Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several weeks, you know that Kansas City recently hosted the NFL Draft. The stage and roadblocks have been taken down and life has returned to normal, but it has become clear that there is no “back to normal” for the NFL.
There are 52 weeks in a year, and the NFL plays regular season games during 18 of those weeks. Add in four weeks of post-season play including the Super Bowl and less-than half of the Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays have NFL football as a part of them.
The “off-season” would be the remaining 30-some weeks where there are no football games, no fans through the turnstiles, no crowd filling the bars ordering food and beverages.
Those remaining 30-some weeks should be dedicated to things other than the NFL. Baseball, soccer, hockey, basketball. But this isn’t how the NFL rolls. There is no longer an offseason for the NFL.
The season already stretches from September to February – including the two-week lead up to the Super Bowl. Almost immediately after the confetti is picked up, however, the combine and the NFL draft fill the months of March and April. Twenty-four hour sports news networks, SiriusXM stations and countless talk radio hosts forego talk of pennant chases in the MLB or the futility of their hockey teams, and instead talk about Bubba Chewonga and how he needs to trim down 10 pounds if he wants to play outside linebacker for the Carolina Panthers. Or how Aaron Rodgers literally sat alone for two weeks in a yurt while contemplating his free agency move.
You want to hear appointment radio? Tune in to Yappy and Conner on 1910 YXYX The FAN to hear detailed around the clock coverage of Yurt-Watch. Once the free agency period is over and new players are drafted, then they have to be added to their teams.
Just this past weekend, the Chiefs held their rookie mini-camp. Mini-camps are kind of like regular camps except with fewer pillow fights. After 150,000 people attended the NFL Draft in Kansas City, you wouldn’t think an off season event could get much bigger, right? But it wasn’t just rookie camp – you started to b-roll content for social media and videos that might be used months from now.
Wrong. Last week, the NFL released their 2023-24 schedule. This used to be an Excel spreadsheet that was faxed to the teams and a few TV stations. This year, the Los Angeles Chargers posted a Hollywood-grade anime video that has already been watched by millions of people about each week and each opponent on their schedule. This was followed by other viral videos by the Tennessee Titans and others. It consumed the TV sports talk landscape for an entire week and absolutely melted social media. All this in the middle of the NBA and NHL playoffs.
The magic trick of the NFL offseason is simple and it’s as basic as the genesis of marketing. Get people talking about your product even if your product isn’t producing right now. And with the draft, the schedule release, the opening of camps, and the preseason, the NFL is doing just that. The more people talking about your product, the more jerseys you sell and the more season tickets you print and the more money you make. Last year, the NFL posted an $18 billion dollar profit. Up from $17b the year before – so it’s clearly working. You just have to wonder what you’re missing out on while you’re going goo goo over what could have been a fax.
As I no longer have a fax machine, you’ll find me glued to NFL Network this offseason looking up recipes that Bubba Chewonga can make to lose those 10 pounds.
(He doesn’t have a fax machine but he does have Twitter, where you can find Chris Kamler pontificating as the incomparable @TheFakeNed)