
Death of NFL “inevitable” as middle class abandons the game - jseliger
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-football-concussions-youth-kass-met-0906-20170905-column.html
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swang
1\. chicago tribune's website is horrible. not sure what it is but it keeps
freezing.

2\. oh man, people didn't believe him about football dying, and even called
him a liberal!

3\. the article is titled to talk about how the middle class is abandoning the
game and within the first couple paragraphs talks about how stars have been
pampered for most of their lives... i guess you can make an argument that
you're pretty pampered if you're middle class?

edit: football's decline is

1\. roger goodell essentially having the powers of judge dredd

2\. ignoring the concussion issue for so long

3\. badly handling any kind of domestic violence issue

4\. essentially blackballing a competent quarterback for expressing his
opinions.

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DamnYuppie
As a lifelong football fan I can state that non of those issues have any
impact as to why I do not enjoy watching the sport.

For me it boils down to how over hyped it has become. I don't want to spend my
$$ on that product because of the behavior of the participants. They seem
overly entitled.

~~~
otp124
> They seem overly entitled.

This is why I've always enjoyed college ball. Student atheletes often have
more of an affinity/comraderie to their team, and coaches don't tolerate them
bad-mouthing their own teammates on TV. In pro, the inverse is true.

But in the end, I've grown tired of watching all broadcast sports except
international championships (track & field, fútbol, etc)

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tyrw
The obvious logic here is that people need to have played a sport as a child
to want to watch it as an adult. I'd be curious to know if there is data to
back this up.

Anecdotally, my dad played football growing up, while my three brothers and I
played soccer. My dad and 2 of my brothers are extremely dedicated soccer fans
now, while I and my other brother love football despite having never played.

~~~
in_cahoots
The popularity of football among women (I don't know the stats but at games
they're a significant portion of the audience) would seem to disprove this
logic. For many people sports are one of the few times the entire family sits
down together and roots for a single purpose. I would bet that experiencing
this atmosphere as a child is nearly as effective in promoting the sport as
playing the game itself.

~~~
thomk
Also: I played football for 10 years and dislike watching all sports.

Well, except women's volleyball of course.

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rmason
In my lifetime I've seen football go from a minor sport to the top one. I
agree with the writer that the NFL is in decline but it is far from dead. For
example college football is as popular as ever. My alma mater even after a
three win season isn't having any problems selling out the stadium this fall.

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danvasquez29
football has always seemed like an outlier to me, in the sense that the
overwhelming majority of adults I know watch and enjoy it but I know almost no
one who played an organized version of it. Anecdotally, this doesn't seem to
work the same way as other sports. It really is a sport made for television
and gambling, which will probably continue to drive it for a very long time.

~~~
user5994461
As an anecdote, the only sport made for gambling is horse racing.

~~~
chris_wot
Ever seen greyhound racing?

------
pavement

      * sigh... *
    

Millennials killed football.

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zghst
The NFL's decline is completely on them.

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RickJWag
Football will be fine. They just need to stop leaning left, it's against their
core consumer group.

Money ruins things, sometimes.

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nukenuke
This seems to imply that NFL players come from the middle class, and without
them there will be a lack of players. But is that actually true ? The sport
could just end up being watched by middle class and played by the poor, who
might be more willing to risk their brains to overcome economic hardship

~~~
c256
Football already is a sport watched by (and commercially payed for by) the
middle class that's largely played by the poor, since at least the mid-90's,
and probably the 80's as well. Take a look at who plays competitive NCAA
football, and who from there goes into the NFL draft -- or watch a bunch of
"30 for 30" about football (because anecdata is generally more entertaining)
and the trends are clear. There are a few key position outliers, by now
whittled down to "quarterbacks, who have a host of special rules and how they
can't be hit".

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aerodog
"And you don't need to watch multi-millionaire football stars, pampered for
most of their lives, ostentatiously disrespecting the American national
anthem, kneeling, their raised fists in the air."

author's an a-hole

~~~
NuDinNou
Why? He is right. What that dude did was disrespectful to the American
national anthem.

~~~
krapp
So? The US isn't a fascist dictatorship. There's nothing wrong with
disrespecting the national anthem, it's just propaganda. Free speech is a more
important American value than blind patriotism.

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andars
> The US isn't a fascist dictatorship.

Which is why he didn't go to jail.

> There's nothing wrong with dis respecting the national anthem

Sure, it isn't illegal, but that doesn't mean individuals can't be offended by
it. To many, the national anthem carries significant meaning.

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throwaway2016a
> Sure, it isn't illegal, but that doesn't mean individuals can't be offended
> by it. To many, the national anthem carries significant meaning.

There is lies the whole point of doing it. If it was meaningless to people it
would have no impact as protest.

