Hey NFL Network, no need to f!#%!$g apologize for Denver coach McDaniels’ profanity

Here’s some pro bono public relations advice for the NFL Network: Don’t apologize for airing a couple inadvertent profanities during its Thanksgiving evening broadcast. Embrace that shit!

For the beleaguered, hapless NFL Network, last night’s apology is one that came far too late and for the wrong reason.

Let’s recap: At one point during the Thursday night broadcast of the Denver Broncos hosting the New York Giants, Denver turned what should have been a prime touchdown scoring opportunity into a penalty-laden drive that fizzled out into a field goal.

Rookie Denver head coach Josh McDaniels tore into his players on the sideline, telling them that, “All we’re trying to do is win the motherfucking game!” The NFL Network caught this all live and didn’t have the wherewithal to bleep out McDaniel’s one, possibly two, f-bombs that exploded on television screens across the country.

After cutting away to commercial, NFL Network announcers apologized profusely for not catching, or failing to anticipate, McDaniel’s vulgarities. After the game, McDaniels was asked about NFL Network broadcasting his tirade, to which he strangely responded, “It’s NFL Network, it doesn’t surprise me.” This caused a defensive NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen to insist that his network does not normally eavesdrop on coaches, and then apologized once again.

Airing profanities might be something to be sorry about for the network, but football fans might have appreciated an apology for the ham-fisted way in which the NFL Network came on the sports television scene.

The NFL Network was created in 2003 with funding from the NFL. Three years later, the network started airing a few select football games a year, starting with the 2006 Thanksgiving Day game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.

Several cable operators logically anticipated that a channel which airs only a few games a year and fills the rest of its time slots with replays of old games and not much else wouldn’t appeal to even the most devoted NFL couch potato. So several cable operators opted to put the NFL Network in the sports-tier dustbin, a segment of a cable subscription that requires those wanting to get the channel to request it themselves and pay a fee for premium service.

In a fashion that resembles the way the NFL approaches stadium deals, NFL Network executives thundered down from a great height and demanded the cable operators put the channel on basic cable packages alongside ESPN, CNN and Comedy Central and pass on a 70-cent-per-subscriber charge. So in other words, the NFL Network expected that a channel with marginal interest should require all cable customers to pay up more per month.

Some cable operators obeyed, but several others did not. Comcast went to trial with the NFL Network, where it claimed it saved $50 million by not airing the channel. The NFL responded by drumming up Web sites imploring Comcast customers to ditch the operator and go to DirecTV. Time-Warner Cable still does not carry the network in several markets, leaving those customers in the dark when it comes to a few games a year that get broadcast on the network.

None of this has been good for the NFL Network’s image, a blemish on the NFL’s obsessively image-conscious brand.

Meanwhile, McDaniels’ outburst can hardly be seen as a bad thing for NFL Network. In the any-news-is-good-news department, broadcasting the word “fuck” or variants thereof, the NFL Network has a good chance at prospering, at least insofar as captivating the media’s attention for reasons other than the network’s cable operator skulduggery. The Denver Post seemed to focus more on McDaniels’ profanity in its post-game recaps in two different articles than it did on the Broncos ending a four-game losing skid. And those who remember U2’s Bono telling a NBC network audience that his Grammy award in 2003 was “really, really fucking brilliant” didn’t have much of a fallout for the network. Most people laughed at the incident. The FCC didn’t even fine NBC.

So NFL Network, don’t sweat the small stuff when it comes to bad words. In fact, live this up. The more people remember the NFL Network for broadcasting f-bombs, the fewer who will recall the network’s harsh treatment of cable operators, to say nothing of the channel’s mostly worthless programming.