Was losing your home, job and 401k good for you?
Because the recession has been a bonanza for the National Football League, according to the league's head honcho.
Since the economy went belly-up, more and more football fans have been tuning in to NFL games on television, according to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The commish was speaking on CBS's 60 Minutes, in an interview to be aired on Sunday (the week before the Super Bowl between the New York football Giants and the New England Patriots). Some 60 million Americans tuned in to watch the two conference championship games last week, Goodell said -- which is a record.
"People want to feel part of a group," Goodell said, waxing philosophical, "and right now during these difficult times, they can turn on free television and watch the greatest entertainment that's out there."
These are fine times for Goodell and the NFL: the league is reaping record profits in these trying times, with $10 billion raked in on an annual basis. Goodell also has a job through 2019, and the league's labor crisis -- which briefly threatened the 2011 season -- is but a memory now.
The only bad part is that the "great experience at home" is keeping fans away from stadiums, the everyman Goodell said. That, and the $12 beers, perhaps?
