9/11 proved that the NFL was the big dog. 
Sometimes the big dog uses its fans as a fire hydrant.

In the days following 9/11, college football couldn’t decide whether to play games that Saturday.  The Southeastern Conference issued a statement that indeed, the games would go on.  Then the NFL postponed all games that weekend.  Poof!  No games in college football or any other sport that weekend (I do remember some area high schools playing because the gate for each home game is so important).

It was 9/11 that proved the NFL was the gold standard.  Whatever it did, others followed.

The NFL does many great things but I think sometimes forgets the very economic engine that makes it the most lucrative and popular sports league in the world; the fans.

I bring this up because I caught this surfing this New Orleans based website:

Superdome officials say they have received many calls from people asking if they can watch at the building on the stadium’s video screens when the New Orleans Saints play in their first Super Bowl on Feb. 7 against the Indianapolis Colts in Miami.

But the Superdome won’t be opened to fans, officials say, because that would violate NFL policy.

“We’ve had a lot of calls, and certainly wish we could show it, but there is a longstanding NFL policy that you cannot show the game to a mass audience,” Superdome spokesman Bill Curl told New Orleans television station WVUE, according to the station’s Web site. “So we’re just not able to do it. Sorry, wish we could.”

For the common fan, the NFL is simply too expensive.  Going to the Super Bowl?  You better be very lucky at Lotto.  It’s not even a consideration for 99.9% of a team’s fan base.  Couldn’t the NFL bend a little bit and let the Super Bowl teams’ cities host a Super Bowl party in their stadium if the demand was there?  The Superdome and Lucas Oil Stadium this Sunday would probably have at least 50-thousand people each, a week from Sunday.  Charge 20-dollars a head and after operating costs, give it to charity.  Add the number of fans that go through the turnstiles to the TV ratings number for that city.  Yes, it would mean team personnel in charge of manning the stadium would have to work the day of the game.  Ask them and I bet they say it would be a memorable way to share the experience with the very people that make their jobs possible.  Years from now, some sons and daughters would call their parents on Super Bowl Sunday and say, “Thanks for taking me to the stadium that day when our team played in the Super Bowl.  And remember when TV took that shot of the stadium when we scored a TD?  It felt like we were really part of the whole Super Bowl experience.  It’s one of my greatest childhood memories.” 

Instead, those two cathedrals will sit empty February 7th.  That’s a shame. 
The big dog should lead again.

Along those lines, I thought this was a thoughtful read about the Saints and their role in New Orleans.  It’s by Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News.   There will be a bunch of “touchy feely” stories about the team’s relevance post-Katrina.  This article is a bit of a reality check.