Is Football Dying? (nothing to do with ratings or over saturation)

[Greatman77]

52 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Go back to leather helmets. 

 

Concussion problem solved immediately. 

 

The leather helmet idea is a good one that can be improved upon with modern technology. I could picture a soft helmet made of a spongy polymer that greatly increases the cushioning of the brain. You could even incorporate an accelerometer into the helmet that warns when a player has been exposed to forces above some level defined as safe. 

Just realized how nerdy that sounds...

[LinvilleGorge]

3 minutes ago, Greatman77 said:

The leather helmet idea is a good one that can be improved upon with modern technology. I could picture a soft helmet made of a spongy polymer that greatly increases the cushioning of the brain. You could even incorporate an accelerometer into the helmet that warns when a player has been exposed to forces above some level defined as safe. 

Just realized how nerdy that sounds...

Pretty sure I saw something recently that something like what you're talking about is already in development.

Yep, here it is

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/16/news/companies/vicis-nfl-helmet-concussions-safety/index.html

[NAS]

When my 7 year old son was born, I used to dream about him playing football one day.   Now, I am hoping he sticks to soccer or basketball.  I will probably let him play flag football but that's about it.  

[Nails]

12 minutes ago, Zaximus said:

Yes, it is.    It's a combo of a lot of things.     It's the CTE stuff.     It's the fact that CTE is even worse in young people so parents are not letting their young kids play it now.    If I had a young child, I would probably not let them play.      It's also the over-saturation, it's on too many days, etc.    The biggest thing I think, at least right now, is the quality of the league is terrible.     The NFL has tried so hard to push games in certain directions (another discussion) that they've destroyed the game with terrible officiating.    They keep bringing back the SAME bad officials, so you know something is going on.     People are just tired of the bad product, simple as that.    Eventually the CTE thing will be the biggest reason because without people playing it at a young age, they won't move into it.

I believe in 10-15 years baseball will take over as the number one sport, it's on the up and they are doing proactive things at making the game better and higher quality.    It also feels less about "the money" than football which I think turns people off.

Also, e-sports are going to continue booming and will be taking up people's spectator time in the future.  

Can’t say baseball isn’t about the money too.  Baseball (which was my primary sport growing up) has too many games, lulls, and 4-5 hour marathons for the future.  Soccer is the future.  And I never thought I’d say that.

[Wundrbread33]

52 minutes ago, iBBB said:

You don't play pro football as a kid. I get what you're saying but being pressured at early age is not the same as being forced to play at pro level. I don't think yall understand what the word forced means. 

Either way, no need to question someone's intelligence when they see things differently than you do. "Forced" is a fairly elementary word that we all understand.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. I was playing devil's advocate more than anything.

[LinvilleGorge]

Yeah, I can't do baseball. I don't think I've ever watched a full game in my entire life. 

Baseball and soccer are the two team sports that have zero appeal to me.

[countryboi]

Future generations will look back at our love for football like, we look back on roman gladiatorial games. they going to wonder how we could ever watch something so brutal and barbaric.

[Fox007]

The saddest part is i'm too old to get in when it's at it's decline. I'd love to make millions from a dying sport. Oh well sucks to have lived through the golden years.

[t96]

1 hour ago, Jangler said:

really? 

single mother who need help raising a family. Plenty of players played football for one reason. To support a family.

Plenty of ways to support a family.

[Zaximus]

30 minutes ago, Nails said:

Can’t say baseball isn’t about the money too.  Baseball (which was my primary sport growing up) has too many games, lulls, and 4-5 hour marathons for the future.  Soccer is the future.  And I never thought I’d say that.

It's not as much, it really isn't.   You can watch and it feels different than NFL.   I watched over 150 games, full games of baseball this season, never once (even playoffs) did it come close to the commercialization as ONE regular season NFL game.    Obviously, they need to make money, but NFL sacrifices their quality for it.    MLB is trying to cut the games short actually, they've taken measures to lower time between pitches, innings, etc.     If they wanted to extend the games, they wouldn't be doing that.   

Soccer won't be the future in America because the best players aren't here and people don't want to watch MLS with inferior players.     If somehow they could get those players over here and make a real league it would be huge.    World Cup (RIP USA) is an easy way to follow and people love that, but soccer is just too spread out right now.  

[MasterAwesome]

1 hour ago, Jangler said:

really? 

single mother who need help raising a family. Plenty of players played football for one reason. To support a family.

Where do you draw the line then? Is an adolescent who sells drugs and robs people in order to support his family, then justified? Would you argue that he was forced into that life? If so, are you then inclined to reduce or even bypass legal punishment altogether, even if others were harmed (physically or financially) from it?

 

I’m not even necessarily leaning one way or the other, just genuinely curious what you think.

[iBBB]

38 minutes ago, Wundrbread33 said:

Either way, no need to question someone's intelligence when they see things differently than you do. "Forced" is a fairly elementary word that we all understand.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. I was playing devil's advocate more than anything.

You are right, I recognize that I had a poor choice of words in that reply. It is something that I would have said in person but online it seems too bashy.

[Mr. Scot]

I'm not sure if it's dying. There are a couple of things I do feel comfortable saying.

Proper tackling technique could do more to reduce concussions than all the technology in the world. Teach guys to wrap up rather than trying to get on ESPN with a big hit.

The bigger deal for me, though is that the people running the game at the highest levels are doing an absolutely piss poor job.

If football dies, it will be Roger Goodell and the owners who killed it.

[joemac]

I have a 20 month old son, and I don't see us letting him play football when he's able to. I'm going to steer him into basketball and baseball.