A Review of the NFL s Growth in the United States: Which Games Made the Biggest Difference?

Transcription

1 A Review of the NFL s Growth in the United States: Which Games Made the Biggest Difference? Rick Burton University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon R. Brian Crow Slippery Rock University Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania Abstract The growth of the National Football League (NFL) in the United States of America has been frequently documented in the literature (Oriard 1993; Burton, 1999a) but little has been done to explore the social or cultural impact of specific historic games. These contests, such as the Baltimore Colts sudden death victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship, not only produced dramatic winners on the field but also frequently initiated notable change in American society. Certain games showcased football s perceived importance to America s well-being such as the Sunday immediately following President John F. Kennedy s assassination in 1963 when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, listening to the advice of numerous dignitaries, authorised the playing of NFL Games. Other contests helped establish regular radio and television audiences or made particular days of the week or holidays, such as Monday night or Thanksgiving, more important. Finally, but not least among these games, certain Super Bowl contests helped establish that championship as one of America s largest holidays for television viewing and advertising significance. While there is always room for researched debate, the purpose of this study is to attempt to identify the most important NFL games as they relate to sport, business and society. It will not attempt to rank them in significance but rather to comprehensively present the League s most dramatic contests based on their off-the-field relevance. Given that professional football, including the NFL, NFL Europe, various World Bowls, is now a multi-billion dollar, multicultural phenomenon, it stands to reason certain games have been the building blocks for the NFL s growth and current position as America s most popular sport. Introduction While America s national pastime has long been identified as baseball, in the last fifty years, professional football, as represented primarily by the NFL, has grown into the United States highest rated sports programming, commanding more than $17 billion dollars in rights fees over eight years (Burton, 1999a). And while baseball in America traces its amateur roots back to at least 1839 and the myth of General Abner Doubleday s invention of the game, the first salaried team to play baseball, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, did not take the field until 1869 (Zimbalist, 1992). By contrast, America s first professional football player did not appear until 13 November 1892 when William Pudge Heffelfinger accepted $525 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association 77

2 (NFL Properties, 1994). It would take another 28 years before a 20 August 1920 meeting in Canton, Ohio created the American Professional Football Conference (APFC). The APFC was formed around four teams: the Canton Bulldogs, Akron Pros, Dayton Triangles and Cleveland Indians (NFL Properties, 1994). A month later, the League s name was changed to the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and the original four teams were joined by the Decatur Staleys, the Hammond Pros, the Massillon Tigers, the Muncie Flyers, the Racine Cardinals, the Rochester Jeffersons and the Rock Island Independents. The first APFA game took place on 3 October 1920 when Dayton beat Columbus Nearly two years later, on 24 June 1922, three organisational changes took place that would shape American football for the next eighty years. First, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League. Second, the Decatur Staleys became the Chicago Bears and third, the previously banned Green Bay Packer franchise in Wisconsin was reinstated (NFL Properties, 1994). For the purposes of this work, there are a variety of individual dates and games that have shaped the NFL s development and growth. Many would be considered notable but would not stand out as significant in terms of societal relevance. One player and three dates, however, cannot be overlooked. On 26 November 1925, on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, Harold Red Grange, played in his first NFL game for the Chicago Bears in a O-O tie against the Cardinals in Chicago. Grange was known as The Galloping Ghost and, at the time, was considered the greatest football player in history (NFL Properties, 1994). His decision to play football and barnstorm for the Chicago Bears, led to a 6 December 1925 game in New York City s famed Polo Grounds against the Giants before a crowd of 70,000 (Michael, 1972). Finally, on 16 January 1926, Grange and the Bears played the Los Angeles Tigers in the Los Angeles Coliseum before an estimated record crowd of 75,000. Those three games, in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, all within a span of two months, are thought to have given the fledgling NFL the early momentum it needed to gain a foothold in the American sports establishment. Subsequent games would provide additional relevance and build a platform for the NFL. Based on the authors combined research, the following games stand out as contests that defined a league and helped change the sports industry. The Games That Shaped a League The Greatest Game Ever Played: 28 December 1958, Baltimore Colts vs. New York Giants The mere suggestion that any game could be considered the greatest game ever played defies logic since countless contests in numerous sports offer heroics and fan fervor to match the play of two NFL teams playing for the 1958 championship. What makes the Colts overtime victory against the Giants 78

3 Football Studies, vol. 5 no so significant was summed up by Colts defensive tackle Art Donovan who said, You can call it the most important [football] game ever played because it may have been the best thing to ever happen to the NFL. The whole country was watching it on TV. It wasn t just local. That s the game that put the league over the hump (NFL Properties, 1994). Taken on the surface, Donovan s commentary might be written off as the verbiage of a player from the winning team but what he was trying to articulate was the relationship between the game and the emerging medium of television. In the NFL s book 75 Years, the game is reflected as such: The stature of Baltimore s triumph grew almost instantaneously. The networks and more important, the advertisers recognized that football and television went together about as well as gin and tonic (NFL Properties, 1994: 94). In part, the game was historic because as Paul Michael (1972: 11) notes it represented for the first time ever, [that] a championship football game was won in sudden death. Additionally, the NFL Commissioner, Bert Bell, anointed the game as the greatest I ve ever seen (Michael, 1972: 11). Like Donovan, Bell may have been biased since it had been just that year that he had approved television timeouts to make the NFL more attractive to advertisers (Burton, 1999b). The presence of sudden death, or a fifth, unscheduled quarter, had created additional advertising opportunities where fans would logically have remained tuned to their televisions for fear of missing the winning play. And the sudden death tiebreaker had come on the heels of an end-of-regulation two-minute drill where Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas led Baltimore 86 riveting yards in 156 to set up a tying field goal as regular time expired. But the drama on the field was not the only place tension would occur, as a technical problem took place during the overtime period and altered TV screens all over the country: As the nation edged closer to its television sets, captivated by the brilliant play-calling and execution by Unitas, suddenly a technical flaw blacked out the picture. For two and a half minutes, football fans everywhere fretted. The officials called a timeout and once the [TV] problem a disconnected power cable was corrected the Colts quarterback continued his historic march (Clary, 1987: 54). The Ice Bowl: 31 December 1967, Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys Another quarterback who led an historic, though shorter march (68 yards in 4:54), was Packers quarterback Bart Starr who, on a frozen New Year s Eve day in 1967, followed a block by guard Jerry Kramer and center Ken Bowman to score a one-yard touchdown to win their third consecutive NFL championship, giving the Packers a chance to return to the second Super Bowl (Michael, 1972). On the surface, this game might not seem as important as the 79

4 NFL-AFL championship that followed, but in 1967, the American Football League (AFL) was considered by most to be an inferior league, and the two dominant teams in professional football were the NFL s Packers and Cowboys. Michael (1972: v) noted in the introduction to his work Professional Football s Greatest Games that his research had started with an argument that the Colts-Giants 1958 championship was the greatest pro football game ever played, however, when he sent out by mail, in approximately , an impartial survey of 2,340 newspaper and magazine sports editors and writers to every daily newspaper in the nation and to all magazines that regularly cover football, respondents were asked to simply list those games considered great. Those surveyed were not asked to justify the basis for greatness nor create a rank order nor limit the number of games they selected. Of the 2,340 official ballots sent, 1,437 were returned (61.4%) with 1,032 (71.8% of the returned ballots) Listing the Packers-Cowboys game as the greatest game. The Colts-Giants contest received 930 votes (64.7%). Since the methodology allowed for many variables, it is possible to suggest that the order bias of when the games were played had a significant role in the selection of the Packers-Cowboys game. Regardless of bias, the ramification of the game s greatness is undisputed. And what made the game notable to sportswriters and ultimately to the American public was the knowledge that the game had been played in temperatures ranging from -13F to -18F, with a wind-chill factor of - 40F on Green Bay s frozen Lambeau Field. The ramification of this televised event was that weather did not stop the NFL from playing its biggest games and ultimately set the stage for books such as Jerry Kramer s Instant Replay and memorable NFL Films footage of fans enduring an abominably frigid day that was replayed during future broadcasts. Super Bowl I: 15 January 1967, Green Bay Packers vs. Kansas City Chief The game itself was actually the culmination of years of negotiation, controversy, legal challenges and bitter disputes between the NFL and the AFL. In existence since 1960, the upstart AFL had been a nemesis to the NFL on many fronts, including host cities, stadium deals, drafting of college players, recruitment of current players and television deals (Neft & Cohen, 1991). Some AFL players had been NFL cast-offs, and many coaches in the newly formed league had NFL experience (Clary, 1983). Most professional football observers were fairly certain the AFL was the inferior league. As the decade wound down, it seemed improbable the debate would ever be settled on the field. But as the AFL owners continued to bid up player salaries and lured established NFL stars, NFL owners decided to begin negotiating for a peaceful resolution to the disagreements. By the spring of 1966, some common ground had been reached; there would be a common draft of college seniors, and each league would respect the contracts of the other league s players (Neft & Cohen, 1991). By far the biggest outcome of the 80

5 Football Studies, vol. 5 no negotiations was the establishment of The Super Bowl, a championship game between the two league champions. The Kansas City Chiefs represented the AFL in the first Super Bowl, opposing the mighty Green Bay Packers of the NFL. The build-up to the game resembled that of a World Series or Olympic Games, and both teams felt enormous pressure (Clary, 1983). Promotions leading up to the game were nonstop, as not one but two television networks carried the game (Clary, 1983). If the game was a chance for the AFL to prove its best team was as good as the NFL s, the first half provided something of an answer. The Chiefs only trailed at halftime and seemed to confuse the Packers with play-action passes and the scrambling of quarterback Len Dawson. In less than thirty minutes of playing time, the AFL had gained credibility. That Green Bay went on to score the game s last 21 points was expected, as the Chiefs were clear underdogs from the outset. But they proved that an AFL team could hold its own with the best of the NFL, an important discovery as the move toward consolidation and merger began toward the end of the 1960s. The outcome of the game was not that the AFL was inferior to the NFL, but merely the Chiefs were inferior to the Packers that day. As would be proven two years later by the New York Jets, teams in the AFL could compete with the NFL s best. The Stunning Upset: 12 January 1969, Baltimore Colts vs. New York Jets In many ways, the third Super Bowl is not significant for television reasons, although it more than doubled the ratings of 1968 s Super Bowl II and registered the first seventy per cent share of television audience. It is significant for showing the possibility of anything happening in a winner-take-all football game and for ultimately bringing about the subsequent merger of the AFL with the NFL, which occurred after the 1970 Super Bowl. Unlike North America s other professional sports leagues, which crowned champions after best-ofseven contests (baseball s World Series, hockey s Stanley Cup and basketball s NBA Finals), football s grand finale has always been presented as a single game championship. In 1969, the NFL s strongest team the Baltimore Colts, was established as 18-point favorites against the AFL s New York Jets. At more than two touchdowns and a field goal (17 points), the 15-1 Colts were considered virtual locks to continue the NFL s mastery of the AFL. When the game was played, however, the Jets prevailed and Joe Namath, their new generation quarterback, was credited with generating a great turnabout in professional football history (Clary, 1987). It was driven in part by Namath s oft re-told guarantee of a Jets victory. When the stylish, sexy, colorful, brash, hip and delightful (Clary, 1987: 135-6) delivered on his forecast, the NFL s prestige, much as Humpty Dumpty, took a great and embarrassing fall (Michael, 1972: 49). That Commissioner Pete Rozelle would re-bound from this astonishing defeat and less than two years later absorb the AFL, speaks to the NFL s powerful capability to adapt, change and grow. 81

6 The Heidi Affair: 17 November 1968, Oakland Raiders vs. New York Jets The game that Sunday between the two AFL powers proved to be noteworthy not only for the action fans saw, but also for what they did not see. Millions of football fans nationwide tuned in at 4pm Eastern Time to see quarterback Namath and the New York Jets try to derail the playoff plans of the Oakland Raiders. At the time, it was largely expected the Raiders would be returning to Super Bowl III for a match-up with the Baltimore Colts. The contest, featuring two great throwing quarterbacks in Namath and Oakland s Daryle Lamonica, was entertaining, as the lead changed hands five times with one tie. There were, however, a plethora of penalties and injuries, both hallmarks of Raiders games of that era, and the game went longer than the three hours allotted by NBC. With barely more than a minute left in the game, the Jets Jim Turner kicked a 26-yard field goal for a Jets lead. Viewers saw the Raiders take the kickoff and run one play. Then with 1:05 left on the game clock, every NBC-tuned television in Eastern Standard Time switched to the previously scheduled 7 pm broadcast of the children s classic, Heidi and TV screens across America went from images of a noisy football stadium to alpine mountain meadows. It was not, as Jack Clary (1987) pointed out, the first time a TV network decided arbitrarily to end a football broadcast. But because of what happened next, network TV policy was changed and established that NFL games would not be taken off the air until they had concluded. NBC executives had decided, in the interest of young viewers eagerly anticipating the promised broadcast of Heidi, to interrupt the game transmission. What a significant portion of viewers missed, including then-president of NBC Julian Goodman, were the Raiders scoring on a 42-yard touchdown pass and a second touchdown on a recovered fumble on the ensuing kickoff for a win. The fact that NBC scrolled the final score across the bottom of the screen was of little consolation, and in fact incited more reaction as fans realised they missed an improbable finish. That night, Goodman was forced to issue a public apology (Clary, 1987) and the following day estimated the number of protest calls in the tens of thousands (Carroll, 2002). He defended the network s actions as representing a forgivable error committed by humans who were concerned about children expecting to see Heidi (Clary, 1987: 133). Television executives learned that evening never to interrupt the live broadcast of a sporting event. Fan reaction was swift and unanimous; they expected to see the game in its entirety, deserved to see the whole game and were extremely displeased not to have seen the finish of this dramatic contest. Imagine this incident occurring in the 21 st century. With television executives so acutely aware of demographic information, ratings, share and other viewership data, few, if any, would alienate the all important year old male viewer by interrupting the closing minutes of a live NFL game for anything less than a catastrophic event. 82

7 Football Studies. vol. 5 no Today, shows scheduled to be broadcast after a live sporting event are listed as immediately following the game to avoid the Heidi dilemma. And although NFL games and other sporting events rarely, if ever, dictate the course of human existence, they are a necessary and sought after diversion for millions of viewers. As such, and given the unpredictability of their length, the games are now broadcast in their entirety, regardless of the score or match-up. NFL Reaction to President Kennedy s Assassination: 24 November 1963 In a year when Commissioner Pete Rozelle had already banned two of the NFL s most recognised players, running back Paul Hornung and defensive tackle Alex Karras, for gambling on NFL games and yet was selected by weekly sports magazine Sports Illustrated as that magazine s first-ever nonathlete winner of Sportsman of the Year, Rozelle made a decision that he forever regretted and received his harshest criticism from team owners and the media (NFL Properties, 1994). On Friday, 22 November 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a visit to Dallas. Rozelle, looking to make the best decision for his league, and for the country, conferred with many advisors including White House press secretary Pierre Salinger, who thought the games would be a healthy diversion to soothe the country s grief. So Rozelle informed his owners the NFL would not cancel their games two days later but instead would play. The results were mixed. Television partner CBS broadcast none of the NFL s games that weekend and the AFL moved its schedule to a later date. But the fans, grieving or not, came out to the stadiums and crowds of more than 60,000 were recorded at two stadiums (NFL Properties, 1994). Whether Rozelle s decision reflected a show-must-go-on attitude or a lack of sensitivity to a national tragedy depended on which parties were asked. The impact of the decision, however, based on fan reaction, was that America viewed the NFL as an indispensable part of the U.S. social fabric. The NFL Reaction to September 11th: Sunday, 16 September 2001 Fewer than forty years later, America would face another tragedy and the NFL s decision would reach beyond just football fans in America. The United States endured a heinous and violent terrorist act when, on 11 September 2001, New York City s World Trade Center towers and Washington D.C. s Pentagon were attacked by hijacked jets. As the nation began to recover from that ghastly Tuesday morning, executives in the sports industry were faced with the decision of whether or not to play games in the days that immediately followed. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue began contemplating the fate of the NFL s second week soon after the attack, and by Thursday he and team owners had decided to postpone the weekend s games: We wanted to be sensitive, certain and right, certainly not superficial. At a certain point playing our games can contribute to the healing process. Just not at this time (Freeman, 2001: 13). 83

8 In hindsight it was called the right and sensitive thing to do (Sports Business Journal, 2001: 1), allowing fans around the country time to ride the unavoidable emotional roller coaster following the attacks. There were several mitigating issues, however, in reaching the decision not to play. One obvious factor was security, as NFL games, with 60,000 or more fans, could be viewed as an inviting target for further attacks. Further complicating the decision was the lack of available air travel, with the commercial aviation industry shut down with no definitive return-to-service timetable. A third factor was to allow NFL players and other team employees the opportunity to grieve along with other Americans (Sports Business Journal, 2001). Tagliabue and the owners reached the decision to cancel after consulting with Gene Upshaw, Executive Director of the NFL Players Association. Although eleven of the 31 -team representatives wanted to play that weekend to provide an entertainment diversion for the public, once the decision was made to postpone, players were unanimous in their support (Mullen, 2001). Network and cable television broadcast partners of the NFL were also consulted in the decision-making process. The NCAA followed suit, canceling all Division I-A games that weekend, as did smaller college sport organisations. Nevertheless, the implications of the cancellation were far-reaching, as many more decisions had to be made. Specifically, NFL executives and owners had to decide on the format for the remainder of the season, what to do about the January 2002 Super Bowl and other issues surrounding player salaries, security and travel. Tagliabue and the owners were by and large applauded for canceling the weekend games, but were tagged as greedy and two-faced for the efforts that took place in changing the date for the play-offs and Super Bowl. One commentator, ABC Radio s Keith Olbermann, questioned the credit given to the commissioner, stating that any other decision would have resulted in a backlash from a grieving nation (Olbermann, 2002). Perhaps the most lasting effect of the cancellation of games is that NFL players, in fact, all professional athletes, related to fans in a way theretofore unseen; they were seen as frail humans, with fear, anger, confusion and other emotions Americans were collectively feeling. With numerous charities established, such as The United Way, and donations given generously by players, the NFL established itself as a caring and community-oriented entity and made its scheduling decision with significant influence from the League s players. This is notable, given Pete Rozelle s decision 38 years earlier. The Apple Super Bowl: 24 January 1984, Los Angeles Raiders vs. Washington Redskins Another game that enormously influenced the relevance of the NFL in American society took place not during game action but rather during a commercial break. And it almost did not happen. The occasion was the national broadcast airing of Apple Computer s 1984 television advertisement that ran 84

9 Football Studies, vol. 5 no during the second commercial minute of the game s second half. The ad, sometimes known informally as Big Brother, was considered so dramatic that Bernice Kanner (1999: 71) suggested it changed advertising forever and transformed the Super Bowl from a football game to an ad spectacular. The commercial, which cost $400,000 to produce and $500,000 to air, launched the genre of advertising as event and was probably the most publicized moment in advertising history (Kanner, 1999: 71). That Apple s ad aired during a Super Bowl was no surprise. The broadcast of football s American championship was regularly drawing ratings in the fifty per cent range with share of households approaching 75 per cent. In fact, the 1982 Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals produced a 49.1 rating, the highest ever, and a 73 share. While the 1983 Super Bowl numbers dropped off marginally to 48.6/69, Apple and its agency Chiat/Day knew that nearly fifty per cent of the country could be shown an advertisement during a Super Bowl telecast. If the ad was sufficiently dramatic, enough to stunningly captivate the audience s awe, viewers would talk animatedly about the ad and, better still, the product, Apple s Macintosh computer. The commercial opened showing a gritty version of the future with an aura of doom and zombielike, gray-uniformed people with shaved heads (Kanner, 1999: 71). Futuristic prisoners watched as a female hammerthrower raced into their room and smashed the huge video image of Big Brother. When the screen exploded, with debris swirling over the heads of the massed audience, the voice-over announcer intoned: On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you ll see why 1984 won t be like [George Orwell s vision of] What changed Super Bowl advertising forever were Apple s results. The next day, Apple reported more than 200,000 potential customers visited Apple dealers and within the first one hundred days 72,000 computers were sold, exceeding Apple s sales goals by fifty per cent (Kanner, 1999). Those results would influence advertisers for the next two decades as clients and ad agencies alike suggested that the fastest way to talk to America was by advertising during the Super Bowl. First Monday Night Football Broadcast: 21 September 1970, New York Jets at Cleveland Browns Bringing professional football to prime-time television in 1970 was the bold and daring move of Pete Rozelle, NFL Commissioner from In fact, he convinced CBS to experiment with four Monday night games in 1966, and although viewer feedback was positive, the network declined to pursue the idea (Gorman & Calhoun, 1994). Rozelle found a receptive ear, however, at ABC Sports, where Roone Arledge was beginning to make a name for himself with innovative sport broadcasting ideas. Together the two men developed the idea of Monday Night Football (MNF), a prime-time spectacle that, according to Arledge, would add show 85

10 business to sport and take the game to the viewer instead of taking the viewer to the game (Gunther, 1994: 17-18). Rozelle realised that Sunday-only broadcasts would over-saturate some demographic categories and alienate others (Gorman & Calhoun, 1994). Arledge s idea was to show fans, players on the bench, cheerleaders and other parts of the spectacle that is an NFL game to viewers at home, thereby broadening football s appeal beyond the hard-core fan to the casual observer (Gunther, 1994). Their creation used more cameras, more replays, more analysis, and more features than any previous professional football telecast, and was immediately embraced by viewers. MNF was an instant and overwhelming success. The three-person broadcast team of Keith Jackson, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell provided colourful commentary and expert analysis, fitting perfectly with the entertainment-themed broadcast. More important than the immediate success of MNF, though, is its continued success. Entering its 33rd year, MNF is the longest-running prime-time show on network television. When the NFL sold the thirteen-week MNF rights to ABC for only $8 million dollars in 1970, both entities knew they were taking a huge risk. The rewards, however, have been phenomenal, not only for the NFL and ABC but nearly every sport and broadcast organisation in the country. MNF proved that sport broadcasting could be a major player in prime-time, when advertisers pay top dollar to reach a specific demographic segment. These successes lead to ever-increasing rights fees for NFL games and other sport properties. The complex marriage between the NFL and its broadcast partners works because each needs the other to succeed. NBC found this out in 2001 when it invested heavily in the now-defunct Xtreme Football League (XFL), a professional football league NBC helped create when it was outbid for NFL broadcast rights in The XFL was to feature more broadcast entertainment from NBC, despite the utilization of second-tier football players. After costing NBC millions of dollars, the network announced it would not broadcast a second year and the XFL immediately folded alter playing just one season. Thanksgiving Day and Pro Football To the modern football fan, NFL games on Thanksgiving Day are as common as turkey and pumpkin pie. This was not the case, however, prior to the mid- 1930s. Historians suggest that the first professional football game of any significance to be held on Thanksgiving Day was played in Detroit in 1934, although Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Red Grange played his first professional game on Thanksgiving Day in 1925 before a then-record crowd of 36,000 fans (Thanksgiving Day Football, 2002). It had been popular for high school and college football to be played on Thanksgiving Day since the 1870s and over 5,000 games played on that day in the mid-1890s (Crepeau, 2001). There were, however, those who thought that football should not be played on such a holiday, as evidenced by a commentary 86

11 Football Studies. vol. 5 no in the 1 December 1893 New York Herald: In these times Thanksgiving Day is no longer a solemn festival to God for mercies given. It is a holiday granted by the State and the Nation to see a game of football (Crepeau, 2001: 1). The 1934 game, in which Detroit hosted the Chicago Bears, was significant for several reasons. Team owner and Detroit radio executive George A. Richards had just purchased the team and moved it from Portsmouth Ohio. Given his knowledge of radio, Richards worked with NBC Radio to develop a 94-station network to carry the game live nationwide, making it the first nationally broadcast professional football game (Crepeau, 2001). The match between the Bears and Lions was also noteworthy. Combined the teams were 21-1 with play-off implications on the line and a rematch scheduled three days later in Chicago. The game was a classic, with the Bears winning and again on the weekend, winning the Western Division Crown (Thanksgiving Day Football, 2002). The next year, on Thanksgiving Day, the Detroit Lions defeated the Bears on the way to their first NFL Championship. The most lasting impact from that initial game, however, is the Thanksgiving Day football tradition it established in the NFL and in particular Detroit. The Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving Day game every year since then, with the exception of a six-year gap between (Thanksgiving Day Football, 2002). The Dallas Cowboys have strengthened the NFL-Thanksgiving Day bond, hosting a game every year except two, since 1966 (Crepeau, 2001). In many households across America, the timing of Thanksgiving Day dinner is scheduled not to conflict with the kick-off time of these games. And whilst there might be a few college games on television that day, the NFL has firmly established Thanksgiving Day as its holiday. Summary While many events over the course of eighty years has helped the NFL s image and prestige grow, the contemporary equity of the League has been shaped by game action, television decisions and political events, future research may wish to build upon this body of work and study more closely the nuances of the American public s entertainment needs and choices. It could be argued that every NFL game today has social implications as fans from all walks of life gather at the stadium, the sports bar or a residence to watch America s sport. One area for future researchers to explore is the role of televised halftime shows such as the NFL s alignment with Music Television or the year Michael Jackson emerged from a giant globe to sing three songs during a Super Bowl halftime. Other Super Bowl activities such as the singing of the national anthem by a celebrity or the use of American fighter jets flying over the stadium moments before kickoff has continually raised the game from simple sport activity to an enormous entertainment event. It is clear, however, that many elements have played significant roles in the growth of the NFL as America s most popular sport. 87

12 REFERENCES Burton, R. (1999a). Does the National Football League s current economic model threaten the long term growth of professional football globally? Football Studies, 2(2), Burton, R. (1999b, 19 Dec.). From Hearst to Stem: The shaping of an industry over a century. New York Times, p. 52. Carroll, B. (2002). Heidi-Ho. Retrieved 15 July 2002 from the World Wide Web: Clary, J. (1983, revised 1987). Pro Football s great moments. New York: Bonanza Books. Crepeau, R. (2001). Thanksgiving and football. SportsJones, 24 August. Retrieved 15 July from the World Wide Web: sportsjones.com/sj/l99-2.shtml. Freeman, M. (2001, 12 Sept.). Pro football: The games can wait. New York Times, p. C13. Gorman, J. & Calhoun, K. (1994). The name of the game: The business of sports. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Gunther. M. (1994). The house that Roone built: The inside story of ABC news. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. Kanner, B. (1999). The 100 best TV commercials. New York: Times Books/ Random House. Michael, P. (1972). Professional football s greatest games. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Mullen, L. (2001). NFL reps vote against play. Sports Business Journal, September, 51. Neft. D. & Cohen, R. (1991). The sports encyclopedia: Pro football. (9 th ed.). New York: St. Martin s Press. National Football League Properties Inc. (1994). 75 Seasons: The complete story of the National Football League, Atlanta: Turner Publishing. Olbermann, K. (2002, January 21). League notes. Sports Business Daily. Retrieved from the World Wide Web, 10 July 2002: sportsbusinessdaily.com/article.cms?articleid=62598 Oriard, M. (1993). Reading football: How the popular press created an American spectacle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Sports Business Journal, (2001). The day the games stopped: Only right and sensitive thing to do September, 1, Thanksgiving Day Football: A Tradition, Pro Football Hall of Fame Website. Retrieved from the World Wide Web, 10 July 2002: profootball.com/history/1930s/thanksgiving.cfm Zimbalist, A. (1992). Baseball and billions. New York: Basic Books. 88