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Entries with the tag: nfl

NFL Fans, Try The NHL

by Paul on 02/07/12 at 03:20 PM ET
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from John Buccigross of ESPN,

• Unknown female rappers will never pollute Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. The game is the thing.

• You have diva wide receivers. We don’t have any divas except for some broadcasters. Diva players end up in the AHL. And then end up dating an extra from a “Warrant” video.

• Your referee’s microphones always work when announcing penalties and rulings. Our microphones are Kiwanis Club-quality with a 25 percent success rate. The NHL also does not have an Ed Hochuli orator who can explain rulings in an encyclopedic manner that qualifies as performance art. Little League PA systems sound better than the NHL’s. Your referees have law degrees. Ours stopped going to school at 16 to play junior hockey in Saskatoon. Personally, I prefer the good ol’ point to center ice or incomplete-pass signal when giving the results of a video review.

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Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NFL,

Making The Decision To Go To The Quiet Room

by Paul on 12/20/11 at 05:45 PM ET
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via Chris Mortensen of ESPN,

As a direct result of the Cleveland Browns’ failure to test quarterback Colt McCoy for a concussion on the sideline during a game, the NFL will alert all 32 teams that, effective this week, an independently certified athletics trainer will be assigned to monitor all suspected concussion-related injuries, a league official confirmed Tuesday.

The independent trainers will be paid by the NFL and approved by the NFL Players Association, according to league spokesman Greg Aiello.

The trainer’s sole purpose will be to oversee the treatment of any possible concussions and ensure that the medical staffs on each sideline are following proper league protocol and testing for any head trauma. During the game, the trainers will be situated in an upstairs booth with direct communication access to each team’s sideline.

In the NHL, it is up to the team trainer to decide if a player should go to the “quiet room” for additional testing.  Would it help if someone independent was brought in to make that decision?

Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NFL,

Phil Esposito Discusses NFL CBA

by Paul on 03/06/11 at 08:49 AM ET
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from Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune,

“Why should we begrudge these owners, who pay exorbitant amounts for their franchise and pay out salaries and debt on their stadiums, a decent return on their investment?’’ said Esposito, who served as president of the NHL Players Association during his final two seasons as a player, more than 30 years ago.

In 2004, shortly after the Lightning paraded the Stanley Cup through the streets of downtown Tampa, the NHL turned to an outside counsel by the name of Bob Batterman to assist in talks with the NHLPA.

If you’ve been watching TV updates on pro football’s ongoing labor dispute, you saw NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell walking into a Washington office building last week accompanied by his league’s outside counsel.

Yes, that Bob Batterman.

“If you really want to bring about a major change in the way you do business, shut it down,’’ a longtime NHL executive told me, referring to the NFL’s labor strife. “Shut the game down for a year and NFL owners will get what they want — on their terms.’‘

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Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Business of Hockey, Hockey Related Stories | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NFL, Phil+Esposito,

Comparing The NHL To The NFL

by Paul on 02/04/11 at 09:50 PM ET
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from Allan Maki of the Globe and Mail,

There are no yard-markers in hockey, no punts, no such thing as a quarterback sneak or fans trying to tear down the goal posts. But there is something trending between hockey and football and it goes beyond big, angry men hitting each other with hazardous intent.

In a multitude of ways, the National Hockey League is becoming more like the National Football League. More reliant on coaching. More prone to systems. More dependent on video – lots and lots of video, before games, during games, on off days and travel days.

It’s not a drastic makeover, it’s more a subtle shift. Look at how NHL teams have expanded their number of assistant coaches over the years, even at the minor-league level. There are positional coaches, specialty coaches, strength and conditioning coaches. There are coaches scouting opponents and game-day coaches watching from the press box in communication with coaches on the players’ bench.

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Filed in: NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NFL,

Is The NHL System Working?

by Paul on 08/29/10 at 10:35 AM ET
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from Terry Frei of the Denver Post,

Last season, the Avalanche’s Matt Duchene — the No. 3 choice in the 2009 draft — made $900,000 in salary and his cap hit, because of potential bonuses, was $3.4 million. It’s a bit tricky because the NHL draft age is 18 (oversimplifying), and only the very elite step right into the NHL rather than remaining in major junior hockey or heading to college for a year or four.

That kind of “reasonable” deal makes the NFL jealous, not so much because of the dollar figure (everyone knows the NFL figures would be multiplied many-fold), but the concept of making rookies, even the most accomplished and highly prized, wait their turns.

There isn’t a lot of cross-ownership in the NBA and NHL, but I’m surprised that Stan Kroenke and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, for example, haven’t more forcefully said in NBA meetings: “You know, the hockey system is working. It’s relatively simple, it has held up, and it makes sense for everybody.” Now Kroenke can go into NFL meetings and say the same things.

The horses are out of the barns in some ways. The football and basketball players associations aren’t going to just say: “Sure!”

But the NHL has a system that’s working.

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Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NBA, NFL,

Sports Marketing Double-Take

by Alanah McGinley on 10/14/08 at 06:01 PM ET
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From Darren Rovell at CNBC’s SportsBiz:

A blog reader writes in today to tell us how similar the “NHL Face Off 2008” logo was to this year’s “NFL Kickoff 2008” logo.

It’s kind of ridiculous how similar they look. Have we really run out of logos? I know no idea is really original, but I hope the person who put this one together at the NHL didn’t get any sort of credit for it.

Rovell is apparently suggesting the NHL’s work is a knock-off of the NFL’s earlier logo. I’ll leave it to readers to decide, but he might have a point…

Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Business of Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: marketing, nfl, nhl,

NBC Gets Burned with NFL Championship Games

by Steve on 01/14/08 at 12:04 PM ET
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Do you hear that sound, that faint beeping noise that sounds like a heart monitor at a hospital?  The pulse was flowing pretty steady, but now it’s basically in that last moment between life and death?  That’s the buzz that NBC had gotten for it’s coverage of the NHL’s Winter Classic, and it’s dying.  Fast.  And the NFL is to blame.

Continue Reading »

Filed in: | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: media, nbc, nfl, winter+classic,

Hockey Or Football

by Paul on 11/25/07 at 10:22 AM ET
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from Erin Nicks at the Ottawa Sun,

I can’t choose between the NFL and NHL.

I know you’re thinking that any sports fan would never be pressured to decide. Honestly, I thought it was a non-issue as well, until I had to deal with the Denver Broncos and Senators playing simultaneously on Monday night. The two teams I follow the most with respective opponents of their own (Tennessee and Montreal), yet I was forced to pit them against each other—eyeglasses perched on the tip of my nose as I feebly attempted to magnify the television’s picture-in-picture

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Filed in: Hockey Related Stories | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: nfl, nhl,