CaptainFantastik wrote:Steelcody36 wrote:CaptainFantastik wrote:No, I just consider it getting my priorities in order. Pro football exists for the sole purpose of selling shit. All the other stuff fans attach to it is nothing more than a figment of thier imaginations. It's a glorified corporate softball league. Same of all pro sports of course and there is some hypocrisy on my part as I still religiously follow the NHL.
I'd rather spend my Sundays with my son rather than sitting on the couch shoveling beer and wings down the hatch all day and evening. And I have no interest in indoctrinating my kid to be one of the millions of drones who throw their cash at the NFL for that shitty product being put on the field these days. The pro game has become a rotting husk of what it used to be. I've simply decided to step off that bus. It's a matter of principle to me. I don't like the direction the NFL has taken and won't be one of those people the owners love that will unconditionally watch/spend even while pissing and moaning 24/7 about Goodell and the league. I simply chose to withdraw my patronage. My aggravation with the NFL got a point where it became greater than the joy I was getting out of it. For me, the decision was easy. The birth of my son just hammered it home for me.
To each his own.
You are obviously free to watch, or not watch for sure. You are basically saying the games are scripted like pro wrestling with "stuff fans attach to is a figment of their imaginations". Correct me if that's not what you mean. Sorry, not going to buy that. There is enough money involved that many of the disgruntled former players would have come out and said it to destroy the league. Not to mention that would destroy college football as well. To top it off, these guys are too competitive and want to win rings. If their team was never destined to win, they wouldn't play. I haven't bought a jersey or anything for several years, and haven't been to an NFL game for a couple of years with the Ticketmaster price gouging. One could argue that today's athletes are better than the ones you idolized. In fact, that's a certainty with the training facilities and knowledge today. You don't like the way games are officiated now, which neither do I. Most on this board hate the way games are officiated. That's the way it is. The game is still played at a high level and the object is still the same. Goodell is a POS, and he knows that's what most people think of him. He will only last so long, I would say less than ten more years.
No that's not what I meant. What I meant were all the emotional and ideological things fans attach to pro sports that they believe give it "meaning" to convince themselves that it stands for something.......when the reality is they only exist to generate revenue. I'm as guilty as anybody of buying into that. But for me, with regard to the NFL, I just can't buy into it anymore.
I do believe the NFL has been influencing the way games are called for some time. I don't believe offenses got more prolific overnight by chance. I believe the league has manipulated the way games are officiated in a manner that slants the field heavily toward the offensive side of the ball. It's almost as if they don't want good defenses on the field stifling the scoring for the fantasy-addicted american public. I agree with Richard Sherman when he says the NFL has done this specifically to cater to the billion dollar fantasy football industry. And in my view, the day the NFL decided to alter it's product on the field to cater to an ancillary entity like fantasy football is the day the integrity of the pro game died. So no, I don't think specific outcomes are being manipulated, but I do believe the pro game itself has been manipulated for reasons that do not pertain to the integrity of athletic competition (or player safety for that matter). I can't support that.
Pro sports don't only exist because of revenue.
They exist because there are talented, dedicated athletes who can play at an extremely high level and people love it. The revenue wasn't there in the early days, and pro sports were still thriving. Hardcore fans live and die with their teams. Players live and die for their teammates. Yes they make a lot of cash now (again, not originally) but you can tell guys care. Hines Ward tried like somebody died after playoff losses. Guys without Super Bowls still talk of how haunted they are by coming up short. That is emotional, real emotion. If you are a casual fan, you may not get that. There are folks (myself included) that are on a roller coaster throughout the season. I was physically and emotionally disgusted when Ben went down. So were most of the people around me.
I agree with you on officiating, but not on the style of the game. The passing game took off several decades ago because coaches figured out how beneficial it was to have a strong armed QB who could flip the field. Not every franchise followed suit, but there were coaches who developed a passing offense that ran only to set up the pass. The NFL wants high scoring games to capture the casual fan. Good defenses can still shut that down. The Steelers, Jets, and Seahawks are three teams that could always shut offenses down for the last several seasons. (Not so much the Steelers today, but that's due to shit talent/drafting) Player safety BS only came about to avoid lawsuits. Breast cancer awareness is a cover for good press and more money from female fans.
