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

[ThPantherFan]

2 hours ago, Jangler said:

Is Football Dying?

I read that same article and he makes a good point.  A lot of things lately going against the sport of football.  What got my attention is where he said that the educated people will quit the sport while the rest would look at the sport to gain wealth.  That's sad.  A persons health is more important than wealth.  At least in my opinion.

[ThPantherFan]

I never let my boys play football when they were young.  They hated me for it but now they understand why.

[thefuzz]

I think it's contrasting, but not dying.  It will likely get a few makeovers over the next 20 years....and survive...maybe like Boxing lately.

A few things that I think are affecting football negatively.

 

1:  Too slow.  Too many commercials, too many penalties, too many clock stoppages.  We are a society that wants everything faster.

2:  Too dangerous.  CTE, mangled joints and limbs, and in some college and high school levels, paralysis and death.  Not much has changed on any of that, but now we have access to the information in real time.

3:  Political.  Armed forces paying the NFL, kneeling, "forcing" citizens to pay for stadiums and stadium upgrades....etc.

4:  Saturation.  TNF, all day Sunday, and MNF....add in fantasy football, and the NFL is asking us to consume hours and hours of the product per week.

5:  Just too much negative attention.  Domestic abuse, Jerry suing the league, flip flopping on suspensions and Roger's power, guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed contracts, teams moving, etc...it's a nonstop barrage of negative.

6:  Level of play.  There are about 1/3 of the teams that I don't even want to watch try to play football.  Maybe we don't need 32 teams after all.

7:  Other sports.  When I grew up we didn't have swimming, lacrosse, soccer, etc. at our fingertips.  You had baseball, football, and basketball, and you could play all 3 if you wanted...but those were the options.  Now most of the kids I know play soccer or lacrosse...very few are playing football.

 

I'm sure I'm missing/forgetting a lot, but this has been on my mind this season, as I find myself much more interested in going fishing on Sunday vs. sitting on my couch all day....that has never happened.

[ecu88]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Go back to leather helmets. 

 

Concussion problem solved immediately. 

 

Seriously, go watch a rugby match. Those guys tackle with their head up every time. Wrap up, proper technique, NEVER lead with their own head. Result: Much fewer concussions. 

Seacocks are trained to do rugby style tackles

[AggieLean]

I don’t see it completely dying out, but it’s losing its hold on the #1 spot and more and more kids are choosing other sports. Both my girl and I have decided that if and when we have a son, he won’t be playing, as I’m going to steer him to basketball & baseball.

This CTE stuff is scary. You have that, plus other freak injuries that lead to paralysis and limb loss. I think we’ll pass on that. I find myself losing interest in the sport all together, and haven’t watched a full game all year, completely missing 3 games. I honestly think I’m about done with the sport.

[Inimicus]

bring back Mark Kelso's ProCap.  Foam padding that covers the outside of the helmet and was rumored to reduce impact force by as much as a third.

[rodeo]

A lot of the top athletes coming up will start to gravitate toward MMA and hopefully soccer. If the Antonio Browns and Ted Ginns of the world had focused on soccer from middle school on then the US would be one of the top soccer countries in the world.

But we treat soccer completely backward from the rest of the world, where it's available to everyone who can kick a 1 dollar soccer ball in any alley of any class in the world. In the US it tends to be upper class oriented, where you have to join an expensive team and buy hundreds of dollars in equipment. That would have to change.

[firefox1234]

I except to be tuning on to ESPN8 the ocho to watch football in the future...

[firefox1234]

6 minutes ago, rodeo said:

A lot of the top athletes coming up will start to gravitate toward MMA and hopefully soccer. If the Antonio Browns and Ted Ginns of the world had focused on soccer from middle school on then the US would be one of the top soccer countries in the world.

But we treat soccer completely backward from the rest of the world, where it's available to everyone who can kick a 1 dollar soccer ball in any alley of any class in the world. In the US it tends to be upper class oriented, where you have to join an expensive team and buy hundreds of dollars in equipment. That would have to change.

Never understood this either, a bunch of elites have cornered youth soccer on the local level and no one has done anything about it....

[Camp Fodder]

2 hours 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.  

I’d rather watch televised chess than baseball

[MikeD83]

39 minutes ago, Inimicus said:

bring back Mark Kelso's ProCap.  Foam padding that covers the outside of the helmet and was rumored to reduce impact force by as much as a third.

Ah, the ol’ penis tip helmet. I think players didn’t like the way they looked, but whatever works. 

[d-dave]

My son has shown zero interest in football.  I try to get him to watch the games, forget it.  He loves Cam Newton, and loves watching his highlights, but he's not at all interested in the games.  Soccer, he's completely into it.  He will watch a soccer game in utter silence and stillness for long segments of time, only broken up by commercials.  Then again, he's five.

Football will die because more people are going to keep their kids from playing due to the injury risk.  What can be done?  It's nearly impossible to change the rules, even harder to change player behavior, so how will "football" in general be able to make the game safer?

Look at Luke Keuchly, last season when he left a game weeping, that was a pretty polarizing shot.  There were several media outlets that said he should retire.  Then Jonathan Jones wrote an interesting article (https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/17/luke-kuechly-concussion-carolina-panthers) and here comes the most interesting doctor's response I've seen:

Quote

Dr. Robert Stern, a neuroscientist and the Director of Clinical Research for Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center, told me on Friday, that concussions by themselves “are not that awful.” He’s quick to point out that he’s not a concussion specialist but an expert on the neurodegenerative disease known as CTE.

and then:

Quote

tern, speaking from from Washington, D.C., following a congressional meeting on the long-term effects of football hits, told me concussions themselves are manageable if treated properly, if the person is allowed enough time to recover fully and if there isn’t continued stress on the brain.

So what I read from his comments is that the jury is still out about the nature and relationship between number of concussions and brain damage.  But from a parent's perspective, it's already done.  I hope he's right for Luke's sake, the rest in-between concussions is lessening his eventual brain damage (doesn't that make you sick?).

But talking to my son's friends, many of them want nothing to do with football for their sons.  One response from "that parent" (you know, the one you always roll your eyes too because they are super annoying) was that it was too competitive, and that her son couldn't keep up with the more aggressive and driven kids.  Makes me ill in another way...  But some parents in my experience don't want their children growing up playing football because it's competitive and is dangerous.

Honestly, it's an easy movement to get in, and you'll see a lot of parents who do so.  It's easy to look like a "caring parent" like this.  Sad, but true.

It's very possible the NFL goes away.

[dave-o]

I just wish Bob Costas would go away...

[Nails]

7 minutes ago, d-dave said:

My son has shown zero interest in football.  I try to get him to watch the games, forget it.  He loves Cam Newton, and loves watching his highlights, but he's not at all interested in the games.  Soccer, he's completely into it.  He will watch a soccer game in utter silence and stillness for long segments of time, only broken up by commercials.  Then again, he's five.

Football will die because more people are going to keep their kids from playing due to the injury risk.  What can be done?  It's nearly impossible to change the rules, even harder to change player behavior, so how will "football" in general be able to make the game safer?

Look at Luke Keuchly, last season when he left a game weeping, that was a pretty polarizing shot.  There were several media outlets that said he should retire.  Then Jonathan Jones wrote an interesting article (https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/17/luke-kuechly-concussion-carolina-panthers) and here comes the most interesting doctor's response I've seen:

and then:

So what I read from his comments is that the jury is still out about the nature and relationship between number of concussions and brain damage.  But from a parent's perspective, it's already done.  I hope he's right for Luke's sake, the rest in-between concussions is lessening his eventual brain damage (doesn't that make you sick?).

But talking to my son's friends, many of them want nothing to do with football for their sons.  One response from "that parent" (you know, the one you always roll your eyes too because they are super annoying) was that it was too competitive, and that her son couldn't keep up with the more aggressive and driven kids.  Makes me ill in another way...  But some parents in my experience don't want their children growing up playing football because it's competitive and is dangerous.

Honestly, it's an easy movement to get in, and you'll see a lot of parents who do so.  It's easy to look like a "caring parent" like this.  Sad, but true.

It's very possible the NFL goes away.

Stories like these should have been written to the nutjobs on Charlotte City Council and in the mayor’s office that shunned MLS yet have pumped $$$ into every other boondoggle in recent memory and think taxpayers are going to have to pay for a new Panthers Stadium.  Morons.