Return to the Caribbean Roots (And all the mayhem that follows)

The Caribbean is a special, special place. It is not for the faint of heart, it is not for those with weak constitutions, and it most definitely is not for those that dislike challenges. The Caribbean is a beautiful battleground for survival, which has a crazy juxtaposition of poverty and insanity with a gorgeous backdrop that seems to seep in to every background in every city within the Atlantic. Your clichéd cruise stops to these places don’t do it any justice whatsoever, it is the equivalent of claiming you have watched a movie after seeing the opening credits (although that was the best part of Napoleon Dynamite. Moving on).

Living the Caribbean life whether permanently or temporarily requires a special blend of patience, virtue, wit, and ability to churn out some necessary change time and time and time and time again. For example, as I type this, I find out that apparently we need to pay to leave the Dominican Republic. Why? No clue. Government crap. Hooray.




For those of you that don’t really know, I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic---the capital city with so much history I couldn’t fit it in this article. Let’s just say it’s one of the oldest cities in the Western Hemisphere, and has some of the oldest monuments in the same space. Santo Domingo was discovered before America, was involved with the slave trade, was part of a tough revolution in the 1800s, and then went through a strong economy under Trujillo before he went out of control (I’d rather not even dwell into that subject. Look him up) and World War II allowed other nations to emerge into superpower nations—leaving the competitors in the dust. But all that can be discussed some other time.

I am a firm believer in going back to your roots. Even if you weren’t born there, if your family is from elsewhere you need to go back there at least once or twice so you can see the culture you evolved from, to see how far you have come. Visiting another country will always give you a nice different perspective on the way life is lived through religion, food, ideals, beliefs, dreams, desires, and fears. This was my first trip in four years, and boy oh boy was I in for a surprise.





“I am pretty sure that 90% of Americans wouldn’t make it living in Santo Domingo”

This is not an insult, this is not a challenge, this is the reality we all must face. Santo Domingo is an acid trip of a big city. Take the poverty of a third-world nation, the hustle and bustle of New York City, the awkward pricing of San Francisco, the beautiful people of Miami, the sexy backdrop of the Caribbean, the tourist trappings of Orlando, and the architecture of an old-school Spanish town laced with the colorful slums of Rio de Janiero and you have Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo is the ultimate hustle town; the traffic is immense and brutal, people are always trying to one-up you (especially if you are a tourist), and with limited money for the citizens you need to beg, borrow, and deal your way through this city if you ever plan on making it. It may sound like a dangerous town, but it really isn’t. The people are friendly, but aggressive and won’t get pushed around. The women are gorgeous, but won’t merely pay attention with a few nice words. The prices are cheap, but they sneakily add up on you.

Sidebar: One day we went to the Santo Domingo zoo, which was a disappointment because the security people wanted the place closed as soon as possible. They closed one major section two hours before the park actually closed. They pretty much were pushing us to the exit even though there was still time. So while on our way out there was a big group of schoolkids roaming around. We proceeded to tell them that the snake exhibit (already closed) was not only open, but was also giving out free soda. We walked away from an upcoming ugly scene—2 security guards that clearly had Friday night plans up against 50 kids looking for free drinks. Don’t mess with Dominicans, always remember this.

You can find a way to take a 40-minute trip to a popular local beach (more on that later) by paying just over $1 a person, you just better figure out how to get to that bus stop. The city is structured like billions of squares wrapped around by one enormous square---there are multiple ways to get to places, you just have to know your city geography. The city on the poorer side has undergone some changes though.

Since it is now more of a tourist destination, let’s just say there weren’t improvements being made on the “Zona Colonial.” The same broken down buildings remain…broken down, the streets were improved….to become smaller, and the modernization of the planet hasn’t quite settled in this area unless you count the new tourist traps selling pizza and other non-Dominican foods as modernized. The amount of local hangout spots has decreased dramatically, as well as the amount of outdoor fried food vendors (which honestly were quite awesome).





“Are you drinking again?”
“Not yet…”

Even the nightclub activity had taken a hit on this part of town. The seaside area has gotten a bit calmer, with fewer places to eat and fewer people roaming these streets. It appears that the nightlife has shifted into another part of town. The Colonial Side has rather died down considerably, with few improvements on the way. No baseball fields, no new construction, and still rather messy on parts away from Tourist Country. No basketball courts, no new playgrounds, nothing, nothing, NOTHING.

So, what could people possibly do if the movie theaters, baseball fields, late-night restaurants, and other activities gets moved far from that part of town? Throw any type of celebration that can exist. Santo Domingo (and the Dominican Republic in general) now does a very organized Carnival that although is ages and leagues behind Brazil (yea…Brazil will remain #1 in that category for a very long time) has earned a lofty spot as one of the top Carnival destinations in the planet. The competitions are intense, the ambiance is very lively and happy, the music and drinking is everywhere, and the surprises are left and right. The heavy African roots are all-too-present in this month-long celebration, from the masks to the costumes.




“We celebrate everything. We celebrate Mondays.”

Santiago hasn’t skipped a beat in the last four years, and by the way remains one of the best retirement secrets in the face of the planet. If you are American or worked for American dollars and retired, this is your place. You can always get a taxi ride pretty much anywhere for less than a dollar. You can wash your car, get your tires replaced and fixed for a total of less than $10. With $600 a month, you can get a nice apartment, have all the bills paid for, and be able to cover your other expenses with some money to spare. Santiago also is surrounded by mountains, making the air nicer, and lastly is more spacious which limits the epic traffic jams usually associated with the Santo Domingo coast. You haven’t lived until you are inside a public vehicle going 40 down a road with cars entering from multiple directions between pedestrians. But back to Santiago, it’s considered the second capital city of the Dominican Republic—and it’s definitely the calmer one of the two.



“We don’t stab, we take off limbs. We love machetes.”

Poverty breeds issues, no matter where on Earth you are. Now I know the previous several paragraphs made it sound like Dominican Republic is a dangerous deadly place to roam in, and this is 100% not the case. Does the violence exist? Of course it does, any third-world country can tell you this. But Dominican Republic is still overall a very friendly place, you just aren’t allowed to cross them and never ever seem like you are financially superior either. No flashy jewelry, no rich cars, no extravagant fashion choices; this is a humble island and if you dare try to stand out you will get cut down, simple as that.

I was in the deepest, darkest regions of Santo Domingo but I never felt legitimately scared because I blended in (slightly), didn’t stir up anything. People still knew I was a tourist (because the men love their hair cut short/nearly balding---and I haven’t gotten a haircut in ages), but I never felt threatened. It’s actually the smaller unknown villages that breeds more trouble---the cop activity is very heavy in the touristy regions although it was lacking once you get to the local areas.

There is something interesting happening in the Dominican Republic; it’s become one of the most diverse places outside of America. We are getting Haitians by the seemingly millions from the west, and Puerto Rico (which is an absolute mess nowadays according to the Caribbean word) is quietly flocking to the Dominican Republic from the east. Throw in South Americans, Central Americans, a budding Chinese and Japanese community, and even a dash of Jewish and Muslim presence and you have an island that becoming more and more a fun mixed bag of cultures. The African blood runs thickest here, but there is definitely some Spanish/European/Asian influence being flung around here too.

Haiti nowadays has just 1/6th of the economic strength of Dominican Republic, and this also isn’t including the overwhelming amount of money the Haitian government has taken from the people. Remember all that money we raised to help Haiti after the earthquake? Yea, most of that didn’t make it. Then there’s the fickle issue of Puerto Rico using American money but still not getting American support, which is compounding the existing issues of bad job market, rising prices, and escalating violence. Not knocking the island, but the place is in trouble right now.

Ultimately, the Dominican Republic is a beautiful country with beautiful people, but with very confused feelings. Its most economic period happened during the reign of a leader that killed 20,000-50,000 people. The safest the Dominicans felt was during the reign of a man that wanted to execute the entire neighboring nation and remove the “black” from the island. One of the most jarring images was that on a St. Valentine’s Day sale, someone had posted an “I love you” ribbon on a Trujillo book. Now, some of you may argue that I shouldn’t jump to a conclusion over a single ribbon in a bookstore---but the effects of his reign still has some influence. It lingers quietly in the background…can’t explain how, but the name still roams the streets.



“I’ve been in Cuban kitchens, Puerto Rican kitchens, Venezuelan kitchens, you name it! Nothing beats Dominican cooking.”

Dominican food is on a different level because everything is so fresh. So fresh that you can walk from one part of Santo Domingo to another and get a hold of some free mangos and almonds along the way through the trees. A Spaniard that was staying in the same hotel mentioned that his country doesn’t have anywhere near as many options for fruits as D.R. This is a unique but true statement: Dominican Republic has the best juice I’ve ever had. Always fresh, always filling, and always packed with flavor. The pineapples, oranges, and mangos here cannot be topped; not in fruit form, not in juice form, and not in smoothie form.

Carnation also happens to be Dominican Republic’s Godsend. Evaporated milk is used quite extensively in a variety of juices, smoothies, and in one instance I even saw it get used in marinara sauce to mix with spaghetti. Morir sonando gets a beautiful boost of flavor thanks to evaporated milk replacing regular milk. Morir sonando while relaxing on the beach is one of the best feelings in the planet.

Dominican baking is also something very special. We make delicious, delicious desserts, from the typical cakes to the borrachos which is this thick sponge cake infused with juicy flavor (and if you are up for it, rum). And lastly let’s not forget about the street food. In Boca Chica, there’s a stretch of small shops in which you can handpick one of dozens of fresh fish (Not in ice by the way, breaking dozens of food safety laws) to be fried in oil that is mixed with whatever else has been cooking in it (more food safely laws violated) whether it be corn, yucca, chicarrones, etc. Don’t let the pictures fool you, these fish are darn, darn good. And they usually cost within a nice range of $3-$5.




Special Shout Out To: fried yucca, yucca stuffed with cheese, shrimp mofongo.





“They aren’t allowed to drive the tourists there”

Like previously mentioned, the tourism industry isn’t mingled and intertwined with the locals like in NYC and in Orlando, it’s actually separated. I have stayed in La Romana, Puerto Plata, and the “nice” side of Boca Chica. The main similarity in all of these places? Very, very few locals within sight. It’s almost like a fake Dominican Republic----you get all the aesthetics of the country, none of the hassles. The locals are pretty much shielded off a portion of the beaches and get to fight over the scraps. But these scraps are quite nice; local-infested Boca Chica is a legendary gem. The beach itself has no waves because the waters aren’t as active, and then there’s a wide island in the distance that shields the beachgoers from getting water movement. The result is an ocean as calm as the lazy rivers of your water parks.




At the end of the day, I survived the eight days. Barely. Spent more than I could have ever imagined, walked areas I wouldn’t have dreamed of exploring, and saw things that you just won’t see in any civilized culture outside the Caribbean. Beautiful land, beautiful people, and beautiful culture intertwined with a lifestyle that demands a lot out of you---but rewards you once you begin to settle down and branch away from the hustle life. It can be the loudest place on Earth, it can be the quietest place on Earth. The Dominican Republic and Santo Domingo isn’t for everybody, especially once you leave the tourist borders. That being said, it’s a part of me, its home. And the Caribbean wouldn’t be the Caribbean without the layers of mayhem.

I already miss it.

How to Fix the Modern NBA

Dear Adam Silver, it has come to my attention that you are quite the radical thinker in terms of Commissioners in the major professional leagues. You have delivered a few ideas and have spit around a couple suggestions to improve the overall product. This includes eliminating/altering the playoff formats, changing the lottery system, among other things. Now, although I dedicate some time every year to figure out ways to improve my personal favorite sport and league Major League Baseball, I think under your wing (a superior wing I must add), it’s time that you hear what my visions of a perfect NBA would be. Some are simple, some are radical, and some are ridiculous. But at the end of the day, all of these ideas just might be crazy enough to work.

We will start with small rules and work our way up to the major changes. For starters, it is time to take away blowouts and increase chances of a major comeback. The Patriots were able to win their Super Bowl despite being down by 10 because each touchdown is 7 points. The most you can score in one possession in basketball is 4 points through a foul shot and a made 3-pointer. The 3-pointer altered the basketball landscape and spaced the floor. How about a 10-point line? The half-court line should be a 10-point line. That way any team down by 20 can suddenly find themselves back in the game with a long-long range shot. That way the floor can be spaced out even more and forces players to play defense for a longer period of time. Of course, the backcourt violation will definitely still be in effect so once you cross that line, the 10-point shot opportunity ceases to exist. And what if you get fouled attempting such a shot? 3 free throws still. But hey, one of these made shots can swing a basketball game in any direction and maintain the interest of those watching regardless of score.

Handchecks need to make a comeback. The ONLY way to maintain Jordan in the 90s was a good handcheck. But nowadays it’s a lame foul. The game has slowed down a bit because of these tacky, low-budget fouls. More contact needs to be allowed, basketball is a physical game. I am not saying allow the Bad Boys Pistons to re-exist, but I am allowing the chance for defenders to have the chance to play stronger defense and keep the ball-handler at bay more often. It would allow for smoother basketball and less whistles.

60 games is the right number of games. You want to eliminate unfairness in the scheduling between the Eastern and Western Conference? Have every team play each other just twice. Simple as that. It would allow for the best to truly stand out, and see which Eastern Conference teams are actually legit and which ones are simply feeding off of weak division opponents. For example, this season the Charlotte Hornets are on pace to enter the playoffs despite having a dismal 6-15 mark against Western teams. The Suns are 15-6 against the East and 29-25 overall (leading Charlotte by over 100 percentage points)----and might miss the playoffs.

60 games would allow for the league to breathe easier, would make it easier to keep track of, and would make each game more important (especially your divisional matchups) and would give us fewer boring games (Let’s be honest: do we really want 4 Magic/Wizards games?). Starting the season on Christmas would make the most sense, as the November period is honestly an afterthought for anything not the NFL. By December most of the teams have been weeded out and the interest has started fading the slightest before playoff time. That 66 game lockout season was secretly a Godsend as it increased the stakes a bit since every team had less time to make an impact. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs would be less likely to throw early games to save players for the last hunk of the season and the overlong playoff system. Popovich deserves Coach of the Decade honors for the way he handled the Spurs’ quietly clever path to dominating the worn-out Miami Heat last season. But this throwing away of games dilutes the product a bit.

Let’s jump into the playoffs. If we are keeping 16 teams entering the playoffs, then they should be seeded on best records after the divisional winners. Simple as that. Now that the 60 game season I proposed would happen, there is no reason to have to have 8 teams from each conference going in. The 60 game season forces you to have to play hard each time so you can earn your spot into the playoffs. It’s not like MLB with both leagues being drastically different in terms of approach or the NFL which features extremely unbalanced scheduling and requires for the current format to continue existing. I want the best of the best in the NBA playoffs, simple as that.

Take it a step further by making the first round a best-of-5 format again. The NBA playoffs are 3 months long, which is pure absolute overkill. I personally would make the opening round a best-of-3, the second-round a best-of-5, and the remaining brackets the typical best-of-7. But for the sake of not going too insane, let’s just fix the opening round. Unlike baseball, stepping into these playoff matchups you usually know who is going to win especially in the early rounds. Even with all the Game 7s that occurred last season, the expected winners came out on top (although the Raptors losing did surprise me a little).

Now, I have discussed the lottery system multiple times as it needs a change so we can stop the tanking of the bottom-feeder teams. To me, e.v.e.r.y. team should have a shot at the #1 pick, including playoff teams. Of course those that miss out on the playoffs have a much much better shot, but including even the NBA Finals teams in the mix prevents the tanking idea. And to kill the desire to throw away the season even more, we force the bottom two teams to compete in a small tournament against the two best teams from the D-League.

There have been lots of rumblings about limiting the amount of basketball teams. I personally think 30 is the acceptable amount, even if the mainstream don’t know about half of the teams. 30 teams should be allowed on the NBA, but demoting teams should also be allowed. The D-League should run parallel to the NBA season, and of course should also have a playoff system. The top two teams however should get mixed in with the two worst NBA squads and compete in a best-of-3 series that will be held in the city of the D-League. Of course, 999 out of 1000 the NBA team will triumph and will maintain its position in the professional league. But delivering this massive scare and then guaranteeing them a lottery pick no better than 7 allows for the product to improve, because nobody (I mean nobody) would ever want to be in that predicament.

Lastly, how awesome would it be for a bunch of unheard-of talent in an unknown city to potentially get a full NBA season? That type of opportunity would allow places like Rhode Island and Tulsa to become eerily excited for maybe seeing LeBron James and Kevin Durant swing by their town to play some basketball. Even if the Erie Bayhawks wind up with an 11-49 record, I can promise you that small town would at least have appreciated their season in the professional limelight.

For me, the perfect NBA season would be 30 teams, demotion opportunity for the sucky ones, shorter playoffs, a lottery system that includes everybody, and of course 60 games that starts on Christmas and runs through April with 4 games on December, and 14 games a month. I know making these cutbacks would upset our television contracts, but I assure you the overall product would definitely improve. The world has changed, and 90s NBA will never come back. But with the more condensed format, we will see a superior NBA.

P.S. Is it too late to mention the All-Star Game itself should be 28 minutes instead of 48 minutes?

*walks away slowly*

The Slight Empty Feeling of Smash Bros. WiiU

Super Smash Brothers WiiU is the best game of 2014, and easily one of the best Nintendo games in the past decade. It will rank as the top fighting game of the 2010s, easily taking out Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It delivers in nearly every aspect you can imagine. And to add to this, the Smash franchise has once again lifted the bar on fighting games—we have come an extremely long way from just 8 players fighting each other (Street Fighter II: Turbo). Smash is the best of the business, there is no question about it.



However: Melee is still the best fighting game of all-time.



Even with everything offered in the WiiU version; from map and character creator, to a massive lineup of characters, stages, music, and options, Smash Brothers WiiU still couldn’t quite shake off the superiority of Melee’s playing style and some of the unmet potential. And also what hurts was the lack of pure surprises in the game, which was something Melee became notorious for. In a single day essentially you would be able to collect all the characters and nearly all the maps. It never felt like Smash Brothers WiiU tested and pushed the limits and capabilities of the hardware. It felt like some things were being held back, from characters to character enhancements to the map editor (The latter really pissed me off. That was quite a dropped ball).

With Smash Brothers Melee, it was a bundle of sheer mayhem that kept delivering the goods an excruciating long time after you first bought the game. You needed 20 hours of gaming just to get Mewtwo. One of my fondest memories in all of gaming was taking on Mewtwo the first time. In this installment, there wasn’t much work required to get the 8 hidden characters. There wasn’t much of an anticipation this time around. Even the hidden characters weren’t that memorable. No character in Smash U that was unlockable had anywhere of the awesome mystique of Mewtwo. No Knuckles. No Geno. No Mallow. No Golden Sun characters. No X. And although the inclusion of Pac-Man, Little Mac, and Mega Man was most appreciated, I feel like we could have done better than Wii Fit Trainer, Rosalina, and the rather pointless Dark Pit.

Melee still has the deepest fighting system in the franchise. Wavedashing contrary to popular belief is not a glitch, its taking advantage of the fast-paced physics established in the game. Melee’s speed forces you to be more skillful and more persistent to hang out with the big boys. Smash Brothers WiiU is the equivalent of the poker player revealing loudly his royal flush and then flipping over the table to announce his victory. Surely the player wins, but there was no build up, no anticipation, and the hype is quickly over. Melee was able to transcend gaming and became the equivalent of a sport because it was the gift that kept on giving. There were advanced techniques being discovered years after its launch. You couldn’t add anything else to Melee if you tried, in 2001 terms it was arguably the biggest game around.

Smash WiiU is good, and we all knew it was going to be good---it just never aimed to become legendary. No drastic gameplay upgrades, no attempts to cash in on the tournament subculture, no big surprises, no major overhaul of the map editor, not much depth in the character-enhancing system (and the suspect banning of it from online play), and just a lack of a feel that it’s a major step up from the previous installment. Smash Brothers Melee was as drastic a change as Super Mario World to Super Mario 64. The WiiU version is taking the franchise and keeping it on cruise control. Nintendo didn’t even have the gall to give it a proper title---just plastered the name and added the system name.

The game is enjoyable, and just might become one of the top games in the history of the WiiU. However, something still doesn’t feel quite right as what the game did was take Melee, remove speed, increase the amount of characters, and kept the gameplay mechanics intact and slightly watered-down to maintain its mainstream accessibility. No tournament mode to satisfy the hardcore fighters in the worldwide Smash community, no depth in the online functionality, no depth in the map creating, and extremely minimal tweaks to the formula. The game coasts to a nice secure B+, but didn’t gun for the A++ that gaming history has handed to Smash Brothers Melee.

On The Next Episode of the National Football League...

And so goes another Super Bowl, another ratings-dominating event that pretty much exemplifies the superiority the National Football League has over all the other sports in the United States. After weeks of Deflategate, weeks of discussing who might win, whose legacy will improve, which team wants it more, we got our main event. It didn’t disappoint. We got close plays, awesome plays, controversial calls, and a wild finish. It was everything sports fans wanted, and it was the lucid dream come true for your most avid of football fans.




And the fun part is that with another close game, the NFL is immediately forgiven for everything. The botching of several cases, the uninspired fight against concussions, the blackballing, the mismanagement of suspensions, and the culture of the game gearing heavily towards offense and quarterbacks. All of this is forgotten because the NFL clouded all of the bad news with drama concerning the game, and will continue to invade the airwaves with the reaction to the game. The NFL will forever remain ahead of the competition no matter how faulty or weak the final product is because of one main reason:



The NFL is really a television show, a drama at that.



Football (college and pro) has mastered the technique of being 90% anticipation, and 10% actual content. With a shorter schedule, fewer games, and more time between games for everyone to panic, for everyone to nitpick, and for stupid nonsense to pop up, there’s always a story happening in the NFL---and most of the time has little to do with the actual game. Potential and woulda’ coulda’ shoulda’s replaces the talk of the actual results. And when the games get boring (especially the pitiful Monday and Thursday night games that happened in 2014), BOOM there’s a random scandal. Roger Goodell doesn’t mind botching things, because it gets the ball rolling, gets the people talking, and does indeed produce millions of more dollars. On a moral sense, the commissioner has gotten plenty wrong. From a financial standpoint however, the shield is just as strong as ever. The drama is strong, and the ratings will reward that.



Is it just coincidence that despite the NFL being hailed as the #1 sport, its mediocre Sunday night games are being outperformed by another drama known as Walking Dead? The superior drama sells.



To have a successful show, you need characters, you need people to love and people to hate. Enter the movement of quarterbacks becoming the cornerstone and most vital piece to a good football team. The team has a face. This is why the NHL can never get the ratings, all the faces are hiding behind masks and helmets. This is why basketball is easier to market, and why it loves recognizable people like Michael Jordan and LeBron James as opposed to full teams like the Hawks and Spurs. This is why despite baseball always providing better product (Do you EVER question a World Series champ? And this season’s Super Bowl featured two teams that should not have been there in the first place. See how easy it is to forget? It was supposed to be Ravens/Packers if it weren’t for a few miracles) cannot really deliver those ratings.

The NFL is willing to water down the product for those ratings. It’s not like baseball where there are hundreds of ways to create a good team that can go all the way (For some hilarity, look up the World Series-winning Gashouse Gang of 1934). Defense doesn’t win championships anymore. A great running game won’t win it. A team with dozens of clever tricks up its sleeve (Dolphins’ Wildcat style from seemingly decades ago) won’t do it. In this league, the quarterback is pretty much required. Look at the Arizona Cardinals: despite defense winning their games the millisecond their Carson Palmer went down, the season disappeared too.

In each Super Bowl, there needs to be a villain, and there needs to be a hero. What if both teams have a lot of hate? Then make one a worse villain. Enter Deflategate. The NFL was depending on one (or both) Golden Boys to reach the Super Bowl (Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers) and their teams failed. The hype wasn’t as heavy because of New England fatigue and because the Seahawks….well…don’t exactly have a consistent fanbase outside the Northwest.

Basketball and baseball lack this necessary (NBA needs it more, MLB thrives on local numbers, excellent attendance, and phenomenal internet stats) ratings-churning drama simply because they have so many games in the season you don’t have time to dwell on a loss or an injury or a controversy. Each NFL game is a heavily-discussed and dissected heavyweight bout thanks to all the days off between matches. Muhammad Ali fought 61 times in a span of 21 years---at a rate of 126 days for every fight---so much time for buildup therefore contributing to boxing’s short-lived domination. Remember when boxing was king? It was because of the anticipation, which ranged from incessant to out-of-control. Muhammad Ali named the Rumble in the Jungle before the fight even happened.

It is never the Patriots vs. the Broncos. It is Brady vs. Manning. It is never the Panthers vs. Saints. It is Newton vs. Brees. This is why quarterbacks can celebrate, and running backs and other players can’t take it too far---don’t want to nab any attention from the quarterback characters headlining the show. The marketing scheme is brilliant to say the least, it allows for sports fans and casual fans to chime in on the action. This is why the Super Bowl draws many more viewers that has no dog in the fight as opposed to a Stanley Cup or an NBA Finals. The NFL isn’t actually rigged, it’s manipulated to become extremely mainstream friendly. And then we have the strong connection to the NCAA to allow for character development---you can see a player from YOUR town transform from college hit into a potential NFL star.

Love it or hate it, the NFL has created a flawless system that combines sports with an assortment of drama and storylines that keeps the league relevant throughout the entire year. From the Draft to the Training Camp to Preseason to Season to Wild Card to finally the over bloated yet accessible Super Bowl (Note to MLB and NBA: Start your championship games earlier. Seriously, it will help the ratings I promise) there isn’t a moment in which you can breathe without an NFL story stinging the sports headlines. It is the attention whore that always succeeds in getting the press.

120 million watched a Super Bowl that featured two teams that are generally disliked, and that’s coming after a very poor season full of bad games, bad calls, and ugly moments. That is not coincidence and it is not luck, it is a league that figured out the perfect formula—so by the end of the year even if your team is long gone and the quality of the game is far from what it used to be, you are still watching.


And when the Draft begins in April, you will most likely be paying attention to that as well.