Mar 25, 2017 5 min read

Roger Goodell is trying.

The NFL Commissioner knows games are too long and filled with too much dead time and he’s campaigning for change. On Wednesday he released a statement, “Together with our broadcast partners, we will be working to meaningfully reduce down time and the frequency of commercial breaks in our games.”

And how many meetings did it take for him, NFL owners and the TV executives to come up with this: “We will also be giving our broadcast partners increased flexibility to avoid untimely breaks in the action. For example, we know how annoying it is when we come back from a commercial break, kick off, and then cut to a commercial again. I hate that, too. Our goal is to eliminate it.”

I don’t know about you, but if I were NFL Commissioner, the first time I saw that, I’d be on the phone to the president of CBS or NBC or ESPN saying, “Hey, I just saw a touchdown followed by 2 1/2 minutes of commercials followed by a touchback, followed by 2 1/2 more minutes of commercials. What makes you believe anybody with a remote control in his hand is sitting through that?”

The last time the NFL decided to shorten games, it did so by running the game clock sooner after penalties and out of bounds plays – in other words, by giving people less football for their money. The games didn’t get any shorter because, after paying ridiculous amounts of money for the rights, networks needed more dead time to sell to sponsors.

As has been offered in this space before, all sports leagues and their advertisers need to come to the realization that people are watching the telecasts while armed with a remote control that can switch to any one of more than 200 channels in the blink of an eye. Why do they still insist on structuring their telecasts the same as they did in 1975, when viewers had to get out of their chairs and walk across the room to turn the dial to one of the two or three other bad options that existed?

The NFL has enough viewers that it could charge more for shorter and fewer commercials and promise the advertisers that they’re ads would actually be seen by more people.

After how long it took for the commissioner to decide that touchdown-commercial-touchback-commercial isn’t a good idea, I wouldn’t count on many changes or shorter games any time soon.

• Jung Ho Kang being denied a work visa might be good news for people who drive cars on our local roads but it’s really bad news for the Pirates. Kang has been denied a visa, apparently because of his third DUI conviction in South Korea. There also were reports that he was charged with a similar offense in another unnamed country. Being charged with three DUIs is deserving of some jail time and I have no sympathy for Kang, but from a purely baseball perspective this is going to cost the Pirates wins.

After coming back from a major knee injury, Kang hit 21 home runs in 103 games last season. That’s a pace of 30 home runs in a 162-game season. The Pirates have major power issues even with Kang in the lineup. They will have a hard time finding someone who can give them 20 home runs in 100 games.

• There doesn’t seem to be as much whining this year about the poor college basketball players who aren’t getting paid while the colleges and promoters are making millions on the NCAA basketball championship. Maybe it’s still early and it’ll start next week before the Final Four. It’s interesting that those complaints seem to increase as the value put on the player’s education decreases. Have you heard much about North Carolina’s coach Roy Williams and the fact he was the coach there when players who could barely read were taking bogus courses?

• Matt Murray has played some strong games recently. Not strong enough to convince me that he’s a better goalie than Marc Andre Fleury, who has been spectacular.

• Did you see Mario Lemieux’s response to Josh Yo Sang of the Islanders showing up in Pittsburgh wearing number 66? “It’s just a number. Players should be able to wear the number they want.”

Class.

• It’s been a tough week for me after getting the devastating news that the Steelers won’t be wearing throw back uniforms next season. Write your congressperson.

• Duquesne’s leading scorer, freshman Mike Lewis II, is a smart kid. He says he’s transferring.

• I don’t agree with the WPIAL transfer rules that prevent a kid from switching schools because of “athletic intent,” but it would appear that the sons of Mike Tomlin and Joey Porter transferring from North Catholic is a classic case. How much would you bet on them having to sit out a year?

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.