Football......Inside the Numbers And the Politics

Bonnie

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Jun 30, 2004
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Why does the Super Bowl so captivated America's attention? With the game coming up this weekend in Jacksonville, Fla., it might be worthwhile to share some thoughts on the matter with readers across the nation.

Start with pro football itself. Our Insider Advantage national survey from last August made it clear that Americans prefer football over any other professional sport, and by a wide margin.

We asked: Which professional spectator sport do you most enjoy watching?

Football 37 percent
Baseball 17 percent
Basketball 14 percent
Some other sport 11 percent
NASCAR 6 percent
Ice Hockey 5 percent
Don't know/Undecided 10 percent

The InsiderAdvantage national survey was conducted Aug. 13-15, 2004, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent

Why the love for football? Look at the NFL. Under the leadership of Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the league has reached a level of great stability as a business enterprise. And yet, through a system that encourages great parity among teams, the results from week to week and year to year have become unpredictable.

Laast year's losing Atlanta Falcons this year raced to the NFC Championship. That one-year turnabout is a credit to to a league whose structure encourages strong team owners and good management to bounce back quickly.

The NFL made a clean sweep of the age brackets, too, from the 18-to-34 year-olds all the way to retirees. In other words, there's good reason why a TV commercial spot during the Super Bowl comands such a high-dollar premium.

If anyone doubts the true popularity of the NFL, they need only look to the passion of the sometimes unruly, occasionally coarse, but truly devoted Philadelphia Eagles partisans. Adding to their "Rocky" underdog theme this year will be the added drama of the last-minute replacement player who was working a construction job just a few weeks ago. Only in the NFL can such a drama be found..........more

www.townhall.com/columnists/matttowery/printmt20050201.shtml
 

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