Why is the NFL so popular?

Through the years there have been lockouts in all four major professional sports leagues in the United States (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL).  Why is it that the coverage of the latest NFL labor woes has exceeded the coverage of all the other labor struggles combined?  The NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after this season, and it's getting less than 1% of the coverage of the NFL's CBA situation.  (My opinion…the NBA seems to be heading towards a guaranteed work stoppage.)

The bottom line is that the NFL is insanely popular in the U.S. now...but this begs the question, why?  As your intrepid blogger, I'll make at least a feeble attempt at answering this.

With a shortened season, every game is meaningful...in multiple ways.

Baseball's 162 game season is crazy long, while the NBA's and NHL's last 82 games, thus safely ensuring that every game is not must see TV.  MLB has 81 HOME games alone!  Yes there are marquee games or series in each sport, but if you miss one game you've only missed 1.2% of the NHL or NBA seasons, and a measly 0.62% of your favorite MLB team's slate.  You may be very upset that you missed the first game between the Yankees and Red Sox in a given year, but fear not, they'll play at least 16 more times over the course of that season.  The NFL is different though.  Teams only have eight home games (16 overall), and if your cousin gets married on the opening weekend of the NFL season in a town that is not where you live, you've just missed out on 6.25% of the season.  (DeeDee, it was a beautiful wedding.)  Like the tagline that college football used recently, every game in the NFL matters.  This absolutely cannot be said for the NBA, NHL or MLB.  Fans have a limited number of opportunities to watch their favorite NFL team in person or on TV.

Every game also matters more to NFL players.  In the NFL, 9-7 teams sometimes don't make the playoffs (then again 7-9 teams sometimes do, I’m looking at you Seattle).  To wit, of the eight divisions in the NFL last year, five of them ended with the top two teams in each tied or separated by one win, while in MLB, over the last two seasons, only three divisional races have ended with a two game or less win difference between the top teams.  In fact, over those last NFL and MLB seasons mentioned, the average win difference between the top NFL teams in each division was 1.125, while MLB's was 5.417.  The much smaller sample size logically makes each game more important, and over longer seasons, the best teams separate themselves from their inferior division opponents.

People resonate with their local NFL teams

More so than any other pro sports, NFL teams take on the persona of where they're from.   The best example of this is the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The Yellow and Black with their stout defense and noted rushing attack very closely resemble their blue collar fans that have steadfastly supported them through the years.  Unfortunately the parallel between fans and teams has held true for the Lions, whose run of luck has been eerily similar to their host city’s.

Big Hits

Fans of football enjoy the hard hitting aspect of the game.  Personally I prefer good tackling to good hitting, but I understand how a big hit can fire up a team and crowd significantly more than a well executed form tackle can.  I think that ESPN (and specifically Sports Center) is to blame for this as they have grown to glorify the big hits, and thus people begin to crave them more.  Hockey has checking and the occasional fight, but on every play in a football game there is the potential for a player to get laid out with a big hit.  Baseball has rare skirmishes on the mound when pitchers and batters disagree about who owns the inside corner, but again the potential is close to zero compared to the NFL.  The NBA has its share of hard fouls and picks, but the NFL still dominates here.  I do believe the number of soccer fans is reduced here because it is more of a finesse game...that lacks violence.

Is it possible for the NFL's popularity to continue on its meteoric rise?  Yes, but I don't believe for long.  It is just not sustainable and I think the owners have figured this out.  Although they are making money hand over fist, they know that the league's popularity will plateau and eventually fall off.  I'm not saying that it will fall to the level of the NHL, but the peak is already here or will be soon.  Let's hope a new CBA can be reached so we don't have to find out how low the NFL's popularity will sink to.