The inability of Netflix to deliver an acceptable and consistent experience during the Jake Paul real-world boxing fantasy camp featuring Mike Tyson has already spawned litigation.
Via multiple reports, at least two class actions have already been filed by customers seeking compensation for Netflix’s failure to deliver the promised product.
It’s relevant to the NFL for two reasons. First, if a similar problem happens with one or both of the Christmas games to be streamed by Netflix five weeks from today, Netflix and the NFL could face legal scrutiny. Especially since the NFL now has reason to know that Netflix might not be able to accomplish the task of delivering the games to viewers.
Second, it shows how easy it is for class-action lawsuits to be filed. The NFL faces the constant risk of such claims as a result of wagers gone bad due to bad calls that the NFL has failed to reasonably eradicate, or because of the failure of teams to disclose injury information.
As to the Paul-Tyson fight, separate liability could emerge for similar reasons. Anyone who bet on Paul to win by KO or TKO could craft a lawsuit based on this comment from Paul, when asked whether he took his foot off the gas during the third round: “Yeah, definitely. Definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Hell, he’s admitting it. Admitting that he didn’t go all out. Admitting that he passed on a chance to knock Tyson out.
Why would Paul do it? By not knocking out or otherwise embarrassing the 58-year-old fighter who looked every minute of his age, Paul could fight more over-the-hill boxers — and make a bunch of money for doing it. Carry them, don’t humiliate them, and keep doing it. Again. And again. And again.
Until, of course, the audience gets wise to it. But if the audience isn’t wise to it already, the audience never will be.
Defensive end Will Anderson appears to be closing in on a return to the Texans lineup.
Anderson took part in practice on Wednesday as a limited participant, which is a significant change from the last few weeks. Anderson injured his ankle against the Jets on Halloween night and he missed the last two games due to the injury.
Anderson is tied with Danielle Hunter for the team lead with 7.5 sacks so far this season.
Defensive end Denico Autry (knee, oblique), defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi (foot), and tackle Blake Fisher (concussion) missed practice Wednesday. Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (knee) and cornerback Derek Stringley (hip) were limited along with Anderson and cornerback Kamari Lassiter (concussion) was a full participant.
Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed is going to miss another game for the Titans.
Titans head coach Brian Callahan said at a Wednesday press conference that Sneed is going to miss Sunday’s game against the Texans. It will be the sixth straight game that Sneed has missed with a quad injury.
Sneed’s extended absence raises a question of whether Sneed’s condition took a turn for the worse at some point because the Titans could have put him on injured reserve and opened a roster spot for someone able to go on Sundays.
Linebacker Jack Gibbens (ankle), defensive back Justin Hardee (groin), defensive end Sebastian Joseph-Day (biceps), cornerback Roger McCreary (knee), linebacker Kenneth Murray (shoulder), wide receiver Calvin Ridley (illness), defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons (rest), running back Tyjae Spears (concussion), and tackle Leroy Watson (back) were also out of practice Wednesday.
Netflix’s livestream technology sputtered on Friday night, during the latest chapter of Jake Paul’s real-life boxing fantasy camp. Is the NFL worried about Netflix’s ability to handle a massive concurrent audience, given the looming Christmas Day doubleheader?
“No, we’re not worried,” NFL executive Brian Rolapp said at SBJ’s Media Innovators conference in New York, via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal.
Rolapp said the league believes Netflix has diagnosed the problem and will fix it.
“We’ve worked a ton with Netflix getting ready for this,” Rolapp said. “I think there’s a reason they did the fight when they did the fight.”
They were supposed to do the fight in July, which would have given Netflix even more time to fix the issues. But an injury to Mike Tyson delayed the event until last week.
As it stands, Netflix has 35 days. Five weeks until either Santa arrives with a pair of significant NFL presents — or the Grinch gets involved.
The failure of Netflix to use Nielsen to provide an accurate measurement of the audience for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight raises a fair question as to whether Netflix will do the same thing for its pair of Christmas Day NFL games.
As it turns out, that question has already been answered. Last week. Just days before Paul-Tyson.
So, yes, the numbers for Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Steelers will be real. And presumably spectacular.
And here’s the next question. If Netflix will be using Nielsen for the NFL games, why didn’t Netflix use Nielsen for the fight?
The most likely answer is that the NFL required Netflix to use Nielsen. Without such a requirement, Netflix was able to rely on less objective numbers that could be potentially manipulated and inflated.
Monday night’s lopsided game between the Texans and Cowboys nevertheless lit up the ratings.
According to ESPN, the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 multicast racked up an audience of 17 million viewers, on average. The Texans won the game, 34-10.
The placement of the game on ABC surely pumped up the numbers. Still, given that the Texans had been lackluster in a pair of prime-time games and the Cowboys have played poorly for most of the year (especially at home), an audience that big for a game that lacked sizzle says something.
ESPN didn’t provide a specific number for the ManningCast. That’s a trend that began earlier this year. When ESPN thinks the number for the Peyton and Eli show is good, it’s disclosed. When ESPN thinks it’s not, it isn’t.
Next Monday, the numbers should be much better. On the Monday night before Thanksgiving, the Chargers host the Ravens in the first Harbaugh bowl since Super Bowl XLVII.
The Netflix numbers keep getting bigger and bigger in the aftermath of the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. They continue, for the most part, to be unverified.
The latest statement claims that an “estimated” average minute audience (AMA) for the main event “from opening to closing bell” was 108 million.
The release doesn’t explain how the number was estimated or who did the estimating. And even though the number is global and not domestic, it seems really high.
The release also interjects some third-party verification into the mix, but not for the 108 million AMA figure. Netflix claims that, according to TVision, 56 percent of all United States TV viewing between 12am and 1am EST was devoted to the Paul vs Tyson fight.
If that’s the case, there should be a hard number for the domestic audience. There isn’t.
Maybe that’ll be in the next press release touting the viewership.
As Fox’s Mike Mulvihill pointed out over the weekend, Nielsen could have produced accurate audience numbers. But Netflix didn’t ask for that.
Which raises an important question. Will the Christmas NFL games have Nielsen-calculated numbers? Or will they be whatever unverified figures Netflix types up and sends out to an email distribution list?
Monday night’s game essentially ended after Cowboys offensive lineman Tyler Guyton tried to do his best Tony Dorsett impression. And failed.
Guyton had no business attempting to run with the ball after recovering a tumble. It was obvious the moment he got the thing in his hands.
He was promptly blown up by Texans safety Jalen Pitre, who knocked it loose and allowed Texans defensive end Derek Barnett to complete the sack, forced fumble, fumble return for touchdown trifecta.
Discussing the game-deciding moment on Tuesday’s PFT Live, Devin McCourty talked about former Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s method when it comes to coaching players to properly approach fumbles. It’s worth your time to listen to what Devin had to say.
And it’s a critical aspect of offense, defense, and special teams. There’s a loose ball. What should the player do?
McCourty said Belichick would do specific drills aimed at giving players a chance to try to recover fumbles, with coaching points on what to do differently.
As to Guyton, he either ignored coaching to not try to run with a loose ball — or he didn’t get it.
After the game, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said of the play, “We’re not teaching linemen to carry the ball.” That’s good. The better statement would be this: “We regularly coach linemen to get on the ball and not even try to pick it up and run with it. We practice that. We talk about it. We show the players examples of other plays from other games that had the same outcome as this one.”
It’s just one of the many details that must be recognized and mastered to give a football team the best chance to get a win.
Not to deserve a win. To earn a win. Because a football team whose linemen don’t know what to do when the football is bouncing around at their feet isn’t a football that is prepared to go out and earn a win.
The Cowboys stink. That’s a given.
In the aftermath of each loss, the powers-that-be offer up excuses and explanations aimed in part at making the players believe — and in part at making the customers believe.
After Monday night’s 34-10 loss to the Texans, which officially makes the Team formerly known as America’s not even the best little franchise in Texas, coach Mike McCarthy had some strange things to say.
“We deserve to win,” McCarthy told reporters. “We deserve the opportunity to win. And that’s why I’m putting the best people out there, and right now they’re young . . . but we need to do whatever the hell we need to do to win.”
Mike, you don’t deserve to win. No one deserves to win. You deserve a chance to win, that’s it.
And you’ve gotten 10 of them so far this year. But you’ve been outscored in five home games, 187-69. That’s on you and your team.
Players hear what coaches say. What do they think about the coach saying they “deserve” to win?
It might have been a throwaway line from a guy who just wanted to sound Steel City tough, end the press conference, and go home. It also might have been important insight into McCarthy’s apparent failure to be as detail-oriented as he needs to be.
Remember when the Packers blew out the Cowboys in the playoffs and McCarthy said no one saw it coming? McCarthy is the one who needed to see it coming, so that he could come up with ways to prevent it from happening. And he should have been up late every night obsessing over the various ways things could go haywire against a supposedly overmatched team.
So, no, the Cowboys don’t deserve to win. No team deserves to win. In any sport. At any level.
Fans don’t deserve to win, either. But here’s what they do deserve. They deserve coaches who don’t believe the team deserves to win, much less say it out loud.
They deserve coaches who know that the only way to win a game is to go take it.
The Cowboys were still within striking distance of the Texans early in the fourth quarter on Monday night when the Texans defense made a play that swung things into blowout territory.
Defensive end Derek Barnett swooped in to strip Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush of the ball on a sack and the ball bounced into the hands of left tackle Tyler Guyton. Guyton tried to run with the ball, but safety Jalen Pitre jarred it loose and Barnett scooped it up for a 28-yard score to make it 27-10 Texans.
After the game, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said that Guyton and the team’s other linemen have to prioritize securing the ball over any thoughts of turning a negative play into a positive.
“We’re not teaching linemen to carry the ball,” McCarthy said. “That’s twice now. That’s obviously a big play in the game. We need to fall on the ball.”
The Cowboys likely would have fallen short on Monday even if Guyton fell on the ball, but the conclusion came a lot earlier thanks to the lineman’s blunder.
