The NFL Cheese Stands Alone

This might be something of an obvious point, but let me make it and find out if my brain is firing in tune with anyone else's...

The NFL is not just the biggest league in the US. It is also the only sports league that is truly national.

Let's deal with the also-rans in turn.

Baseball is, historically, the national pastime. It's the most pleasant game to attend in person. It is the greatest timesuck, what with the every-day assuredness of it all. It taps best into our literature, our surprising need for math, our need to see things in a historical narrative. It is the sport that feels the least like vice, since it's outdoors, not terribly conducive to betting, and does not require outsized men to run the risk of disability and early death. It gives everyone involved time, and lots of it, to think through every possible permutation, and it rewards any level of interest. If you want to go to a game and spend the day eating and drinking without even so much as looking at the field, you'll probably have a good time. More importantly, no one will think you're some kind of traitor to the cause, or give you grief for not screaming your head off in time with everyone else.

But it is not national, because:

1) There are any number of areas where the sport is repped by exhibition-only slave teams (aka the minor leagues), or more compelling (at least on the local level) age-rank teams (Little League, High School and College teams)

2) There are any number of MLB teams that, due to their market size, have no chance to compete for a championship on a consistent basis. They exist as little more than a de facto farm system and sparring partner for the MLB+ clubs.

3) Because of both of the first two factors, and exacerbated by the inherent unfairness of the system, a large portion of the fanbase bails out during the regular season, only to return around this time next year.

There are, of course, individual *teams* with dispora that resembles a national presence. Go to a West Coast game, you'll find people in Yankee and Red Sox barb, and the Cubs are the default choice for any number of people who want to say they root for a team without ever having to worry about actually watching a game, since the Cubbies never play any game of consequence. But all of these fans will, without a second thought, decline to watch the championship round unless their own team is involved. (And on the off chance that I actually need to prove this, just go look at those Rays-Phillies rating from last year again.)

Now, compare this to the NFL. Have you, Dear Reader, missed a Super Bowl in, say, the last decade? For me, that goes back to at least the Eagles 1980 appearance, which is to say, I've watched every Super Bowl since before many of you were alive.

Now, compare that to the World Series. Who misses that? Well, everyone.

I know, I know, the Series is long, played on weeknights, and the small sample of the playoffs makes it seem like the playoffs are just random chance. Especially if you are a Cubs fan, and your team never gets out of the first round. (And yes, I went to the Cubs Suck well twice in this post, just because I'm not thinking too much of the Cardinals' chances this year either, and I'm trying to keep Cards Fan and Cub Hater The Truth from going back to the emo music. It's just so, so sad.)

The NBA has the same issue as MLB. For a while, it didn't, because it had Michael Jordan, and when the very best player to ever lace them up comes along, you pretty much drop everything and watch, just to see what he does next. (Witness golf and Tiger Woods.) But the same rule applies; once my Sixers are eliminated from contention, assuming I didn't have the blog, I'd probably bail. Especially when the recent Finals have been such appetizing matchups as the dull as toast Spurs against the overmatched Cavs, or the mutual assured distaste for Sixer Fan as Celtics-Lakers. The closest NFL corollary for me is Cowboys-Patriots, and I'd still be watching, if only for the hope of paralysis.

Now, the more salient point... can either the NBA or MLB ever change this? Maybe if LeBron James might be able to put the whole thing on his shoulders, a la Michael. MLB might get to an actual revenue sharing plan, or the more egregious MLB+ teams could get taken down a peg or twenty by the shifting sands of the recession economy.

But the wiser way to bet is that present conditions are indicative of future performance... and that the trends of the last 20+ years are not to be ignored. There is King NFL, and there is everything else... and if the others aren't careful, there will be just King NFL.