I will admit it: I’m a sports fan.
Not a rabid, crazed, live-or-die, obsessional nut case, mind
you.
But, yes, I’m a bona
fide sports fan. Largely a professional sports fan.
Mostly, I follow baseball. The Red Sox in particular, but
baseball in general. I look forward to the opening day, and am especially happy
that, for the first time in years (i.e., for the first time since the Red Sox
got good, before they became bad again), I was able to score tickets to the
game on Patriots Day. Much one of the best local sports event: a rare morning
game so that the fans can stream out and catch some of the Marathon.
Although baseball’s my first sports love, I can get
interested in basketball or hockey around the playoffs, if the Celtics or the Bruins
are in. And I’m enough of a band-wagoner to admit that, once the Patriots
started winning Super Bowls, I began more or less following them.
But I also have to admit that, when it comes to professional
football, I’m a bit of a hypocrite.
There is much about it that I just flat-out don’t like,
starting – but not ending with – the violence, the aura of militarism, the
rigid authoritarian nature of it, the fighter jet flyover spectacle at the
Super Bowl. Yet still I watch. Not all the time, and not religiously. But
enough.
If I had to pick the one thing I most ardently dislike about
the NFL, however, it would be the NFL itself.
Turning a blind eye to the brain damage that so many players
endure. Their collusion with colleges and universities to exploit – chew up and
spit out – so many largely poor and minority athletes. Their selective
tolerance for bad behavior off the field. Their arbitrary prosecution of
on-the-field infractions, real or perceived.
To this litany – and, trust me, I could go on – I will add
NFL’s treatment of one Troy Haupt.
Just who is Troy Haupt?
No, he’s not a brain-shot former Heisman Trophy winner.
There’s no reason you’d recognize his name.
But Troy Haupt has something that the NFL doesn’t, and that’s
near-complete video tapes of the first Super Bowl game, which was played 49
years ago.
Super Bowl wasn’t such a big deal back in 1967. Fans weren’t
yet as obsessional about it, and football wasn’t quite the lucrative sport it
has become. The networks that broadcast the first Super Bowl didn’t bother to save the
tapes. (Both CBS and NBC broadcast the game. I’m guessing there were two
because, at that point in time, there were two separate leagues: the granddaddy
NFL and the parvenu AFL. Each league no doubt had its own broadcasting agreement.)
Anyway, there’s a long and fairly interesting story about
how Haupt came into possession of the tapes. (They were made by his father, whom
Haupt never knew, but who gave the tapes to Haupt’s mother, suggesting she
might be able to sell them for money for his kids’ education; they were
long-forgotten and rotting in an attic). At some point about a decade or so
ago, Haupt realized that he might have something that was worth something.
The figure that he had in mind was $1 million (which was the estimate of the sports press.)
Which seems reasonable, given that the NFL would have
packaged them out and sold them fast and furious to the millions of fans who
care about such things. What with Super Bowl 50 soon upon us, there would have
been ample opportunities to market full collections. And/or onesies of the long
lost first game. It’s easy enough to imagine that the NFL would have made tens –
even hundreds – of millions of dollars merchandising this find.
But the NFL offered Haupt a measly $30K, which he turned
down. (The league was able to piece together a video of Super Bowl 1, but it
apparently lacks the authenticity and vintage quality – or lack thereof – of the
Haupt tapes.)
Unfortunately for Haupt, he may own the tapes, but the NFL
owns the content. So Haupt, who would like to sell his tapes to a collector,
can’t do so. And as a sweetener, he’d like to donate some of the sale proceeds
to charities. Here’s the shot that the NFL fired across his bow in a letter
sent to Haupt’s lawyers:
“Since you have already indicated
that your client is exploring opportunities for exploitation of the N.F.L.’s
Super Bowl I copyrighted footage with yet unidentified third parties,” Dolores
DiBella, a league counsel, wrote, “please be aware that any resulting copyright
infringement will be considered intentional, subjecting your client and those
parties to injunctive relief and special damages, among other remedies.”
(Source: NY
Times)
Haupt had an opportunity to make a little money - $25K, plus
a couple of tickets – from CBS to appear in a pregame segment o talk about his
story. The bully boys (and, I guess, girls) got wind of it and put the kibosh
on it.
What could have been a feel good story – the lost tapes
found, the “common man” lucking into a bit of money, a tremendous Super Bowl story, an opportunity for a fan lovefest – becomes another example of
the NFL’s crap and crushing attitude toward everything and everyone who’s not
them.
Sure, they need to protect their assets, their vaunted
brand. But it’s not as if all kinds of other folks are going to come out of the
woodwork with something of this value. This doesn’t set much of a dangerous
precedent as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I didn’t really need another reason to despise the
NFL, and here they went and dropkicked one right into my lap.
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