Sunday Night is Football Night
www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com Launched Today
NBC Sports’ Award-Winning Microsite Features Exclusive Video and Analysis of ‘NBC Sunday Night Football’
NBC Sports’ award-winning microsite, www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com, launched today to help kickoff the third season of “NBC Sunday Night Football.” www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com, similar to those web sites used to promote feature film releases, is a key component of NBC’s extensive promotional campaign, which over the next six weeks includes television, print, radio and Internet executions and customized content in arenas and stadiums, movie theaters, taxi cabs and even New York City’s Times Square.
Last year, NBC’s www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com microsite was honored with four awards by the industry’s top marketing organizations, including Promax, Web Marketing Association and International Academy of the Visual Arts. The awards include:
- Promax Bronze Medal – Integrated Media
- Web Marketing Association WebAward – Website Development
- Davey Award Gold Medal – Website Development
- International Academy of the Visual Arts W3 Silver Award – Website Development
“NBC Sunday Night Football,” called “the league’s feature attraction” by the N.Y. Daily News and the “premier game of the week” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette won 11 Sunday nights for NBC versus other primetime network competition last season.
www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com includes:
“Football Night” ANALYSIS:
- Video analysis from the most honored broadcast team ever assembled: John Madden, Al Michaels, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Keith Olbermann, Tiki Barber and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis.
- Profiles on the best match-ups of the upcoming 2008 season
- Stats and information on key players in each “Sunday Night Football” game
“Football Night” FANTASY:
- Fantasy coverage on players and games
- Interactive applications, widgets and desktop features with real-time fantasy stats embeddable into blogs and social networking sites
“Football Night” FOOD:
- “Football Night” ideas and recipe tips from “The Sunday Night Football Cookbook,” which will be published Sept. 2 by NBC Sports and Time Inc.
- Food and fan traditions for each “Football Night” game
The 2008 NFL season kicks off with the traditional “NFL Kickoff” on Thursday, Sept. 4 with the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants hosting their NFC East rival Washington Redskins, and NBC ends the season on Feb. 1 with Super Bowl XLIII from Tampa Bay, the network’s first Super Bowl since 1998.
The NFL’s innovative flexible scheduling — called “a huge winner for fans” by the Chicago Tribune — begins in Week 11. A complete 2008 “NBC Sunday Night Football” schedule, including Flex Games, can be found on www.SundayNightisFootballNight.com.
“NBC Sunday Night Football,” the premier primetime game of the week, is preceded by the “Football Night in America” studio show, which kicks off NBC’s regular season coverage each Sunday at 7 p.m., ET.
Source: NBC Sports
Three-Time Super Bowl Champion Roger Craig Launches Blog to Help Fantasy Football Players
Craig Brings A Winner’s Perspective to Fantasy Draft Analysis Using TIBCO Spotfire(R) Enterprise Analytics Line of Products
NFL All-Pro Roger Craig has launched a blog that combines the experience of a three-time Super Bowl champion and powerful analytics to help Fantasy Football players field a winning Fantasy team. Craig uses the same analytics technology employed by government intelligence agencies and Fortune 100 companies to help Fantasy players find hidden insights in NFL stats that can make or break their 2008-2009 Fantasy Football season. The TIBCO Spotfire Fantasy Football 2008 application, which complements Craig’s blog, reviews 2004-2007 NFL data in a highly-advanced, interactive data analysis environment that allows football fans to analyze by player and position, across multiple statistics.
“Two key stats you need to consider when drafting a Fantasy Football team are a player’s average per-game production and game-to-game consistency,” said Roger Craig, now a business development executive with TIBCO Software Inc. “Using the TIBCO Spotfire application, we can simultaneously see and compare both of these stats for all the NFL players, brining surprising new facts to light that may make you rethink your initial draft choices.”
This year, many Fantasy players are asking: “If I’ve got the first draft pick, who should I take: LaDainian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson?” Craig has discovered that the answer may be Brian Westbrook.
Craig is also testing new theories and trying to uncover this year’s “sleeper” pick, by analyzing data in new ways to discover those NFL players who didn’t see much action in 2007, but who made the most of each snap.
To read Roger Craig’s ongoing blog this Fantasy season and weekly insights, visit:
http://rogercraigfflrush.blogspot.com/
The TIBCO Spotfire Fantasy Football 2008 application is free to the public and available through a standard web browser at: http://spotfire.tibco.com/fantasy_football
Source: TIBCO Software Inc.
Bronco Legend Faces-Off with Young Democrats in Fiscal Scrimmage
Visa and NFL Money Management Game Teaches Financial Facts of Life at DNC
Today, Rod Smith, former Bronco wide receiver and two-time Super Bowl champion, U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter, and U.S. Representative Heath Shuler teamed up with Visa, the National Football League (NFL), and PLAYERS INC. to help young Democrats sharpen their money management skills through an interactive game called Financial Football. The event — held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention (DNC) — quizzed teams of local high school students, young Democrats, and other DNC delegates on financial fundamentals.
“Visa’s financial education initiative has helped millions of people worldwide learn about managing money wisely. We came to Denver with Financial Football to not only help educate the young Democrats who played the game, but to also shine a spotlight on the importance of financial literacy with the thousands of policymakers attending the Democratic Convention,” said Jason Alderman, Visa’s Director of Financial Education. “Our hope is that the next President places a strong emphasis on helping America’s children learn about the essential life skill of money management.”
Financial Football is the centerpiece of a nationwide educational initiative, now in its fourth season, with Visa, the NFL and PLAYERS INC. that’s designed to help young Americans tackle their financial futures.
Financial Football puts students’ fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Teams score points by answering various money management questions correctly. Wrong answers and penalties can cost a team yardage. The team with the highest point total after four quarters wins the game.
Smith — the Broncos’ legendary record holder for career receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown catches — brought to life the importance of money management by sharing some of his personal experiences with the issue.
“It doesn’t matter whether you make minimum wage or millions,” said Smith. “If you don’t learn to budget, save, invest, and pay bills on time, the consequences can be devastating.”
Smith then coached a team of local Denver high school students and young Democrats through the high energy video game at the Denver ESPN Zone. Sharing coaching duties with Smith were Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Heath Shuler (D-NC), former quarterback for the Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints. With Smith and Rep. Perlmutter coaching the Broncos during the game and Rep. Shuler leading the Vikings, it was a friendly rivalry between the two cities hosting the Democratic and Republican conventions.
The computer-based Financial Football game is accompanied by a classroom curriculum, which has been distributed to every public high school in Colorado. Since 2006, Visa has also reached agreements to distribute the game to each public high school in: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The game’s online version has been downloaded more than 200,000 times at http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/football. In 2007, Financial Football also became a free, first-of-its-kind cell phone game. Mobile customers can play the game by texting the word VISA to 24421.
Financial Football is part of Practical Money Skills for Life (http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/), a free, award-winning, teacher-tested and teacher-approved financial education program that is available in English, Spanish and Chinese. The program contains three comprehensive sections, complete with money management resources and lesson plans tailored for use at home, in the classroom or at work. It also contains an array of tips to help prepare for life changing financial events, from planning for a baby to saving for college and retirement, as well as a number of other budget calculators and interactive games. Visa also runs What’s My Score (http://www.whatsmyscore.org/), a leading higher education consumer awareness program. The Web site guides college students through the ABC’s of a FICO credit score, from factors that can lower a score to ways on improving it, at no charge.
Source: Visa Inc.
New NFL Fan Ticket Exchange Service Kicks Off on NFL.COM
Partnership with Ticketmaster Enables Fans to Buy and Sell 2008 Preseason, Regular Season, Playoff and Super Bowl Tickets on League Site
The National Football League and Ticketmaster today announced the launch of the NFL’s first-ever ticket exchange service on NFL.COM. This new service enables fans to buy or resell tickets to NFL games through a convenient, league-endorsed website.
The new program on NFL.COM, developed by Ticketmaster, the “Official Ticket Exchange Provider of the NFL,” will allow for the exchange of tickets for all 2008 preseason and regular season games, Playoffs and the Super Bowl. The program provides fans unable to attend a game with a proven channel to sell their tickets to other fans looking to buy or upgrade their seats.
Ticket holders seeking to sell tickets through NFL.COM can do so in the dependable and convenient domain of the official ticket exchange. The ticket exchange service provides fans the opportunity to find and buy resold tickets in a secure environment, in most cases with the ability to electronically validate the resold tickets at the time of purchase.
Fans seeking to buy tickets may go to the site to view and purchase tickets offered for games that might be sold out, or obtain a ticket located in a specific seating section that might not otherwise be available.
Source: Ticketmaster