Does the game love you back?

I was listening to the Bill Simmons Podcast with NBA commissioner David Stern. Years and years ago, Stern had decided that he would embrace Youtube and Twitter and social media in general. He thought it was going to be good for the owners and good for the NBA to get their brand out there by embracing Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Give the fans more avenues to reach your product, and you'll have more fans wanting your product. Great decision, but not a simple decision, as we can see in the case of the NFL.

The NFL has gone the other route, by limiting Youtube videos, and limiting the avenues that the fans have to reach their product. The NFL may be underestimating social media and the business of sports.

In the NBA, after an awesome play, or monster dunk, you'll see that player trending on Twitter with video to prove it. It's so easy for us to search "Blake Griffin dunk" on youtube and find the latest play. Or we'll just look at Facebook or our Twitter feeds and click on the links of the Blake Griffin dunk someone posted from last night.

Do you ever see that for the NFL? Most of the time when an NFL player is trending on Twitter it is because he is having a monster fantasy game. The NFL is so bad at social media, that the fans have created their own meta game and care more about their fantasy game than the actual game itself. The fans love the NFL so much, they created their own product (fantasy football) because the NFL isn't providing them with enough of their product.

This is what happens when you have a revenue sharing system. Why provide a better product when the current product is making so much money? Television revenue is so important to the NFL, they've banned Youtube clips in order to squeeze out every dollar they can, when they should have been embracing Youtube and social media in order to grow their product. The NFL has a lot of room for growth, but the revenue sharing system really destroys any incentive to grow or innovate.

Despite the fact the the NFL stifles it's own product, the fans have taken it upon themselves to make it better through Fantasy Football. It always amazes me that there are more fantasy football magazines at the store than NFL magazines. Out of love, the fans created a product because the league wasn't giving them enough. Now that's love for a game that doesn't love you back.