Football is a violent sport. (Basketball is catching up fast, but more on that another day...) I played football. Had a knee operation because of it. But today the game is far rougher...today's athletes are bigger, stronger, faster and better trained at hitting and hurting.
There is a mentality in the NFL (and some colleges) to "waste your opponent at all cost." Knock them out of the game. Get rid of them. Football is about hard knocks and hard hits. Brutal hits. And the people who have been paid to play it are our modern day gladiators.
It is not your grandfather's game. Hell, it's not even the game I played.
The game moves at speed I can't even image. It is played by players who are huge. They are beyond strong, they are mountains. They are, as one TV sportscaster called them, "freaks."And now more and more of these "freaks" are also becoming criminals. Some of this is due to the fact that a lot of colleges have gone into the inner city to recruit street kids to come and play for the ole alma mater. ESPN ran a documentary about the problems some college coaches were having in building the "team" concept because of rival gang members on their squads. Really? And you expected something different because they weren't wearing the Hoods or Bloods colors but rather the Blue and White or Orange and White of your school? And when these guys have served their four years at State U, they move on the big paying jobs of the NFL. But with them comes all their street habits. Killers. Rapists. Abusers. DUI'ers...the list goes on. Hell in Dallas we even have an owner who in under investigation for sexual harassment. And he wants to add a man convicted of manslaughter back onto the team. The Cowboys should change thier name to the Outlaws.
So here is the deal. You want to change football. You don't do it in courts. You don't do it protesting outside the stadium. To change the game, you must tune out.
Turn the TV off. Quit buying paraphernalia of your favorite team. Quit supporting their functions. In short, turn in your fan credentials. Now if ten people do this, the NFL will not notice. But if ten thousand do it, they will begin to look around. Ten million...and you will change the system. And not from the NFL...but from the networks that fund them.
If football is too violent for you, if the people playing it are too ugly and too sleazy, then pick up the remote and switch the channel. It is one sure vote against what is going on.
The other night I tried to watch Monday Night Football on ESPN. But every other sentence was about this player or that player and the crimes they had committed. When the players introduce themselves and tell what college they are from, I think they instead should have their arrest record up. I got sick and tired of watching this horseshit, so I switched to PBS and watched the Roosevelts.
Try this. Next weekend, don't watch a single NFL game. No Cowboys. No Eagles. No Giants or 49's or whomever your team of choice may be. Just turn the set to something else. Or better yet, turn it off and read a book. (Go to Lulu.com and buy one of mine and we will be on the way to solving more than one problem in America. LOL).
I watch very little baseball anymore. The drug scandal ruined me on it. (That and the fact that the guy running the Texas Rangers is a nincompoop and has totally ruined the team with silly ass trades.)
Change the sport. Walk away from it. If enough of you do this, they will notice.
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