Are You Ready for Some... Desperate Housewives?
Thursday November 18, 2004
The hottest topic in the NFL this week is the scandalous introduction to ABC's Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys which featured a titillating scene between controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens and actress Nicollette Sheridan of "Desperate Housewives". The promo caused such a backlash that the NFL released a statement regarding the incident.
"ABC’s opening was inappropriate and unsuitable for our Monday Night Football audience. While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost."
Now, in my view, the NFL is being just a bit hypocritical in its reaction. They responded similarly to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during the halftime show of the Super Bowl last season, offering a press release after the game displaying their supposed displeasure. Yet the NFL has done little since that incident to discourage the practice of promoting their product with similar tactics. Since the 1970's, when the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders burst onto televisions across the country, NFL football and sex have gone hand in hand.
The Fox network is a prime example. Each pregame show generally features at least one segment of weather girl Jillian Barberie, in suggestive clothing, engaging Terry, Howie, and the boys in flirtatious conversation filled with sexual innuendo. And how about the routine practice by all the networks of panning the cheerleading corps during breaks in the action as they perform gyrations that cause various body parts to move in ways that would make the producers of The Man Show green with envy.
And of course, there's the Coors Light Beer commercial that seems to have become the league's unofficial anthem, and that of every red-blooded male football lover. You know, the song about quarterbacks eatin' dirt, pom-poms and short skirts... and twins.
Perhaps league officials think this song simply refers to Mary Kate and Ashley? I don't know...
"ABC’s opening was inappropriate and unsuitable for our Monday Night Football audience. While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost."
Now, in my view, the NFL is being just a bit hypocritical in its reaction. They responded similarly to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during the halftime show of the Super Bowl last season, offering a press release after the game displaying their supposed displeasure. Yet the NFL has done little since that incident to discourage the practice of promoting their product with similar tactics. Since the 1970's, when the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders burst onto televisions across the country, NFL football and sex have gone hand in hand.
The Fox network is a prime example. Each pregame show generally features at least one segment of weather girl Jillian Barberie, in suggestive clothing, engaging Terry, Howie, and the boys in flirtatious conversation filled with sexual innuendo. And how about the routine practice by all the networks of panning the cheerleading corps during breaks in the action as they perform gyrations that cause various body parts to move in ways that would make the producers of The Man Show green with envy.
And of course, there's the Coors Light Beer commercial that seems to have become the league's unofficial anthem, and that of every red-blooded male football lover. You know, the song about quarterbacks eatin' dirt, pom-poms and short skirts... and twins.
Perhaps league officials think this song simply refers to Mary Kate and Ashley? I don't know...
Comments
Yeah, those were my exact thoughts at the time.