I am a big sports fan. I also understand the nuiances of running a sports company and I got to admit, as a fan of the NFL I am mad. I am throwing a flag down and penalizing the NFL. Each and every week I have found something that has really made me lose faith as a fan of the NFL. I am not gonna just sit here and complain about it. I will offer a solution to the following problems.

1.The Alternate Jersey. I understand that the importance of merchandise as well as the importance that the revenue those sales bring in for a team, but lets not try and rape your customer of all of their money. If your team has a nickname with a color in it, try to keep that color in the jersey. I have seen the "Gang Green" NY Jets  twice this year and I didnt even recognize, who they were and it is only week seven. I also watched a neon Seahawks jersey which hurt the color balance of my tv, the UPS looking brown on dark brown Denver Broncos Jersey and a Christmas red Texans jersey. Yes WWE is guilty of this because they have designed not one but two Miz shirts, which I hear are trying to set a record for lowest shirt sales ever. However the loyal customer is only wasting on that shirt as oppossed to more than triple the amount for a pro NFL  jersey. Solution you play 16 games a year how about 4 jerseys a year home,away,alternate and a throwback. Giving your loyal consumers a great choice to show their teams colors proud.

2.The Blackout of games. This is a deal that the NFL and the tv head honchos made that needs to be changed.  The blackout means that if a game is not sold out, that game is not seen in their local market. In  todays economic times, many fans look forward to their Sunday of football. I agree in theory of why this rule was placed but it really doesnt show support of your team. It doesnt give anymore insentive to root for your team as well. WWE has changed their rules and adapted to the economic times and has a new catch phrase. WWE is the best value in Entertainment. WWE lowered their ticket prices and also offered different incentives to go to all their events, not just the televised ones. When your team is winning the fans will come. Just ask the NY Yankees who werent doing that well in the begininng of the year and lowered ticket prices, because no one was going to see a bad team play. Now people are paying top dollar for those same seats cause of how good they have played. AS of right now why would anyone want to see the Tampa Bay Bucs,St. Louis Rams, Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders,Washington Redskins,Cleveland Browns to name a few teams with dismal records and really no chance of turning their season around. Your local taverns, restraunts and general places to gather usually do better when a game is on as well which brings a boost to your local economy. Solution reward your season ticket holder with free seats to another game so they can give them to a friend or buisness associate. Solution #2 The team purchases their own tickets and gives them to many local charities, churches or government jobs. Initate school workshops or contest for better grades and the school is rewarded with tickets. The team in return should then be entitled to tax breaks for the wages not earned for those games, but team pride and support is installed in the person that got those tickets forever.

3. Many networks offer two games a day. The one o clock game and the four o clock game. Most fans of the NFL will watch a better game over a team outscoring another by large amount. An example was last week the New Orleans Saints were crushing the NY Giants. The other channel had the Minnesota Vikings battling the Baltimore Ravens in an amazing game. The Vikings score with a little under two minutes to go in the game and the network switches to the begining of the NY Jets vs the Buffalo Bills. What? No way I say to myself. That would be like watching an entire movie and the last two minutes of the movie I have to get a recap by announcers of the end of the movie. Even worse the viewer switches the channel to a rival channel to see if they can get a highlight of what happened. It also loses loyalty to your channel cause the announcer says due to contractual obligations with the network we have to go to another game. Solution a network should show the begining and the end of the game espescially if it is close. Have a network executive make the call if it is such a major descion, unless that person isn't watching their own network and if that is the reason find someone who cares about your network, ratings and customer satisfaction and replace the person who doesn't.

When the times change,so should the rules. I offer some solutions to fight for the common fan who may not have the forum to voice their opinion.

Thanks for reading,

Tommy Dreamer