Friday Fluff: Thursday Night NFL Garbage And Hot Pockets...So Good, Girl

Simply put, the NFL has got to do something about these Thursday night games. I love the Thanksgiving games, even the 3rd night game that was added a few years back. I liked how late season Thursday night games were added to the schedule several years ago as well. While I don’t have the facts in front of me, it seems like those games were “flexed” to ensure at least a halfway decent matchup. However, this season long Thursday night schedule is garbagio. The 3 days of rest instead of the normal 6 seems unfair to those teams, and it errors on the side of hypocrisy given the league’s perceived concerns about injuries as of late. It screws up everyone’s fantasy leagues, as our internal lineup-checking clock is naturally geared to Sunday, not Thursday night. Furthermore, unless there’s a marquee matchup, the games are mostly irrelevant and forgotten. Giants-Panthers, Ravens-Browns, Rams-Cardinals, Titans-Steelers, Buccaneers-Vikings, Chargers-Chiefs, Colts-Jaguars, and now Bills-Dolphins…those are 8 of the 10 Thursday night games this year so far. The last few weeks of the year offer better games, but the games previously mentioned are all, as I said before, garbagio.

I don't know, Patrick Stewart...I really don't know.

I consider myself a diehard NFL fan, but I must confess that I didn’t watch a single minute of last night’s game between the Bills and Dolphins. And apparently the sports world didn’t care much about it either. On Friday morning, Foxsports.com had no mention of the game on their homepage. ESPN.com and Yahoosports.com contained no picture or major stories on the game either, but there were links to the game result in the 9th and 5th headlines on those pages, respectively. No one cares. So, NFL, either somehow work it so you show better games on Thursdays, or get off the air that night. (By the way, the Bills beat the Dolphins 19-14 in an epic AFC East clash.)

I know I pay too much attention to TV commercials, but has anyone seen this Hot Pockets ad?

Hot Pockets? Does it strike anyone else as slightly inappropriate? I am all for using sex to sell food products (think those old Uncle Ben’s Rice Bowl ads), but Hot Pockets? The microwaveable snack that soccer moms stuff in their kids’ faces before they run out the door to a PTA meeting? Yes, those Hot Pockets…I’m not sure what part got me more, the guy’s awkward sex noises, or the uglier version of Lisa Marie Presley diving into said Hot Pocket like she’s going in for “the money shot.” And there’s using sexiness to sell your product, but there’s also blatantly cheesy porno-ish advertising too. I kind of see what they were going for, trying to add some spice and humor to their commercials, but damn…it’s definitely memorable, in an uncomfortable did I really just see that sort of way. Good job by you, Hot Pockets.