One of the worst days of the year is inarguably the day Carolina ends its basketball season - if it ends with a loss, that is.
But another of the worst days of the year is the day the NFL season starts in earnest (on a Sunday, like in the old days). This year, recent events and actions make the prospect of football dominating the sport pages even more loathsome than usual.
As some of you know, I stopped following the NFL the year of the big strike, the one when NFL owners eventually fielded replacement players, that strike. Unlike baseball, which I found out I really missed when it was stopped by misguided owners and labor troubles, I found out I did NOT miss the NFL that much.
I never went back in part because I did not miss football, but also because I was disgusted by the league itself and its' fans. It's bad enough that the union is so weak that NFL players - abused by a sport so violent that most careers are short (and if you have a long one your body or brain is often severely damaged) - very rarely receive guaranteed contracts from wealthy owners. Players went on strike in part to push for guaranteed money.
But what made things worse for me was the average fans' reaction to the games played by replacement players. Fans showed up to watch those scabs play. It didn't matter who was playing, violence is violence, football is football. Once players saw that, the union caved and since then things have gotten worse for players. Seasons got longer thus more hits were absorbed, the game got more and more violent, and players bodies and minds kept getting abused.
Which of course brings me to the NFL's recent settlement with 4,500 former player who had sued the league over inadequate or callous medical care. Mike Wise covered most of this ground in an excellent column in The Washington Post on August 29th. For $650 million the NFL was spared having it's own players, it's former employees, take the stand and testify that coaches and doctors lied to them about concussions and other serious injuries.
No guaranteed contracts, no lifetime health insurance, no concession that football is such a violent sport that ONE PLAY can ruin someone's body and/or brain for a lifetime. The NFL is a rouge league that mistreats and lies to it's employees every game.
I honestly wonder how long that business model will continue. Last month's settlement bought the NFL some time, but the issue of medical abuses to former and current players will not go away.
Another thing that probably won't go away is the love of violence and gambling, the twin factors that keep NFL fans glued to their TVs on Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday, ...). Besides the banal abuse of the players, that sentence includes the other 3 reasons I don't like the NFL; the trident of gambling, violence and TV that reenforce some of the worst aspects of American culture. Those three ills are hard to beat, and sports like baseball or hobbies like reading can't seem to compete.
America is worse for our love of football.
And Carolina is worse, too. In fact, college football is probably worse than the NFL. Professional teams are in it to make money, plain and simple. But college and universities are supposed to have higher aspirations, which of course is the most naive statement anyone can blog about college sports.
Carolina, of course, should and used to be different. But the recent scandals there have tarnished a school once known for doing things - everything - the right way, a school that used to take it's cues from Dean Smith.
Now it takes it's cues from ESPN, and in doing so Carolina has acted like just another low-life college whose goal is to fill up stadiums and make money, NOT to educate student athletes.
I wish Carolina would have had the nerve to drop football for a year completely. I know, we wouldn't have been able to hire someone named Larry Fedora!, but doing so would have restored Carolina's moral leadership. More importantly, it would have reminded the world that sports are secondary to academics, and restored same balance - at least at one campus.
In addition to chasing dollars, college football probably abuses players even more than the NFL. There are no restrictions on hitting in practice, for instance, and worse medical care.
However, college football and all its abuses are easy to fix. Two reforms, making freshman ineligible and only playing 8 games a season, with one or two playoff games, would practically solve all the problems with the college game.
For the NFL, hopefully the entire league will go out of business - or MAYBE the league will change or evolve into a flag football league or something. Malcolm Gladwell predicted that in 20 years the physical abuse suffered by NFL players will be deemed socially unacceptable by our civilized society. I just hope a society seemingly dependent on violence, gambling and TV will eventually get there.
Of course, there are other reasons to not like football:
But another of the worst days of the year is the day the NFL season starts in earnest (on a Sunday, like in the old days). This year, recent events and actions make the prospect of football dominating the sport pages even more loathsome than usual.
As some of you know, I stopped following the NFL the year of the big strike, the one when NFL owners eventually fielded replacement players, that strike. Unlike baseball, which I found out I really missed when it was stopped by misguided owners and labor troubles, I found out I did NOT miss the NFL that much.
I never went back in part because I did not miss football, but also because I was disgusted by the league itself and its' fans. It's bad enough that the union is so weak that NFL players - abused by a sport so violent that most careers are short (and if you have a long one your body or brain is often severely damaged) - very rarely receive guaranteed contracts from wealthy owners. Players went on strike in part to push for guaranteed money.
But what made things worse for me was the average fans' reaction to the games played by replacement players. Fans showed up to watch those scabs play. It didn't matter who was playing, violence is violence, football is football. Once players saw that, the union caved and since then things have gotten worse for players. Seasons got longer thus more hits were absorbed, the game got more and more violent, and players bodies and minds kept getting abused.
Which of course brings me to the NFL's recent settlement with 4,500 former player who had sued the league over inadequate or callous medical care. Mike Wise covered most of this ground in an excellent column in The Washington Post on August 29th. For $650 million the NFL was spared having it's own players, it's former employees, take the stand and testify that coaches and doctors lied to them about concussions and other serious injuries.
No guaranteed contracts, no lifetime health insurance, no concession that football is such a violent sport that ONE PLAY can ruin someone's body and/or brain for a lifetime. The NFL is a rouge league that mistreats and lies to it's employees every game.
I honestly wonder how long that business model will continue. Last month's settlement bought the NFL some time, but the issue of medical abuses to former and current players will not go away.
Another thing that probably won't go away is the love of violence and gambling, the twin factors that keep NFL fans glued to their TVs on Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday, ...). Besides the banal abuse of the players, that sentence includes the other 3 reasons I don't like the NFL; the trident of gambling, violence and TV that reenforce some of the worst aspects of American culture. Those three ills are hard to beat, and sports like baseball or hobbies like reading can't seem to compete.
America is worse for our love of football.
And Carolina is worse, too. In fact, college football is probably worse than the NFL. Professional teams are in it to make money, plain and simple. But college and universities are supposed to have higher aspirations, which of course is the most naive statement anyone can blog about college sports.
Carolina, of course, should and used to be different. But the recent scandals there have tarnished a school once known for doing things - everything - the right way, a school that used to take it's cues from Dean Smith.
Now it takes it's cues from ESPN, and in doing so Carolina has acted like just another low-life college whose goal is to fill up stadiums and make money, NOT to educate student athletes.
I wish Carolina would have had the nerve to drop football for a year completely. I know, we wouldn't have been able to hire someone named Larry Fedora!, but doing so would have restored Carolina's moral leadership. More importantly, it would have reminded the world that sports are secondary to academics, and restored same balance - at least at one campus.
In addition to chasing dollars, college football probably abuses players even more than the NFL. There are no restrictions on hitting in practice, for instance, and worse medical care.
However, college football and all its abuses are easy to fix. Two reforms, making freshman ineligible and only playing 8 games a season, with one or two playoff games, would practically solve all the problems with the college game.
For the NFL, hopefully the entire league will go out of business - or MAYBE the league will change or evolve into a flag football league or something. Malcolm Gladwell predicted that in 20 years the physical abuse suffered by NFL players will be deemed socially unacceptable by our civilized society. I just hope a society seemingly dependent on violence, gambling and TV will eventually get there.
Of course, there are other reasons to not like football:
- It's corporate, corporate, corporate. From the NFL playing the Super Bowl in a neutral site so it can cater to fat cats/corporate sponsors not real fans, to the Chic-Fil-A Beef O'Brady's National Bank bowls, to college players banned from profiting when the school sells THEIR jerseys, abusive corporations or cartels are in charge of both the NFL and college football. The bosses make the real money; the workers do not.
- Football has plays like the blitz. Baseball has plays like the sacrifice. When a game is tied, football has sudden death overtime; baseball has extra innings. The goal of football is use an offensive attack to penetrate the other sides defenses; in baseball, it's to be safe at home (all that is courtesy of George Carlin).
- A team named the Redskins represents the capital of the free world, in 2013. The same team that refused to sign African American players until 17 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier insists on burnishing that racist legacy by keeping the most offensive nickname in sports. A team owned by a guy who seems completely oblivious about the nickname and that legacy.
- Ray Lewis.
