NFL Network is reporting that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s season is over:
Reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady suffered a serious knee injury in the season opener that will end his 2008 campaign, reports NFL Network’s Adam Schefter.
Brady left Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs after being hit on the left leg. He has started 128 consecutive games, but went to the turf clutching his left knee midway through the first quarter when he was hit in the pocket by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard. After being tended to on the field, he walked off, limping, between two trainers.
Beyond the fact that it’s terrible when anyone gets hurt, could this have a material impact on the TV ratings for the NFL season? The NFL prides itself on marketing teams and not individuals, but when the Patriots become an ordinary team these games become significantly less attractive, and they are locked into the TV schedules:
New England @ San Diego, 10/12, NBC
Denver @ New England, 10/20, ESPN
New England @ Indianapolis, 11/2, NBC
NY Jets @ New England, 11/13, NFL Network
So, 2 of NBC’s 17 Sunday Night games are likely to see fewer viewers, as are 1 of 17 ESPN Monday Night games and 1 of 8 NFL Network televised games. That could be a bit of trouble for NBC in particular since its likely banking on Sunday football to prop up what is likely to be poor fall ratings from its other shows. At least, that’s the way it worked last year.
And while CBS, which carries the bulk of the Sunday afternoon Patriots games, can choose to make any of its games the “national” game, having an ordinary Patriot team does make their job a bit more difficult.
Photo from boston.com.
Next week’s New England at New York Jets will certainly be a national game for CBS. There’s certainly a ratings hit w/Brady going down, he’s got some good Michael Jordon “appeals to the masses” karma. But at least the NFL Network game with have Favre and if the Patriots remain competitive over the next month, “Without Brady” becomes a story. It won’t replace all the viewers, but it may soften the blow. But it’s a fat “if” for now.
Had Favre actually retired, the Patriots may be on the phone with him right now and that would have been an amazing story. But even as it worked out, I’m sure the league is very, very happy that Favre is playing.
I completely agree that the “Return of Favre” story just got way more important for the NFL this season. Favre, Brady, Manning are three of (maybe a total of 3) the NFL players the general public knows.
The interesting thing will be if/when the Jets become the Jets from last year. They did only beat *Miami* by 6 points.
Can’t say I’m crying over the loss of Brady. It gives the Buffalo Bills a better shot at the playoffs.
Ratings won’t be hurt that much by the loss of Brady, Pats being undefeated, not Brady, was the draw last year; NBC has flex scheduling late season and CBS and FOX can turn any non-primetime game into the big game.
dave, I largely agree about the overall effects.
Fox is pretty much untouched. They only have 2 Pats games this season and as we know, swapping another game as the national game is such a small effect on their overall season that I didn’t think it even worth mentioning.
The effect on CBS is likely to be small, but unwelcome. They have 10 Pats games this season.
I agree that the undefeated season was a huge story, and a big draw last season, but a “great” Patriots team is still a much bigger draw than an ordinary one. Look at the different numbers we have from last season to see how many more viewers good matchups draw.
My point in the post was the games I listed, and the networks carrying them, are stuck with them. And for NBC, 11% of their regular season games just got much less interesting.
The Patriots aren’t my hometown team, but I’ve been rooting for them ever since Tom Brady took over in 2001. This was the worst news of a great day of football action.
I think the Pats are a major draw b/c of Brady, but if they continue to win then the ratings will still be high b/c they are a dynasty and they have Randy Moss.
The NFL saw their best ratings season this decade in 2007 and during the playoffs and its going to be hard to match those numbers they were getting from last year especially late in the year when the playoff picture heated up.
I’ll probably watch more if the Patriots start losing.
What? I don’t like them…