FROM BLEACHER REPORT

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The quality of the NFL's TV product is slipping

High velocity, high impact and high definition. Pro football is a perfect match for today's dazzling LCD and plasma displays. The breakneck speed, the bone-crunching hits and the roaring crowds captivate like a Hollywood action flick. Meanwhile, the breaks between plays give time for reaction, analysis and checking Twitter for everything that's happening in the background.

However, the NFL is becoming a victim of its own success. How many of you have screamed at the TV after a sequence like this:

Extra point.

Three-minute commercial break.

Kickoff.

Three-minute commercial break.

One play. Timeout called.

One-minute commercial break.

Two failed plays, punt.

Three-minute commercial break.

When a half-hour of real time is almost 50 percent commercials, and most of the rest is crowd shots, coach spittle and "dramatic" close-ups of the quarterback's eyes, the excitement of the breakneck speed and bone-crunching hits dissipates.

That all presumes you can watch the game.

The NFL's success is partly because of its regular Sunday afternoon time slot. Unlike baseball, basketball and hockey's nearly endless slew of regular-season games, even the busiest American family can carve four hours out of 16 Sundays a year to watch their favorite team.

But with Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, the regular Sunday slate on CBS and FOX, Sunday Night Football on NBC and Monday Night Football on ESPN, games are all over the calendar and all over the digital dial.

Worse, each of those networks has pre-game shows, commentator teams, sideline reporters, post-game highlight crews and weekday breakdown shows. Unlike the tight, focused shows of the '80s and '90s, modern football TV coverage is saturated with former players and coaches with questionable broadcasting skills. With the wealth of quality football information available online, listening to a baker's dozen worth of guys in suits shouting over each other just isn't worth the time.

Worse, as much as football benefits from HD, you're not seeing the whole game. As the Wall Street Journal explained, the NFL prevents fans from seeing camera angles that show all the players on the field at the same time. Goodell and the league say this prevents fans and analysts from wrongly criticizing coaches, but who are they kidding? Coaches have been wrongly (and rightly) criticized by football fans since long before television.

Meanwhile sports like basketball, hockey and soccer all benefit greatly from HD aspect ratios and clarity. The NFL's biggest advantage over competing sports leagues—how it looks on TV—has shrunk dramatically.