So far early in this National Football League year, the league seems to be writing The Tale of Two Seasons. It truly is the best of times in some ways — and the worst of times in at least one huge respect.

As every gridiron and sports fan is aware, the negative was highlighted throughout last weekend, the third weekend of play this fall, as substitute referees blew a handful of significant calls, made many other questionable calls, and overall threw so many flags at the players and teams that the pace of play was severely disrupted. All of that came down as team owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell continued to stand firm against the contract demands of the permanent referees and kept them off the field as a result of the labor dispute.

Then, to end the game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football last night, the Keystone Cops refereeing crew made a call in the endzone that gave Seattle the winning touchdown as time expired — and immediately ranked as one of the most badly botched calls in the history of professional football.

Remarkably, after reviewing the play on Tuesday, the NFL came out and officially refused to utter a mea culpa on behalf of its replacement referees. In fact, the league upheld the call and is "holding firm" as the negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association continued today.Continue reading...

When your sports league has lost Rob Lowe, you're in trouble. When your sports league loses ESPN, you're really in trouble.

That's what happened Monday night to the NFL. The sports TV giant, a Disney-owned channel that will cheer loudly and despite any fan criticism for anything even resembling a sport — like spelling bees — turned on the NFL Monday after a debacle of a game that was more or less an inevitability. With the NFL using replacement referees during labor disputes with its regular officials drag on, the game that everyone eventually expected happened between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

The next 48 hours could very well come to be taught as a case study in crisis management at every MBA school in the nation. A case study in brand power.Continue reading...

The NFL and Nike have been gearing up for months for the big unveiling of new uniforms for all 32 teams this week, an opportunity for every team to refresh its image and spirit (and make a ton of extra bucks, to boot) — including the NFL.

And while there were plenty who loved the new looks and plenty who didn’t, the general coverage seemed to agree that the uniforms on the whole didn’t change too dramatically.Continue reading...

As part of its own image evolution, the NFL unveiled its new uniforms today in New York, with a player from each of the 32 franchises modeling his team's look by new league apparel partner, Nike.

According to the Associated Press report, most teams' new cutting edge Nike Elite 51 uniforms (tagline: "Fast is Faster") aimed to combine "tradition with innovation," but one team stood out.Continue reading...