2/7/20Fox redesigns its NFL graphics for the point-your-phone-at-the-TV eraEveryone has their own focal point on Super Bowl Sunday. Some viewers are there for the halftime show. Others watch…
1/31/20The annual football detox is upon usThe plan was coming together for the Teti family last weekend. “You take the kids to gymnastics class in the…
1/17/20Jim Nantz’s two scoops, Chris Myers’ family jewels, and more NFL postseason delicaciesThe underdog Houston Texans came into Arrowhead Stadium brimming with confidence for their contest against the…
1/10/20Reviewing the TV graphics of the NFL playoffs, from the banal to the bizarreThe NFL playoffs are not just a showcase for the players. The postseason, with its gigantic TV audiences, also…
1/3/20The NFL playoffs are here! Who will win a fancy hat?The original plan was that football would simply continue forever. Every Sunday, the men would dress up in colorful…
12/20/19Last-minute gifts for last-place NFL fansThey are the eight most generous teams in football. The Dolphins, Bengals, Jaguars, Chargers, Washingtons, Lions,…
12/13/19A Block & Tackle treasury of NFL announcing ticsIf you watch football for any length of time, you will hear announcers parrot the same familiar phrases. Clichés are…
12/6/19Fox’s oooonnne weeeeirrrrd trrrriiccck to make any football game seem eppppppicNo technological trick has done more to shape our experience of TV football than the slow motion instant replay.…
11/22/19The peculiar public privacy of NFL locker roomsThe New England Patriots were exhausted yet exultant. They had faced down the Philadelphia Eagles in a tense Week 11…
11/15/19Tony Romo springs eternalSince his 2017 debut, CBS football analyst Tony Romo has been the crown prince of the NFL announcing world. Upon his…
11/8/19Why Chevy loves those “real people” ads even if viewers hate themAd Man X is an award-winning creative executive at a major national agency in Chicago. He has overseen TV ad…
11/1/19A mediocre football coach and the primal screams that haunt himAs the fourth quarter drew to a close in the Chicago Bears’ Week 8 home game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the …
10/25/19The deep insecurity of Monday Night FootballComing back from commercial late in the second half of Week 7’s Patriots-Jets contest, ABC showed a clip of four…
10/18/19“Clear and obvious” is how the NFL says “shut up”In the third quarter of the Cleveland Browns’ 28-32 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland quarterback Baker…
10/11/19An NFL long snapper tells Block & Tackle about life in football’s least-appreciated positionSpecialists—athletes who are good at one particular thing—are not unique to the sport of football, but the gridiron…
10/4/19“Welcome, my little lost kitty cat”: When the NFL and anime overlapNBC’s Sunday Night Football uses a standard set of visual effects to spotlight key players in that evening’s…
9/27/19Block & Tackle’s NFL quiz tests your knowledge of announcers, Steely McBeam, and moreIt’s Week 4 of the NFL year, which means that by Monday night, we will already be 23.529% of the way through the…
9/20/19Is your favorite NFL referee more of a Judge Judy or a Judge Wapner?Scorn them if you must, but football would not be the same without its officials. NFL fans watch 22 men crumple each…
9/13/19Antonio Brown exposes the “asshole glitch” in our otherwise perfect information societyAntonio Brown is a person who catches a football. He does not put the ball in the air—another man does that. But…
9/6/19NFL football returns, and so does the flapper look“Football seems like the worst sport,” my friend Anna said to me as we shared drinks on a hot evening in August.…