This weekend I was treated to an amazingly competitive game Sunday morning between my Raiders and the Bills. I was proud to see the Raiders show some life after playing late Monday and flying across the country. I was at home watching the battle, and don’t own the NFL package because I’ve refused to give them any of my hard earned money when it could be better spent at a bar on a couple beers when my team isn’t on. Anyways, with the game on the line with :27 seconds left and the Bills facing a 3rd and 10 from the 15 yard line down by 4, what does CBS do? Oh lets switch to our contract obligation and show the SD-NE game instead of showing the last :27 seconds of this one. In hindsight, maybe I’m somewhat glad I didn’t see the winning score, but it pretty much ruined my Sunday either way. I had to go online and hit refresh 200 times to find out they scored, pathetic I know…
First off, when they switched from the game, the viewers were given three full minutes of straight commercials. What followed you may ask? Oh, just some player intros and some lame commentary about Phillip Rivers and Tom Brady. About five minutes of rambling about the two teams went on before they actually got to kickoff. How much longer did the Raider game last? Less than that first commercial break would be the correct answer. Is this the NFL I was so sad to see go? The money hungry idiots pulling the plug on the game right before the most meaningful two plays of the game must be one of the biggest blunders I’ve seen in awhile. It’s a known fact that LA is Raiders country even with the team not playing here since 94′, and to switch from the game to a commercial is almost as bad as switching to Heidi in the middle of a game (Oh wait they already pulled that one on us Raiders fans). I was mildly surprised there weren’t some riots. How about this time instead of Heidi, we switch you viewers to watch your hated rival the San Diego Chargers instead? Either the guy on the switchboard hates Raiders fans, or he/she didn’t understand the magnitude of the moment, and actually followed the contractual agreement. At least give us the end of the third down play for Christ sake! It felt like I watched a movie for three hours, and the movie theatre all of a sudden decided that the next movie should start instead of finishing the action thriller I was watching. Maybe I will hit up a Raiders game this year, so I can actually see the ending…
Signed,
One Pissed Fan
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
September 20th, 2011 at 7:17 am
You have to admire the NFL ………. nothing in effect has changed in spite of the bull_hit we’ve been led to believe ! It’s always been about the money ! Goodell says revenues actually are about to increase 15% over last season as several of their major corporate sponsors have re-signed with league to even more lucrative contracts . However he’s leaves out the number who’ve simply said “no thanks” . I wonder why ?
The NFL Network much like ESPN’s tie in with the Longhorns ( Longhorns Network {co-owned by ESPN and Texas}) are a sign of things to come ! There’s no stopping it now under any circumstance ………… the viewer may well allegedly have greater choice but they’re not getting value for money ! Capitalism ……. allegedly at its best and very worst by far !
tophatal …………………..
September 20th, 2011 at 8:45 am
The more things change the more they stay the same. I hope the NFL somehow loses money, but they’re off to such a strong start, I doubt that will be the case. If the game was on ESPN, I doubt it would’ve been cut short, they know why people watch their network. Apparantly CBS doesn’t know why millions of LA people were tuning into their station, and it wasn’t because the chargers were on!
September 20th, 2011 at 10:04 am
chappy
The NFL much like the US government like Stern and the NBA has my complete disdain !
I tell you what has been the compelling story for me concerning the NFL has been to see so many teams simply stumble out of the gate . The lockout and now the mounting injuries have more than played its part in this whole episode .
Do you remember CBS does cater to a specific demographic when it comes to their prime time shows . I think that they sought to mislead the fans in Cali !
Word to the wise on a PPV event featuring either Mayweather or Merchant being as HBO charged $69-95 for the bout (Mayweather Ortiz) .I’d say wait a week and watch the rerun . I was up in Gainesville seeing the Gators take care of the Vols . Having watched that , a group of us then found a bar to watch the fight and then hit a club afterwards ! That fight was a joke and Joe Cortez (referee) should have disqualified both fighters ! But the referee much like the state athletic commission in Nevada is in both the hip and back pocket of the WBC . Those two organizations (Nevada State Athletic Commission & WBC) could teach the drug cartels about being corrupt and a well ran criminal business ! Call in the Feds and let ’em investigate under the RICO Act . But they’d probably bungle that investigation as well so what’s left to say ?
September 20th, 2011 at 7:30 am
They have us right where they want us, Chap.
Perhaps we should send Larry Merchant to kick Roger Goodell’s ass.
In the meantime, I’m taking a page out of the Chappy playbook as I’ll probably have to hit up the Bucs game this weekend to be able to see my boys play a home game.
September 20th, 2011 at 8:38 am
Dude, now that would be a pay-per-view worth watching! Or at least a press confrence worth buying haha.
Have fun at the game, they won’t be able to cut you off there!
September 20th, 2011 at 10:06 am
Chris
Will that game be a sellout or simply blacked out ?
September 20th, 2011 at 8:12 am
Yeah that is really weak. I don’t understnad why they would leave the end of any game, and I’ve seen this happen with a myriad of overtime games out here in the Midwest. There has to be a way to work this out so that everybody still makes money.
Meehan
September 20th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Yeah man, I’ve had it happen a few times here and there, but never seen it done with :27 seconds left and while the QB was raising his leg to snap the ball. Usually they let the play play out! If they are trying to get me to buy the Sunday Ticket, they didn’t do any favors for themselves this weekend!
September 20th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Pitiful ……….. Well It Happens In The NFL And MLB & Other Sports As Well …….. ‘nough said !
September 20th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Its’ just the Raiders…remember the “Heidi Bowl.”
September 20th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
We here in Philly were (for whatever reason…) treated to the entire conclusion of the Raiders-Bills game…then joined the Chargers-Pats with 7 minutes gone in the first quarter. In this particular instance, I would have rather seen the start of the second game than the end of the first. To each his own. But I do agree the absurdity is that every single commercial spot both national and local in origin has GOT to be shown when transitioning from the 1 to the 4 PM games. They spend 6-7 minutes or so showing you no football at all while one game’s thrilling conclusion is taking place…or one game that has been super-hyped has already started. I understand you can’t make everyone happy…but perhaps we could stack the commercials in such a way the network immediately takes you from one game to the other and you “join in” to the second’s flow rather than a locked-in waiting period before you see any football at all. They KNOW it is going to be a crazy part of the day…just stick the spots elsewhere in the afternoon or early evening of their coverage.
September 20th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
If there’s really no way to fix this, I should give up on the NFL all together! I just don’t understand how they could miss the game winner!?!
September 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 am
Heil Heidi