So here's what I don't understand...football is America's most popular sport, and yet parents are becoming ever more hesitant to allow their children to play it. Football draws ONE THIRD of all Americans to the television during its championship game, even amid steroid scandals, bounties on players heads, equipment failings, replacement referees, and myriad other off-field issues. Football is the "way out" for a good portion of impoverished youths (exclusively boys, however) and yet is met with derision and anger when the game claims one of her own. Football players are allowed to entertain for a living, and yet line up in the wrong positions on purpose to enforce some stilted personal agenda, thereby jilting the paying customers who keep the money flowing. The media glorifies big hits and yet takes the concussion problem to new heights. People who made their living on football are now suing the very institution that set their families up for life. They claim that football did not warn the players of the inherent risks of playing the game. But they didn't blink an eye when the paychecks were cashed.
I'm disillusioned with football. Perhaps it's all sports, but football, for some reason, really irks me. Part of it is the constant money lust associated with players, owners, colleges, advertisers, etc. I mean, people genuinely believe that college football players should be paid. What many fail to realize is that this opens a tremendous can of worms. As an athlete in a non-moneymaking sport, it's a dangerous precedent. How can a certain group of people be paid, in addition to a scholarship, and the other athletes are not? There is the same dedication to the craft and, in most cases, more devotion in the classroom. Another issue is the major conference realignment and subsequent fallout. Again, the little guy is forgotten. Now that college is becoming all about conference affiliations and big bowl game opportunities, schools are chomping at the bit to leave their geographical stable base and shamelessly seek out the chance for a bigger chunk of change. That's why we now have West Virginia playing its conference games with Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Baylor. It was a purely football decision. But now we have baseball teams, swimming teams, tennis teams, etc. jetsetting all over the country to play non-revenue sports. Isn't this a bit counterproductive?
And then we've got the NFL itself. The League has become a walking contradiction, not only rewarding teams that get hot at the right time (even though they're only 5th best in the conferences), but they pay/enable malcontents (Albert Haynesworth, Titus Young), decry and glorify hits, turned the game into a touch football special, claim to care about concussions whilst trying to increase the season, and employ a player's association that is far too powerful. What am I missing here?
I read a bit ago about the NFL eventually losing its status. There is no hard and fast rule that the NFL will remain ever-popular. But it acts like it is. Eventually, the star will lose its luster. Football will fade. I'm not sure what to think about it. This whole post has seemed like a poorly-explained contradiction. Oh well...it was a lot more ranting than I thought it would be.
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