No Football For You

On a lighter note this Christmas eve...

Rams fans may find a bit more time to wrap their presents this afternoon; in keeping with a policy to ensure the league's coffers are filled with care, the Rams broadcast will be blocked out for the first time since 1995.

Apparently, since the Rams fans are busy traveling or spending time with families rather than attending the Christmas eve game, the rest of St. Louis will be denied the spectacle while sipping on egg nog and shooing children away from presents tucked under the tree.

In order to coerce, ahem, encourage fans to pack the stadium, NFL policy dictates that if fans doesn't sell out the team's home game, they also lose the possibility of watching it on television.

Now, instead of watching Isaac Bruce and Marc Bulger, St. Louis gets to watch the anthropological study that is Cops. While there is plenty of pursuit, footwork and tackling: watching the police force of [insert city here] take out a half-naked pcp addict who tried to rob a convenience store with a biscuit is not quite the same thing.

Not being a regular follower of football, combined with the Rams 11-year streak of sold-out home games, I never noticed the blackout policy. Major football fans would be justified in being incensed at the treatment. Instead of the carrot of lower prices and family packages, the NFL (not singling out the Rams for this, it's league policy) is quick with the stick.

The Rams and their fans have been lucky; fans have shown up at the Dome even in lower-performing periods. Some cities are lucky to see half a season on television. Even still, restricting access to your product is not a way to grow your market.

Now where, you might ask, is the political angle? The Rams season opened under the threat of a blackout. Then-Senate candidate Claire McCaskill helped get the Rams over the hump by purchasing 100 tickets and giving them to kids.

No such luck for the season finale with 3,000 unsold tickets.