By Staff
The National Football League is about to make a monumental mistake in my estimation.
The NFL is apply pressure to broadcast partner ESPN to drop its highly successful sitcom "Playmakers."
I happened to have watched every episode this season and enjoyed the series.
But apparently the show hits a little too close to home like Pete Gent, who wrote "North Dallas Forty" back in the 1970s.
Released in 1974, "North Dallas Forty" was a fictional account about eight days in the life of a professional football player.
The NFL went nuts over the book because it was a thinly veiled account of Gent's life as a Dallas Cowboy.
He recounted the booze, drugs, sex, idolatry and savagery of the National Football League.
Sports Illustrated recently named "North Dallas Forty" as one of the 25 greatest sports books.
I suggest you read it.
Plus, Gent, who attended Michigan State University, hails from Bangor and is a former classmate of Dowagiac superintendent Larry Crandall.
The players in the league seem to be split over the series. While some hate it, others love it.
Warren Sapp is one of those who hates it. He has refused to do interviews with ESPN over the series.
While I think that's a little extreme, I certainly feel he is entitled to his opinion.
But the NFL, while entitled to hate the series and bad mouth it as much as they want to, have no right to try and force ESPN to pull one of its most successful shows.
And it certainly doesn't have the right to pull the plug on ESPN's football coverage if that it what they are planning.
The best thing the NFL could have done was ignore the whole thing. But unfortunately, they are making a big deal out of it and bringing ESPN publicity it couldn't have afforded to pay for.
Everywhere you turn someone is talking about it. From sports talk shows to the wire services.
The NFL players union also doesn't like it. They feel it stereotypes blacks.
Here is the dilemma for ESPN. If they pull the show it will lose credibility with nearly everyone.
People, and by people I mean sponsors, may wonder who infact is running the network.
ESPN is currently paying the NFL $4.8 billion to show games on Sunday nights through 2005.
I think with that type of payoff, the NFL has no business telling anyone what to do.