Leith reports: "The NFL wants you to think about what goes on behind the curtain as little as possible. I don't blame them. There's a lot to hide back there. I'm just not sure I can do it anymore."
Football may be losing fans due to increasing worries about head injuries. (photo: file)
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My personal problem with football is that it's nothing more than a spectator sport. It's essentially the same complaint I have about pot legalization. It makes people MORE passive when they should be less. People think wearing a certain color to church on Sunday or puting a certain bumper sticker on their car makes them "an athelete".
I have a hard enough time dealing with the idea that someone can be at 40% bodyfat and still be called an "athelete". I have a bigger problem with the attitude that people who only watch a sport while eating chips are somehow atheletic too.
CONT.
I noticed when I was in about 7th grade that there were at least two echelons of popular kids: the ones who were popular, and the ones who made themselves popular by weaseling their way into the popular crowd. I went from average, to suddenly popular by being invited in by a few other popular kids. At first a gladly joined. Then I noticed that I had given up something of the true me to do it. I actually bowed out.
The men who watch football are that 2nd echelon of children wanting to be macho by associating themselves with something their wife considers macho - sort of "manliness by association". This is why everyone's old football stories are exaggerated.
To my way of thinking, an athelete is someone who PARTICIPATES rather than sitting on the sidelines. I have more respect for someone who ACTIVELY engages in a bowling league.
CONT.
Our country has WAY TOO MANY cheerleaders and not nearly enough THINKERS, and DOERS.
Very few of the football players from my high school ever acheived anything bigger with their lives. It's sad and pathetic. I went to high school with one person who became famous. He was also the valedictorian and didn't play sports.
If adults want to play games, that's fine. I just don't respect the idea of calling it a career - especially when most "retire" before they're 30.
I'm also turned off by what I see as an increasing focus on our bodies in this country. It's a game. It's not a religion. To some people, there's no difference.
To me, it's just a sad way for people watch others playing out their fantasies.
I was never a football player, as I didn't like the regimentation I saw in practice. One of the best football players at the high school at which I taught for 32 years came in after school one day and cut loose with a rant about how much money the school spent on the football program as opposed to how little was being devoted to supporting science education (my subject). Boy, was I surprised! His central argument was that his football training would be of little or no use to him after he graduated, but his knowledge and thinking skills would be valuable for his whole life. I personally value physical fitness, quick assessment and judgment, and teamwork, all important components for football players. But his critique of how football and the resources to support it were being used was accurate.
Football, or something like it, will continue to be played as long as our the cynegetic (red underline) inheritance from our hunter-gatherer ancestors continues to demand actualization.
it's always nice when someone (like this author) in the matrix wakes up. sadly most of them go right back to sleep.
-- this of course assumes there's any morality in these institutions (oxymoron) or in the people who run them (not much if any)
I do not know what Sport does not destroy the body. I do not know what sport whether kids or adults does not extract a toll. People doing Marathons are not going out without getting their bodies into pain and perhaps long term down the line?
Concussions is a very big concern that is why helmets are not mandatory in sports? The only idiots giving them up to prove a point is Motorcyclists. I have lost two many friends to those accidents, and was in one myself with short helmet. My skin on my ear, neck was so rashed, painful mid summer too. My left hand needed 1800 stitiches three times, then surgeon says ' you may never have feeling again. I had no way to rehab, so Iwent out on motorcycle waiting repair and tugged those brakes, shifter until I walked in six months later and should the doctor what one could do. I also lifted cans like weights before anyone thought of it.
When one has a dream whether writing a book or playing football, one has the dream that everyone will read/watch. I watch football, join fantasy as I do with racing. I get upset when players get hurt because I know bone and muscle pains, operations. I am going to go thru
knee shots starting tomorrow.
I believe that more the story behind sports is the owners, stadiums making so much money, They will replace Joe no big deal. We watch for the sheer enjoyment...mor e
We watch UnReality Shows, we watch movies and TV that kill people, we watch sci fi, We allow Corporations and Politicians to Poison this Earth.
I believe more advances in helmuts will happen. I know we who love Athletes whether Track or Swimmers, will watch. I do not for the doom and gloom but because that kid was supported, was talented enough to make the grade.
Anyone taking that away from our kids today...go play with the pc or video games both of which has equal health problems.
People who want to eat are going to do so whether a game is on, Reality bs, or video game. Criticizing people for who they are say a lot about who you are.
I hope players have a Great Season, moderate injuries. Put their time and money into helping their Communities.
For all the Parents...yes sports are really physical and have side affects. But when you consider you give your kids the keys to a CAR....I wonder which is worse toss of the coin!
I went thru heavy duty treatments, surgeries..stil l am. After they are over feel great, I realize that I could get hit by lightening, a car, and then I get up and move on. I cannot stop what could happen, I just want to be part of life. Mine is being an Activist, Gardener, Active Animal Person. I was stopped from doing everything...18 came I started living.
I think there are various reasons why this is happening, but I think one of them that's often overlooked is that, instead of doing their homework and exercising in moderation, many high school aged boys are too busy obsessing about sports and being pressured into spending more and more of their time in practice, working out on their own, etc. By the time they're done with all of that, their actual homework seems like an afterthought. Usually they don't have enough mental or physical energy left to give it the proper amount of focus. Their work ethic is ok. It's just misspent on all the wrong priorities.
We are living in times where, as adults, we should be encouraging our kids to focus on learning more than ever.
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." - [I Corinthians 13:11]
This is not an original idea from me, I think Frank DeFord first brought it up. If we look at head injuries in Rugby or from the old days in football, this argument has merit. Self preservation is a wonderful instinct all humans have.
Will it change the game? Sure, but I think it might improve it as a game of strategy.
The league could could also put a weight limit on players-- or a body- height to weight rule to discourage dangerous behaviors and risks that athletes take with their health and ensure a chance at a long life that many of these players sacrifice for a few years of play.
Today these players are not athletics's. They are mostly fat over weight hunks who have to run to the sideline for oxygen even at sea level. The NFL talks about concussions and brain damage and wants better safer helmets yet fails to realize that if they just went back to the old leather ones players would stop using their head as a battering ram.
Take the mask off these guys and they will find out how tender the nose is.
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