Wednesday, November 29, 2006

This Week in the NFL: Is It Thursday Yet?

"Is It Monday Yet?" is probably the best (if most ubiquitous) sports-ish ad campaign of the year. (Any other nominees for sports-ish ad campaign of the year? "Man Law?" "Mac vs. PC?" Madden '07? Put them in the comments.)

But "IIMY?" has created the "Is It [Blank] Yet?" phenomenon: Throwing the catchphrase out there for any day of the week where you can make a case.

And I'd say that "Is It Thursday Yet?" has jumped to the forefront of fan consciousness. Last week's Thursday NFL games didn't seem as novel as this week's; you expect Thursday games during Thanksgiving week.

But the game tomorrow night (Ravens at Bengals) is sitting right out there, enlivening an otherwise fairly slow week in sports (CFB coaches firings, MLB hot stove). Except for this one, terrifically important factor:

Because of the Thursday game, your fantasy football lineup has to be finalized by tomorrow mid-day at the latest (and I would imagine that most of you have your lineups finished by end of business today).

There's a cognitive break there: After a season of not having to really make the hard FFL choices until Friday (if you do your FFL at work) or Saturday (if you do your FFL at home), all of a sudden you've got to set your roster by midweek.

Does this "TNF" phenomenon make an otherwise "hump day" Wednesday any less... um... humpy?

You know what? Actually, it does. Thursday Night Football has done what Monday, by definition, can't: By starting the next football week three days early, it has broken up the "real-life" week.

Is It Thursday Yet?

(By the way: It's a pretty damn good game, too: The AFC's surprise team of the year -- Baltimore -- against the team everyone thought was due for a breakout year, but instead is in a near-must-win to make the playoffs -- Cincinnati. Too bad I live in NYC and won't be able to see the game on my cable network. Pick: Bengals.)

-- D.S.

23 comments:

CMFost said...

Ravens clinch the Division with a 24-7 win. Ocho Cinco is held to 3 catches 50 yards and 0 td's

Anonymous said...

The Ravens are due for a letdown game. I'll take the Bengals.

Brian in Oxford said...

I've got a crappy cable company, but even we get NFL Network...in HD, too. Now if I could only get NESN....ya know, since I'm actually *in* New England.

My biggest fear is forgetting to submit my pick ATS for my pool and starting off Friday afternoon already 0-1.

I'm curious how road teams will do on short weeks now with these Thursday games becoming the vogue.

Sheldiz said...

I'm with cmfost... big win on the line, i think we pull it off.

Go Ravens.


(Oh, incidently, i'm going to go postal next time easterbrook calls the ravens the "nevermores". It drives me f--ing crazy. Sorry, had to get that off my chest.)

Anonymous said...

If a game happens and no one can watch it, does it make a sound?

CMFost said...

not worried about my fantasy roster the only player I have that is on either team is Todd Heap and he is a must start.

But the other players if you have them are a tough call

Rudi against the Ravens rush D is probably a sit if you have another RB

OCHO CINCO is a Start
TJ is a sit
Palmer is a start unless you have QB with a better match up

McNair - You could start
Lewis - Start
Mason or Clayton only if they are your best WR option

CMFost said...

I hope the cable companies that do not carry the NFL Network continue to hold out and make the deal only if they can offer start offering NFL Sunday Ticket.

Sheldiz said...

stupid question: are the NFL network games still being aired on local networks in the local market cities (i.e. in cincinatti and baltimore, tonight for example)???

Mega said...

All this talk about how the Ravens are far better than the Bengals are forgetting that:

1)If it wasn't for a Ravens defender hugging and tackling Housmanzadah BEFORE the ball got to him the last time they played, Baltimore would have lost.

2)Cincy hasn't had the luxury of playing Oakland or the Titans this season.

Go Bengals!

aikehara said...

Someone's not a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, I take it.

Brian in Oxford said...

to the people who are, SAD, that they don't have NFL network to find the game to watch once a week....

isn't that like what hockey fans put up with 9 months a year?

if you put your shows on niche networks, don't whine that the ratings suck.

Brian in Oxford said...

How about referring to the Ravens as the "Tell-tale Hearts?"

Or, the "House of Usher"

man, am I getting literary here or what!

Anonymous said...

Am I alone in thinking that the man law commercials are the most innaccurate representation of what could be a great concept?

toll sips? fruit in beer? cheer with bottom of the bottle? Wtf???

what happened to the real man laws like:

dont sleep with your best friends sister...unless she is really hot.

or

do not hug another guy unless a game winning play has just been scored.

or

eye contact with another guy longer than 5 seconds means you are either; 1 - in an interview, 2 - in a fight, or 3 - gay.

also HHH as part of this man law board? was stone cold busy or something?

Sheldiz said...

i'm actually a fan of edgar allan poe...

...just not so much "the nevermores".

Sheldiz said...

the baltimore 'mask of the red death' kind of works....

Anonymous said...

Yes, the games are showing in the local markets - no need to buy and set up a dish in a day and a half.

I'm with ma4tt - a mass disqualification would be the only way our Steelers could get back into this thing. I wasn't convinced that the Ravens were for real until their beatdown against Pittsburgh. But Ocho Cinqo looks like he's back in the swing of things...

But the Bengals' D can't stop anyone.

Ravens 28, Bengals 17.

Steve said...

What's not classy about sex? It's the funnest. thing. ever. Violence on the other hand is not classy.

The heroin sheik said...

I say they should be the baltimore laudenum addicks (K is on purpose) but that is a bit too generic and could refer to any number of writers from the romantic and victorian periods. I used to have direct tv and the nfl ticket bhut when I moved into my new apartment I found out that we cant use our dish because of the trees in our complex. Dan since you have mentioned your knowledge of business what do you think is the likelihood of the nfl caving in to the cable companies and is it possible for the government to force them to allow everyone access to their games? I am not going to pretend to know much about the working of big business but I thought monopolies were not allowed anymore and isn't direct tv's hold on the nfl package a monopoly?

Jared said...

I actually like Miller Lite, but I refuse to drink it anymore because of those commercials. They're just AWFUL. They get everything wrong, and they're not funny.

Brave Sir Robin said...

I absolutely hate those Mac vs. PC ads.

The man laws are funny, especially since Jerome Bettis is wrong in all but one of the ads.

Too bad they got the fruit in beer thing wrong. Lime in corona is definitely allowed.

Sheldiz said...

brave sir --- i'm with you...

...but that may only be because i'm on my fifth said corona/lime right now....

Gary said...

1. Corona sucks
2. I have NFL network in High Def! Thank you Rhode Island!
3. Ravens win a squeaker, late field goal after Cincy just scored with under 3 minutes left to play, but got a 15 yard penalty from Chad Johnson because he did a Peter Griffin-esque dance "My Sha-boopie"
4. Thank God for DVR so I won't miss, Earl, Office, Scrubs, 30 Rock to watch football!
5. I'm not quite sure why I decided to number my thoughts

Anonymous said...

See, the Man Laws are pretty good. I want to set up an OFF - fence sign. But my QB is JP... ~sigh~

The lime thing was stupid. It's Miller Beer, not Corona, so of course there's no fruit.

AND IT'S BURT REYNOLDS!!! How can you not love these ads?