Anyone else fed up with the NFL?

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

"A couple of years?" That's wildly optimistic. Football may decline in popularity but there are so many industries that have a vested interest in football, and so many people watching, that it's going to take a long time for the NFL to "cease to exist." I doubt it will happen in our lifetimes.

Also, in order for football to be replaced as a spectator sport, something else would have to take its place.

Now, having said that, I did read something interesting a few years ago that pointed out that football was headed for an inevitable decline and ultimate demise, but it had nothing to do with protests or kneeling or whatever.

It had to do with the fact that pro football sits on top of a "pyramid" of athletes and is absolutely dependent on the lower portions of that pyramid to keep sending them fresh meat.

It then went on to say that junior high and high schools - the "base" of the pyramid, the lowest level at which full-contact football is played - are starting to reconsider their football programs in light of all the concerns about head injuries. If parents stop putting their kids into football for fear of long-term negative effects of head injuries, then pretty soon, colleges will have a smaller pool of athletes to recruit from for THEIR programs (and some colleges are also reconsidering the wisdom of spending so much money on football when the negative effects of head injuries are becoming more and more apparent.)

The bottom line of the article was that no high school football means no college football, and no college football means no pro football, no NFL.

Now obviously the article was trying to make a point so they undoubtedly exaggerated the rate of this phenomenon, but it's not out of the question to think that as more becomes known about the life-long effects of football injuries, the more high schools may be reluctant to offer full-contact football programs for fear of lawsuits.

A smaller pool of people from which colleges can draw football players not only means fewer players, it likely means less talented ones (again, since the overall pool is smaller the number of talented players will also shrink.) Less talent means less interesting games. Less interesting games means fewer people watch them, and that costs the colleges money. Throw in a few lawsuits from players who get injured while playing and it's not unforeseeable that the whole house of cards collapses.

Likely? Maybe not. But it's an interesting thought, nonetheless. I know if I had a high school age son, I'd think long and hard before allowing him to play football.

I’m not disagreeing - I’m agreeing, especially with the second sentence. The economics are such that there will always be talented athletes willing to step up and risk CTE and whatever else for that paycheck. And the industries you mention will ensure the check is there.

I don’t have a son, and I did play football in HS. But I agree, I’d really, really steer my (hypothetical) child from football.

[68Charger]

I’m not disagreeing - I’m agreeing, especially with the second sentence. The economics are such that there will always be talented athletes willing to step up and risk CTE and whatever else for that paycheck. And the industries you mention will ensure the check is there.

I don’t have a son, and I did play football in HS. But I agree, I’d really, really steer my (hypothetical) child from football.

Train them from age 2 to play golf... and train them to take care of you if they make it. Seems to me that's been done before.

ETA: but have a plan for when his fame inevitably goes to his head and he cheats on his wife/GF

[Gman]

Train them from age 2 to play golf... and train them to take care of you if they make it. Seems to me that's been done before.

ETA: but have a plan for when his fame inevitably goes to his head and he cheats on his wife/GF