Why is NFL Commentary So Confrontational?

"Times have changed, and today’s former player spouts criticism, even of former teammates, as if he were paid by the snap judgment. This new generation of talking heads subscribes to a bellicose corollary of Cartesian metaphysics: I rip, therefore I am."

Part of the animosity reflects a broader trend toward confrontational television, but this really seems to be an NFL-specific problem. It’s worth looking at a few of the sport’s unique characteristics that engender it.

The News Cycle: Sports fandom, essentially, is male soap opera. The NFL is the most popular series. The demand is great. The tangible content produced is scant. There is a constant pressure to generate stories and conflict.

The English Premier League faces similar pressure in England, but receives an endless stream of material. Games occur multiple times per week in multiple competitions over a ten-month season. There is intrigue in board rooms and in the international transfer market. There are shady financial dealings. There are huge egos. Players have an incredible amount of free time to date lingerie models and make asses of themselves in night clubs. Relegation injects a constant tension.

The NFL has none of that. Games are infrequent. The climate is meticulously ordered. Players and personalities are disposable. It’s hard to cultivate a persona when your life is a revolving door of practice, film, rehab and pain meds. The stories naturally generated don’t meet the yearlong demand for them.

Part of the response has been promoting the NFL Draft into a second season. Though, another part is jumping on every innocuous tweet and mundane point of conflict and blowing it out of proportion. When that fails, the coverage turns to perverse hypotheticals intended to troll as many fans as possible. The extremity of NFL commentary is a direct result of the pressure to maintain interest.

Groupthink: With so much NFL coverage, every story is masticated beyond the point of individual reflection. Consensus, reasonable or not, is beaten into our brains through repetition and cemented. There is no space for independent thought. Any point deviating from the established viewpoint becomes instantly controversial.

Merril Hoge expresses an opinion that goes against the grain. He might have a point. He might not. The reaction, however, is the same. Blogs post it within the hour. The Internet goes insane. Hoge, now on the defensive, has to entrench himself and harden his position. Other analysts called in to rebut him, must take the polar opposite opinion to his hardened position. An idea becomes an act of aggression.

Moreover, analysts know what they say will cause inflammation. Hoge is already bracing for impact before the words exit his mouth and thus becomes more fervent and more inflammatory. NFL fans and media’s entrenched consensus engenders and heightens conflict.

Cult of Masculinity. NFL football may be played in glittery tights and pads, but it is masculine. The league makes sure you’re aware it’s the biggest, baddest, most intense physical activity known to mankind. Each game is sold as “a hard-hitting, physical matchup.” Graphics are rife with cold steel. Microphones capture every last grunt on the field. Advertisers sell you on the notion that the most masculine thing you can do on a Sunday is watch NFL football, preferably on DirecTV with a name-brand domestic beer in your hand.

This masculine ethos frames how players view the sport. Players down the kool-aid by the gallon. The “National Football League” assumes a serious, martial aura. There’s a fixed code of conduct. Everything is portrayed in extremes and absolutes. Players are tough or weak. They are assets or liabilities. They are leaders or they are followers. Their conduct is helpful or detrimental.

Players live by this code. Former players, especially recently retired ones, remain immersed in it. Mentally, many of them remain in the locker-room. They feel that they sacrificed for those values of teamwork and proper behavior. Those values must be defended and, though they seem ridiculous and harsh to the rest of us, there’s no room for levity.

[Photo via Getty]