Done with watching football

[Duke426]

In my younger years I was an avid pro football fan (specifically a Raiders fan). The enjoyment has waned over the last decade or so but I still catch a game now and then. Never got into college ball as I don't like the idea of coaches and reporters voting for who they think is the best rather than settling it on the field via a playoff. But, I digress...

Anyway, I have just watched my last NFL game.

Watching the Pittsburgh-Oakland game and one of the Pittsburgh defensive backs (#29) just lit up Darius Heyward-Bey of the Raiders with a vicious helmet to helmet hit. No attempt whatsoever to make a play on the ball or tackle Heyward-Bey...just launched and led with his head. It was a play Jack Tatum would have loved but I hate (I never could stomach Tatum, even as a Raider fan). I have no problem with hard-hitting tackling and understand football is a very physical game. However, leaving ones feet and spearing with the head has NO PLACE in the game in my opinion. I'm not going to wait until one of these idiots actually kills himself or another player on the field...I'm turning it off for good. JMHO and YMMV.

 

[805moparkid]

thats exactly why they need to go back to leather hats and thin pads...

 

[Steve in Vermont]

When the officials start ejecting players from the game for such behavior, with suspensions for serious/repeat violations, then things will change. Football does not have to be such a violent sport but it appears to me that it's encouraged, not discouraged, despite the risk to the players. Perhaps we're not so far from the Roman gladiators after all.

 

[Gunslinger808]

Meh, don't care for the headhunting, but it's been a part of the game since the beginning.
I mean, it's not like Tatum, Butkus, Lambert, and "Mean" Joe Green were wall flowers.

ETA:
A lot of the problem the year is the back up refs they're using during the strike.
Their lack of training is being taken advantage of by the players.
Already a lot of fines have been handed out this year by the NFL.

 

[Duke426]

When the officials start ejecting players from the game for such behavior, with suspensions for serious/repeat violations, then things will change. Football does not have to be such a violent sport but it appears to me that it's encouraged, not discouraged, despite the risk to the players. Perhaps we're not so far from the Roman gladiators after all.

I think you are correct. We have pushed the line further and further in terms of the violence that we accept/encourage in our "entertainment." Boxing is blase now so we have this cage fighting with all the blood and guts involved in that. It keeps getting more and more extreme just like the Romans.

 

[Onomea]

I tend to agree, and have recently read articles about head injuries in football, hockey, and boxing leading to dementia, premature death, etc. It does seem pretty barbaric.

But I also wonder if things like cage fighting, or boxing, for that matter, provide for the participants a safe-for-the-public outlet for extremely aggressive young men that might otherwise be released in criminal violence. From what I have read of mixed martial arts, for example, most are not in it for the money. It only pays reasonably well at the highest levels. Most are in it because they enjoy it.

But I suppose that is different than team sports, like football and hockey.

 

[cass]

Football has priced themselves out of my interest range.

 

[old bear]

public outlet for extremely aggressive young men that might otherwise be released in criminal violence.

I don't believe that our current "blood sports" provide any outlet for our testosterone filled young men; I believe it encourages violent behavior.
WE used to provide security at the local pro wrestling matches when they came to town, and we could be assured of having fights during and after the bouts.

 

[geoff40]

Most professional atheletes make absurd amounts of money, probably few would argue that. When you start breaking things down and look it becomes insane. For example, there are several major league baseball pitchers who are "earning" well over $10,000 for every pitch they throw in a game, based on 20 game season and 100 pitches thrown in each one. Or you can break down the NFL quarterback, how much per point scored in a game, or a place-kicker, how much per kick? Field goal and punts added together?
More and more atheletes have poor or no moral values. More and more of our kids hero's are criminals. Maybe a lot of our own sports hero's we had growing up would also be criminals in todays world, but I doubt it would be as many. Once, a convicted rapist or killer would have no chance of being offered a contract with a team, but this isn't the case these days.
Many of them won't sign autographs unless they get paid, like they need it. Most of them seem to have little interest in their communities or charity.
I guess I could rant on and on. I still watch sports, but long ago I started loathing the people who play them. Sometimes the priorities in our society seem to get badly messed up.

 

[speedyquad]

hockey is where it is at once they settle on a contract.

i don't watch football anymore because of all of the steelers fans and their elitist attitude. i used to love football and the steelers. being in "steeler country" has turned me against the sport. i am saying this only because my facebook page blows up with just about every call made...from what i read last night, "we"(the steelers) were cheated by the bad temp. refs. "we"(the steelers) should have won the game. the refs were paid off(much like jerome bettis lost a 10 grand watch, which was found by a ref...after a recent superbowl win)...the moral is that the other team always cheats/plays dirty, is the benefactor of all the bad calls, whether the refs are bought or not, but never outplays the other team. poor sportsmanship or just an overzealous love for your team...wither way, i want no part of that, especially the "we" mentality

 

[labworm]

Violence is a big seller in this country of ours.

So we all can either engage in its activities or not, its a individual choice we make. Cage fighting is on TV all the time but not on mine.

Top selling movies, video games?

On Golden Pond, Searching For Bobby Fisher, As Good As It Gets, Stand By Me, Flipped etc are the movies I have chosen to watch.

Without explanation, many will get the meaning of this and some won't, 1967/68, 12 months of personally witnessing violence, I don't need to watch it any more.

 

[BaldEagle1313]

Without explanation, many will get the meaning of this and some won't, 1967/68, 12 months of personally witnessing violence, I don't need to watch it any more.

I wasn't there, but I get it. My dad never had a gun in the house, and when I asked him as a getting-picked-on kid to teach me some of the (in my words) "hand-to-hand stuff" he learned in the army, he said "The hand-to-hand stuff the Army taught me wasn't self-defense. It was how to kill the enemy." End of discussion.

 

[midkansmithfan]

I don't any problem with NFL players hurting one another. They all know what they're getting themselves into and the attendant violence. I haven't watched an NFL game since they let Michael Vick back in. Violence against dogs enrages me.

 

[midkansmithfan]

First sentence of previous post should have read: "I don't have any problem with NFL players hurting one another

 

[Duke426]

hockey is where it is at once they settle on a contract.

i don't watch football anymore because of all of the steelers fans and their elitist attitude. i used to love football and the steelers. being in "steeler country" has turned me against the sport. i am saying this only because my facebook page blows up with just about every call made...from what i read last night, "we"(the steelers) were cheated by the bad temp. refs. "we"(the steelers) should have won the game. the refs were paid off(much like jerome bettis lost a 10 grand watch, which was found by a ref...after a recent superbowl win)...the moral is that the other team always cheats/plays dirty, is the benefactor of all the bad calls, whether the refs are bought or not, but never outplays the other team. poor sportsmanship or just an overzealous love for your team...wither way, i want no part of that, especially the "we" mentality

I live in south-central PA so I know what you mean about the Steelers. Can't stand Penn State either due to the cult of Paterno worshippers.

However, I have to disagree with you on the hockey. I don't follow it anymore because I got tired of the fighting. I went to a Washington Capitals/Edmonton Oilers game about 15 years ago and spent the first 2 3/4 periods of the game watching a street fight. The last six or seven minutes of the game an actual hockey match broke out. If I'd wanted to see a real fight I would have driven to Anacostia instead of Landover and saved a ton of dollars.

Whether it's hockey or football, the physical play is not what turns me off. It is the cheap-shot, head-hunting by the talentless cowards I won't put up with. If any of us on this forum just arbitrarily did the same things to an unsuspecting person on the street we would be prosecuted. Why should it be acceptable just because the act occurs in a stadium or arena?

 

[JJEH]

Violence is a big seller in this country of ours.

It is sad to say but I think you are right. But not just within the USA, violence sells worldwide...

Look at Ice Hockey, La Crosse, Soccer, even Basketball... I don't wanna see that. I don't wanna see violence in a game. Especially when I pay tickets to see it live, not just on TV.

Sport is Sport, it's a game. And the players get paid very well to "play" on the field...

 

[GKC]

I don't care much for professional sports...even college sports aren't "games" as much as they are money-making events. Of all sports, I used to (emphasis on "used to") enjoy football more than any other, but the commercialization, brutalization, and egregious egotism now leave me cold. I'd much rather read a good book or watch a good movie.