin-Vance on NBC’s The Office, dreamed from a young age of being a dancer, and had success as a cheerleader as well as doing tap dancing in a vaudeville-style burlesque show. She got out of the dancing biz after a leg injury in her 30s, and worked reception for a few years before starting the acting career that ultimately landed her on the mega-hit comedy. Just another helpful reminder — it’s never to late to set new career goals for oneself. source

• We’ve become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.
• Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell • Complaining about a football game cancelled because of snow. Wait … comprehend that a second. The governor of Pennsylvania is really annoyed because a football game was cancelled because of snow. And as a result, he’s bringing up the industrial fight the U.S. is losing with China. He’s thinking of a fairly smart concept, but trying to apply it to football. We can’t get behind Ed Rendell on this, not because his overarching point isn’t fair, but because he’s bringing it up over a delayed football game. source

• It looks kind of like a big dish of sugar.
• Holiday Inn Metrodome security director Chris Cowles • Offering that eloquent take on what the collapsed Metrodome roof in looks like in Minneapolis this morning. We’re guessing the Minnesota Vikings won’t be playing against the Giants (a game already delayed at least a day) anytime soon. source

• Four years ago, who ever would’ve thought this would happen?
• New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees • Regarding the Saints’ own fate, along with the more general fate of New Orleans, post-Katrina. The Saints won 31-17, the victors of a symbolic win for a franchise and a city that needed one. It definitely goes a long way to making those awful memories of a damaged Superdome a faded memory. Congrats, scrappy kids of New Orleans. You earned it. source

• The Super Bowl is an American phenomenon. Despite its completely unavoidable presence in the U.S., Super Bowl Sunday is pretty much a nonentity outside of North America, where soccer is king. Even so, it’s still a much bigger moneymaker than any other single sporting event. Here’s a breakdown of how this works out.

Not-so-super viewership

• 106
  million people watched all of last year’s Super Bowl telecast, almost entirely in the U.S. and Canada
• 109
  million people watched all of last year’s UEFA Champions League final, a hugely popular soccer match

Super brand value

• $420M the Super Bowl’s value as an brand, making it the largest brand of all
• $230M the Olympics’ value, despite the fact it’s a much larger event
• $120M the World Cup’s value; it routinely tops the Super Bowl in total viewers

Super ad rates

• $312 million in Anheuser-Busch ads alone since 1990

• $3
  million the amount NBC charged for 69 ad spots last year
• $2.8
  million the amount CBS is able to charge per ad this year source

• Big game, big profits. Despite the fact that it’s just a single game, it often can top the advertising value of both the the World Series and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four, which each take place over multiple games.

So why isn’t it spreading?

• complication American football is a much more complicated sport than soccer and basketball, which both have easily and quickly spread into China, for example. Blame the penalties.
• mediocrity The NFL had been trying to tap the European market for years with a secondary league which folded in 2007. Now the NFL has real games in Europe, a better strategy. source

• It has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions; endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis.
• St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts • On the decision to dump the talk show host from his group bidding on the future of the St. Louis Rams. The criticism of the host’s possible ownership of an NFL franchise reached a fever pitch earlier this week, to the point where commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the situation. The barking points revolved around remarks he’s made about Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick and black players in general that seemed racist to many. For Checketts’ part, he says Limbaugh was only a minor partner. • source