Any suggestions?
Why would it go extinct?
Isn’t it still the most popular sport in the United States?
Its far from going extinct. I’m a big DFS player. The size of NFL contests versus other sports is night and day. NFL is king and its not particularly close.
Why not let parents decide for themselves if they are or aren’t interested in signing their sons up for football? Ya know, the ol’ free market concept?
If more aren’t interested, like a product no one wants to buy, it’ll go extinct.
Dude maybe you should start one of those save the species from extinction groups—ya know, like the sad “sponsor the snow leopard” commercial for the World Wildlife Federation?
I wouldn’t contribute, as I’d rather save the snow leopard, but I’m sure you’ll find other like minded individuals willing to save the pigskin.
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Yes, exactly. It is true the ratings aren’t what they used to be, but that is true for virtually everything. A lot of network TV shows only get a few million viewers these days.
We have so many TV channels to choose from, as well as streaming services like Netflix.
Even so, the NFL is still a huge draw and Sunday Night Football regularly is the top rated show of the week. And it still attracts over 20 million viewers each week, with nothing else coming close.
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Not worried about declining participation in youth and high school football?
Why do we have to save it?
If it eventually dies because not enough kids are participating in the lower ranks to keep it alive…then it dies.
That’s how the world works. Nothing lasts forever.
I say this as a big football fan, BTW.
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I’m disturbed. I wish more people are concerned.
Why?
Will this be a sign that we’re doomed?
Maybe Donald Trump and the Republicans will usher in a new era of the NBA being the national pastime.
You do realize that not playing organized football at the youth level doesn’t stop kids from playing football, right? Youth football doesn’t prepare you for much. Even at high school level. If kids want to play, they’ll play.
No. Why not let them choose a sport?
Quite frankly, like gymnastics, football has a limited shelf life. It may be a useful sport during one’s high school/college years, but after that time, how is it going to be practical?
Any employers have company football matches, or leagues? Anyone join in a pickup football game on the beach?
I’d venture no, but golf, softball, basketball, volleyball & hockey as well as soccer are offered in adult leagues.
Depending on what school system, budget cuts may have forced some to drop football from their sports programs.
A friend of mine on FB posted discontinuation of middle school sports in Albuquerque Public Schools. An update on an online search showed instead more of a limit—not all had been dropped. Intramural sports, track & volleyball were still offered, but not as much money was available to put into uniforms & equipment.
IMO Those sports get students moving around more & less prone to injury than football.
Having watched my dad suffer from TBI and most likely CTE from a closed head trauma 7 years ago up until his death last month. Everyone should be concerned about this. My dad had an accident. Football players willingly take the risk to use their heads as a tool to inflict damage on another individual. The football helmet does nothing to protect the brain from being concussed against the inside of the skull. That means…as long as football players continue to use their heads basically as a battering ram, they will continue to suffer concussions, and it is the continuation of that process that causes CTE. Two steps I think should occur.
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NFL needs to insist on proper tackling techniques. Outlaw the head blow altogether. You use your head to hit someone anywhere on their body…it is a three game suspension. If you hit someone head to head…and you concuss someone or yourself, it is a mandatory 4 game sit out for recovery. And then the perpetrator of the hit has to sit out for the four games as well. It is common knowledge that NFL players dumb down their baseline tests so when they are concussed, they can come back sooner than they should. Tackle the way the game intended tackling to be done, with the body and the arms. Head to head hits are the result of ESPN Hits of the week kind of blood lust. Light a guy up…knock his helmet off and you may be in line to be awarded the hit of the week.
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fine players full game checks for head to head hits and have the money go to CTE research. They need to find a diagnosis for this disease. Presently the only way to diagnose it is in autopsy. I wanted my dad’s brain to be autopsied, but my mom did not. It was her call. I would be certain that he had CTE. After his initial accident for about two years after…he had many subsequent falls which he either hit his head on something, or just jarred his brain so badly he gave himself subsequent brain bleeds due to being on a blood thinner. Either way. Football players today think they are invincible…watching my dad deteriorate and watching his behavior get worse and worse especially to my mom was crushing. These guys do not know what their lives could be like 20 years down the road. For my dad the behavior was most disturbing…to him. He would cry to me about how he couldn’t control himself, and how he would get so completely angry with my mom. He loved her that was evident…but he couldn’t get over that she needed to be in control of his life as he was growing more and more incapable.
I love football. I played the game for 6 years. I had 1 concussion. I worry every day that because I never told anyone and kept on playing, practicing that I did damage to myself. So far I am fine. I don’t have anger issues, I don’t lose my mind. However, I do lose words, in the middle of a sentence. The word just goes away as I am talking. It scares me. For anyone who says there is no problem…I have to say…you just done know what you are talking about. It is a problem. Mike Webster, Dave Deurson, two of the games greats killed themselves. Webster because of what he put his family through, Deurson shot himself in the chest to preserve his brain so it could be studied. These guys weren’t old and senile. They were in the PRIME of their LIVES…not playing prime…but in their 40s and 50s.
Football needs to change the culture of the big hit…the helmet flying, head crushing, knock the guy out on the field type of hits. You know the ones I am talking about…where their body goes lifeless before they hit the ground because they are already knocked unconscious. These hits make my stomach turn. I get physically sick when I watch it happen. Because I know the damage already being done…and the continued damage that will be done because this player comes back and plays before they should.
Football is a violent sport. However, things could be done to better protect the players. THE NFL IS TOO WEAK on this issue. I love a good wrap up drive through and take him to the ground type of tackle much more than I do a good head shattering helmet to helmet hit. That is not necessary for the game.
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Seriously,
Playing football taught me discipline, taught me to think in split seconds, to see what was in front of me, process what my block was to be, make that block and then look to make another block down field. To think in split second intervals and make decisions in split seconds is something I utilize every day.
Football taught me to muscle through, when I wanted to quit in life, I didn’t because I learned that if you want something bad enough, you have to work for it. Football doesn’t prepare you for much? All that I am today is rooted in the 6 years that I played football.
This all comes about because macho men of the past derived pleasure was watching what was affectionately but unfortunately called “smash mouth football”. Most of us who have watched or played football in our lifetimes loved the violent contact, the satisfaction of watching our favorite players blast their opponents, or if you played laying a good hit on someone else.
But those days are thankfully going to be coming to an end. Yes I know lots of people will say football isn’t fun to watch anymore, they’ve pussified the game, they might as well play flag football, etc. Truth is though that future players and future fans will not have this attitude because they will have been taught correct tackling technique and the fans that watch won’t really be aware of the former years of violent collisions and thus won’t have to be bored because they won’t have a reference to compare to.
Yes football actually can be fun to watch even with the rules as they are today. The beauty of it is the strategy employed by all 3 aspects: offense, defense, special teams. Its exciting to watch players make exciting catches, its exciting to see a defense make a stop on 3rd down, it’s exciting to see special teams scores. You don’t need to see players flying into others like a battering ram for it to still be fun.
Anybody who thinks that the slobber knocker is what makes the game great is 1) fooling themselves and 2) never been on the receiving end of such a hit. They call it a slobber knocker because you are hit with such force that you immediately black out…your jaw goes limp, and your mouth piece falls out…and so does a lot of the spit in your mouth. I believe it was from boxing that when a boxer got hit with such force that you would see as they were going down, the mouth piece fall out and a flying cloud of saliva fly across the smokey boxing arena.
The game has to change. If it does not. few kids will keep playing it. I made the decision not to let my kid play not because of head injuries…but because of the overall constant pain I live in. I was a an offensive lineman…who was more suited for linebacker in terms of my body. But I want to play center…and I worked twice as hard as every one else to make sure I was strong enough…if not traditionally big enough to play. Now at 53…I have considerable pain that I live with. I can’t imagine how guys that play 20 years do it.
We played around the same time as I am 51. But even back in our time parents didn’t let some kids play football, but did that stop them from playing unorganized football? To me, that was a lot tougher than organized football. With school football you’re all in pads and playing against your peers. A cake walk. Sandlot football you’re 15-18 years old playing against 25 year olds. That’s where I got all of my injuries and some I feel to this day. That’s where I got several concussions. When I was playing without a helmet.
I got into football late, I was around 14-15 years old. I never liked it growing up. I got into it because I had success due to stupid speed playing as WR. I can beat a guy to the endzone that ran a 4.4 and had the angle on me, so naturally I was interested. So I avoided contact at all costs. It’s funny how things play out. The one play that I always worried about was the kick return. It is the most violent play in tackle football. But I never expected the NFL to try and eliminate it.
I’m here in Texas and the youth football program is seeing declining enrollements every year.
