I was surprised to hear that the NFL
would be starting the season on a Wednesday this year for the first time in
history. I read an article on the Huffington
Post which said that the reason was to avoid conflict with Obama’s speech
at the Democratic National Convention. This reasoning made me raise an eyebrow
about the NFL’s decision and the motivation behind it.
Maybe the NFL doesn’t want to compete
for the viewer’s attention on this night but I have a feeling that isn’t the
whole story. We are enduring a long road to the presidency and will endure it for
the next nine months to come. After that I believe that NFL fans and others
would happily choose to watch the game even if the President was talking at the
same time. Along with many NFL fans, I
myself am counting down the weeks to opening night and could care less about
some Democratic National Convention.
The real threat is to Obama and the
Democratic Party, who would be losing viewers due to the opening game. If the
game was scheduled during the Republican National Convention would it have been
re-scheduled? I wonder if even respect would have been given to both political parties
or if the NFL organization would have shown favoritism. I guess we’ll never
know. But for hypothetical thought, maybe Obama spoke with the Commissioner of
the NFL and requested the opening game be changed. And how could one ignore a
request from the President of the United States? It should be the NFL’s turn to
make accommodations anyway, after last year when President Obama moved a speech
on his new job plans up an hour early not to conflict with the NFL season
opener.
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