NFL = National Fans League

We have all heard that spanning the globe, (duh duh duh duhhhh…), the NFL is the sports league that all others are measured against, but have you ever asked yourself, “Why that is?”

As far as sports writers are concerned, it’s all about the business. Sports writers these days are more accountants than game-guys and gals. Notice lately how most are about as interesting in print as calculator jockeys? They are in person as well if you want to know the truth.

But for we wee little schumucks, what makes the NFL the “National Fans League” isn’t the dollars and cents. Rather, the NFL has figured out exactly what we want, and they deliver it. Consistently and expertly.

Some would point to the strong home team dedication that stokes the fan’s fire, but that’s not it. Even the NHL’s got that. I’m a huge fan but the closest home team city to me, I wouldn’t visit on a bet. Last time I went to a game there, walking into the stadium I was welcomed with the sight of a woman as old as my Mum, decked out from head to toe in team regalia, staggering around drunk and falling into a ditch. She was one of many.

Not exactly an incentive memory that makes me want to go back.

They do have an unparalleled TV package, cool merchandise, the Super Bowl, even the Super Bowl commercials. Yet all of that combined isn’t what really makes the NFL the “fans” league.

The NFL presents a very strong public stance against gambling. They have periodic, though not very frequent, PSA’s warning of the dangers of gambling. They refuse to consider putting a team in Las Vegas. They suspended Paul Hornung for the entire 1963 season for gambling.

Yet, all the while, they give gamblers precisely what they want.

The games are played, for the most part, over the weekend, with a kicker game going on Monday night. Perfect structuring for the office pools. Unlike any other sports league anywhere, the NFL mandates that each of the teams provide an accurate injury report the Thursday prior to the games. Supposedly, that’s for the other coaches to know who is and who isn’t performing up to snuff. Not co-ink-a-dink-aly, it gives poolies and betters a wagering deadline and helps you pick the line at sites like betED!

The NFL does not talk about the line, but every media outlet does, even those who are partners with the NFL.

Things however are changing. The league is putting a big toe on the gaming bandwagon. On the nfl.com there is an official "Fantasy Football" program sponsored by the league.

Why this first baby step? Perhaps it’s because in 2004 sports bettors wagered $2.1 billion in Nevada's licensed sports books. USA Today estimates that on Super Sunday alone, an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion in legal and illegal wagers changes hands. Their resident line maker, Danny Sheridan, estimates if you take combine all the gambling for all sports, legal and otherwise, the total would be something like $250 billion to $300 billion.

The paper points out that's almost as much as the U.S. defense budget and more than the gross domestic product of Switzerland in 2004.

If there’s money like that out there, you have to know the NFL wants some of it – considering they are the agency that generates most of it.

Now that they are officially in the game, down the road, who knows what the National Fans League will have in store for us to add to our incentive to bet?

There is only one sure thing you can bet on.

It will work.

Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch

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