Three and Ouch

Pity the poor Bears. Really. They face the Seahawks today, for their third game in eleven days. If there’s any consolation, they’re not alone. Yesterday, four teams—Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, Texans—did likewise in order to satisfy the “need” for NFL Christmas-Day programming. That’s five teams subjecting their players to a whole bunch of punishment with minimum time to recover. The Seahawks, who play the Munsters at Soldier Field tonight, will be playing for the third time in twelve days. I’m guessing what a difference an extra day won’t make for accumulated aches and pains. The NFL is a ravenous beast. Network broadcast deals aren’t enough anymore to satisfy owners. Now, they’re going after streaming revenue, as evidenced by Netflix doing yesterday’s games and Amazon Prime tonight’s contest. Bears’ and Seahawks’ fans will be able to watch the gam the old-fashioned way, on free TV. How generous of the overlords. That the NFL Players Association agreed to this schedule highlights the union’s weakness vis-à-vis the owners. From what I can tell, players are also going into “Macho” mold—we’re football player, dammit, we can take it. Get back to me in twenty years, guys.