NFL forced to suffer even more embarrassment

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The 2016 NFL season opened with quite a thud Sunday night when the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame game had to be cancelled less than two hours before kickoff with thousands of fans already in their seats.

Not good for a league that is already on the hot seat for everything from concussions to being too soft on domestic violence committed by its players.

The field in Canton was deemed unsafe due to ineffective painting of a logo, numbers and other markers, and the NFL is being criticized for outsourcing the field management through the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

According to the NFL, “the key issue with the timeline that contributed to the situation was the decking that covered the field for the previous night’s enshrinement ceremony wasn’t fully removed until approximately 2:45 p.m. on Sunday – work that was to be completed by 8 a.m.”

That delay, according to the league, “threw off the timetable for preparing the field, which included the touch-up painting that left portions of the field unsafe due to adhesion from the paint.”

Besides the embarrassment suffered by the NFL, the Hall of Fame took a huge financial hit by having to issue millions of dollars in ticket refunds to fans, some of whom had driven all the way from Green Bay.

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Trivia Time – Francis Schmidt was the Ohio State football coach in 1936, the year the Associated Press poll began.

This week’s question – Which teams played in the first Pro Football Hall of Fame game in 1962?

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By Steve Stout

[email protected]

Reach Steve Stout at 652-1331 (ext. 1776) or on Twitter @udcstout

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