The Man in the Red Jacket

The man with the red jacket can change a football game's momentum. Who is this guy with the red jacket on? He is the person that walks onto the field, flags the referees down, and stays in his position until all the Television commercials are completed. For example, last night during the Detroit Lions-Pittsburgh Steelers pre-season game, just during the first quarter there were 2 stoppages of play that lasted between 3 and 5 minutes each. These are strictly for television timeouts. I have been to televised college football games that have been lengthened by 30 to 45 minutes to allow for the man in the red jacket to stop play and the networks to get in their commercial timeouts. This extended length of time between series of plays can be a momentum killer. For example, what if a team recovers a fumble inside the opponents 20 yard line. The offense wants to hurry onto the field and attempt to establish an offensive scheme and take advantage of the fumble recovery and team enthusiasm. But WAIT! Here comes the man in the red jacket, the man that can put the skids to a team's momentum, the commercial timeouts that can eat up close to 5 minutes of time. All of us football fans are not stupid. We know the networks need to get their commercials in and we know that this revenue from network advertising helps fund the football venues across are great country. But the networks need to study this and develop a better system on when to show the TV commercials. Like maybe at the end of the first and third quarter, 8 to 10 minutes of commercials. Like maybe after a kickoff or punt that is not returned, then use 5 minutes of commercials. I am not up on the logistics of placement of commercials during football games, but I know one thing, these TV timeouts can certainly be a momentum killer. They need to be re-evaluated.