A little more than two weeks ago, I wrote a post about some of the secrets of the NFL. It touched on the league knowing about the Ray Rice incident, cancer drive fraud, and the NFL waiting far too long to address the concussion controversy. However, recently I found a few more occurrences that the NFL seems to not want to bring much attention to. Though I am a loyal fan of the NFL, I also believe a corporation as large as they are should be as transparent as possible which does not seem to be the case. They have millions of fans that are willing to spend their time and money to support them so it bothers me when they keep quiet about issues that affect the fans. I think it is fair that if a lot of these players in the league get called out for their wrongdoings, then the NFL should also be held accountable for their actions. The NFL is run by some of the most powerful people in sports. You don't get to be in that position without doing some things that are questionable. With that being said, let us look at a few more secrets of the NFL.

Black out restrictions

If you're waiting to watch your favorite team play, there is nothing more disappointing then finding out you will be met with what is known as a blackout. This is done in many sports other than football usually to make sure local broadcasters are protected from other stations that may be out of market. However, the NFL does this for a few other reasons and in my opinion, it is frustrating and selfish. It basically all comes down to what the league believes is beneficial to them and what will ultimately make them money. They do not want to air games with less than a full stadium. One of their ways of handling that is to blackout a game within a radius of 75 miles. If the game cannot be sold out within 72 hours of kickoff, the game will not air locally. It's that simple. It's another way of punishing the fans that already can't afford to attend the way too expensive games in person.

If they can't sellout a game then you can't watch it

The NFL's attempt to push for 18 games

The league has long been battling its fight for an extra two regular season games rather than the traditional 16 and many players and fans are disagreeing. Even some former players are saying it's wrong and most of the current NFL players can hardly manage to play through the current 16 games, let alone an extra two. The NFL Player's Association has already said no to this proposal, citing there are already too many injuries in the number of games played now, but that's not stopping the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he would favor replacing two preseason games for regular season games. However, the problem with that is with preseason games, you don't have starters playing that are risking injury. It is purely a monetary gain. Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, is someone pushing the hardest for this as it would add more money to his already fat pockets. It wouldn't surprise me if they somehow got this passed because after all, the league is known for putting their bank accounts before the health of their players.

Jerry Jones is pushing hard for those 18 games

It is nearly impossible to ever attend a Super Bowl

I'm sure there are some people in the general public that you can maybe find that have been to a Super Bowl, but try asking them what they paid to go see it. As a matter of fact, the NFL has made it nearly impossible for the average person to ever attend the Super Bowl. This shouldn't come as a surprise to many of us that pay ridiculous amounts of money to attend regular season games, let alone the Super Bowl. However, it is a bit more complicated than just the price. At least 80% of Super Bowl tickets are sold to corporate sponsors. The tickets that don't go to their sponsors are given to teams playing in the game as well as the team hosting the game. Then another percentage goes to other teams that are not playing in the Super Bowl. That leaves hardly any tickets remaining for the fans. If you somehow manage to find some, expect to pay thousands of dollars which is usually why there are more celebrities going rather than your average joe. Not a great way to give back to the people who support you throughout the season.

Bradley Cooper, Justin Timberlake, and Jennifer Lopez are more likely to be at the Superbowl than you

Non-profit nonsense

For many years, the NFL has been known as a non-profit organization which honestly is laughable. Mostly they were doing it because it saved them a lot of money when tax season came around. However, with that came many fans who found it as ridiculous as I do that an organization making billions would try to pull that off. In most fans opinions, they do not deserve to be called a non-profit organization like charities do. They rake in far too much money. The league began realizing how disgusted people were by this and in 2015 gave up their non-profit status. However, they did not do this because they thought it was the right thing to do. They did it more because they had enough controversy to deal with and did not need another issue to add to their plate. Technically though, the whole non-profit thing to them doesn't really matter because they make so much money that whatever they will be taxed will hardly make a scratch. Also, now that they're not non-profit, they get other financial advantages like new stadiums from taxpayers that don't want their teams to be moved to a new city. Really it doesn't matter either way because they'll always find a way to gain financially.

Non-profit is meant for charities and not the NFL

The NFL is a powerful organization, but they are nothing without their fans. They cannot air their games and bring in the revenue they need without us, the fans. This is the reason I write some of these things. I am not trying to belittle anyone. There are many of us who try to turn a blind eye for the game that we love to watch. However, we are not treated with the same respect and courtesy that we should be for making the NFL continue to be so popular and profitable. When we are denied the right to view our games because of greed, denied the right to a fair chance to go see the Super Bowl or any game with our families, or continue to be lied to about issues we may not agree with, should we forever support that? I hope the NFL starts waking up to some of the ways that their selfishness affects the players and fans and realize once they turn the fans against them, it's going to be real hard to bring them back and even harder to gain back their trust. We love the game, we love our teams, we're passionate about all of it, but sooner or later people will get sick of the nonsense and being taken advantage of. It's something as fans we want to keep in our families because it's apart of our culture and brings us together. Hopefully they can clean it up a bit so our children and their children can afford to love the game and not feel like they're sacrificing their morals by supporting it.

Thanks for reading! See you soon!