Musings on drugs in the NFL, NBC sports, and Luck

It's been a while since I've had the time to sit down and write a new blog post, so now that I'm finally enjoying a bit of a summer vacation I thought I'd address some topics that have either been eating at me for a while, or that have been neglected (at least from what I've seen/heard) by the sports media in general.

Let's start with the latter. Last month I read an article written by Rick Reilly titled NFL Back in Business in which Reilly described a day he spent with longtime NFL agent Peter Schaffer. As is typical with Reilly's work, it was a very well-written and enlightening article to read, but there was one part of the article that stood out to me right away that I'm shocked I have not heard more uproar about.

Here's the quote from the story:

"9:44 a.m. Big crisis

A prominent NFC player is freaking out. The NFL has dropped off a urine-testing kit at his house when he's clearly not -- how shall we say this? -- ready."

Substitue MLB for NFC/NFL and I have no doubt this is a story featured on Sportscenter. The fact that this was a non-story shows how much more NFL players can get away with compared to Athletes from all other sports, especially baseball because

1. NFL is king, and all fans care about is seeing the best product on the field, no matter what it takes to produce the best product on the field.

2. Stats don't hold nearly the significance historically that they do in baseball. And especially now with fantasy football being the million dollar behemoth that it is, if a player is doing something illicitly to help their fantasy stats down the road, then so be it.

Reilly is purposefully ambiguous by not only not reporting who the player is in the article, but also not letting the reader know why the player is freaked out (i.e. recreational drug use or performance enhancing drug use?). I know Reilly had his reasons for being ambiguous, but that doesn't mean he was right to be, and I can only hope for his sake as well as other NFL writers who have no doubt heard of or seen similar stories, that we don't get a resulting *steroids era in football as we have seen in baseball.

NBC Sports announced on August 1 that beginning January 2, 2012 VERSUS will be renamed the NBC Sports Network.

According to NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus, "This is more than just a name change for VERSUS. It’s a complete repositioning of the brand to provide value for marketers, consumers as well as all our affiliates and distributors. We want anyone who comes into contact with any of our assets to immediately connect with the NBC Sports brand promise."

Now, this is just a hunch, but I feel part of the reasoning behind this name change for VERSUS is that NBC is looking to make the NBC Sports Network into a cable television station that can compete with ESPN. And, I wouldn't be surprised if in a year or two (or whenever it has the flexibility to do so) that NBC decides to move "Sunday Night Football" from the broadcast network of NBC to the cable channel NBC Sports Network.

Why do I feel this move seems inevitable? Well, there has to be a reason why the very successful Walt Disney company, which owns ESPN and ABC, decides to air "Monday Night Football" on the cable channel ESPN as opposed to the broadcast network ABC. Even though ABC reaches more homes and thus a conclusion could be drawn that Monday Night Football on ABC would draw a higher rating than on ESPN, the reasoning behind putting MNF on ESPN could be that football fans are going to watch MNF (or SNF) no matter who's televising it, so why not put it on a cable channel that one needs to pay extra for. This type of thinking would seem to make sense for NBC if it makes sense for Disney, plus then the lucrative sunday night time slots could be used on the broadcast network for shows to attract those viewers not interested in football (do those people exist?).

Unfortunately I don't know the specifics of NBC's deal with the NFL to broadcast SNF, but I can't help but think, if ESPN is able to generate good ratings for MNF as well as good ratings for shows on ABC on Monday night, why wouldn't NBC move its most popular sport to a cable channel it's trying to grow, and by doing so try to own Sunday night television the way Disney owns Monday night?

When it comes to how to build a successful NFL team, I'm a proponent, like most people seem to be, of stockpiling a lot of draft picks, and not being afraid to use those picks on linemen. The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles tend to put on a clinic year-after-year on how to build through the draft, and the strategy has certainly served both franchises well. So, it was nice to finally see the team I root for, the Washington Redskins, implement the same approach at this past April's draft. That being said, 2012 is the one year I would change draft strategies, and be willing to "give up the house" to try and acquire the number one overall pick, because that's how highly I believe in Andrew Luck being an absolute stud in the NFL. It's possible a team may not have to "give up the house" to be in position to draft Luck, if say Luck were to get injured and miss part of the season, or a team actually ends up with the worst record in the 2011 season. But, chances are a price will need to be paid to acquire Luck, and a steep one at that, and in this particular instance, I believe Luck is worth paying for!

Finally, recent events such as the NFL lockout being lifted and the debt ceiling resolution have proved on thing to me; we are a country of procrastinators! I admit, I'm a bit of a procrastinator myself, and it's hard to get things accomplished when you don't have the pressure of a meaningful deadline in front of you. But, it seems procrastination is starting to take over this country, emanating from the lower levels of grade school to the upper reaches of congress. This is a disturbing trend, and unfortunately I only see it getting worse as a younger generation moves into more prominent positions in the work place.