It’s time for fans to start quitting the NFL

[Mr Chops]

it's the amount of penalty flags that will kill the game first.

 

[dhaab]

This is like telling people to start boycotting gas. Never gunna happen. Sorry, I like my Rams too much to stop watching cause of a couple idiots. I do think the game would be better off with a different commissioner. And I believe it will happen within a few years.

Why would anyone believe that a different commissioner would change ANYTHING?? I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but the commissioners of all the major sports in America are talking heads who just do what the owners of the leagues tell them to do. Not sure why SO many Americans seem to think these officials who are hand picked by the owners would make any radical changes that some owners wouldn't like. That's not going to happen.

 

[dhaab]

It irritates me when people get on moral high horses. Especially when, statistically, the arrest rate in the NFL is below the average for society as a whole.

Don't you think the fact that wealthy individuals can buy their way out of being prosecuted of almost any crime has anything to do with that statistic?

 

[Prime Time]

Why would anyone believe that a different commissioner would change ANYTHING?? I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but the commissioners of all the major sports in America are talking heads who just do what the owners of the leagues tell them to do. Not sure why SO many Americans seem to think these officials who are hand picked by the owners would make any radical changes that some owners wouldn't like. That's not going to happen.

It might not make much of a difference but it would do two things:

1. Placate NFL fans at least in the short term
2. Send a message to the next commissioner to do things differently than his predecessor.

 

[Mackeyser]

But Mack, how is that *my* problem? I have no control over how some of these players act, and I have no control over how the league deals with them. That said, I think the league is taking measures accordingly, and there is no moral standard in place that the league can use to uniformly dish out justice. This whole thing is a works in progress and I seriously doubt the league is taking these individual situations lightly.

This is a situation where individual fans are going to have to make their own determination about how much money or time they want to dedicate to a sport that violates their personal moral standard. Conversely, you might find other fans that have significantly less morality and who will leave the sport if the league continues to crack down on everything because THAT doesn't mesh with their personal moral standards either.

"Look at all these thugs. I'm not watching this anymore. It's offensive."
"Look at all the players who are being suspended. I'm not watching this anymore. It's stupid."

I think the league cares about its image, and they're going to err on the side of the moral person and advertiser. If fans want to leave (even in droves) over something that they have no control over, then it is what it is. But I think it's disingenuous for casual fans to think a sport as violent as this is comprised of players who have no tendency to *be* violent. There is, IMO, no way the league fails to continue to gain popularity over the actions of a few players. There will be no grass-roots movements to boycott football. But the media will continue to shine a bright light on the blemishes in an attempt to indict the league as a whole. Of that I am absolutely certain. A lot of us are already immune to that ploy, and simply aren't biting.

Sorry. I post long. Wish I could Strunk and White this stuff. I'm working in it...

I think in large part, we're talking past one another. Not on purpose or anything.

I mean, I hear hardcore fans making arguments like you are making and I'm not and have never denied that none of this will EVER keep hardcore fans away.

But women are already stopping watching. Now, the evidence is anecdotal...now. But... there are more and more stories, articles and social media outlets where these stances are taking shape.

Is it permanent? I highly doubt it. It could be if Goodell keeps making it worse, but as of now? I doubt it. My point is that with women making up 47% of the NFL fan base AND being the gatekeepers of IF their sons play football meaning a key determinant to the depth and breadth of the talent pool of the next generation.

Moreover, without corrections to the games, school districts won't be able to afford the insurance and parents in many areas won't be able to afford the riders. As someone who has a high functioning autistic son who suffered a head injury from a car accident when he was a baby, he wasn't ever able to participate in any sports because we couldn't get him insured even though the doctor said it was safe. So, we know first hand that if insurance companies deem the risk of HS football can become causal to a CHANCE for long term cognitive dysfunction (the game is faster and more optimized at the HS level now than ever), then the game, itself, could be in serious jeopardy.

That's the point. It's not about hardcore fans taking or not taking a relatively libertarian stance about "why is it my problem?" Most hardcore fans will stay even if they feel terrible about it. A good number of hardcore fans wouldn't care if PEDs were allowed. So, it's not a matter of putting this in that context or framing it that way.

See... hardcore fans don't make up the BULK of the NFL fan base and aren't the reason why the NFL makes $10 Billion per annum. Goodell is in good with the owners because they are giving him credit for growing the NFL outside the hardcore fans (the kind of fans who show up to Rams home games during the Tony Banks era or sit outside in Cleveland and root for the Browns in December when they stink and it's 8 degrees outside).

Thus, the point is that the NFL is at the top of the sports mountain. It's now a cultural phenomenon. We now talk in football analogies rather than baseball analogies. Football is now changing our language where Baseball was part of our language for 3 generations.

And...that doesn't last forever. Nothing does. So... What ends that run and how long will it last. Baseball lasted as long as it did because it embodied many KEY American values and led in some key areas like race, (Jackie Robinson), free agency, (Kurt Flood), and others even when "Baseball" wasn't fully aligned. As well, MLB as had independent Commissioners that gave the fans confidence that the integrity of the game mattered. Even when they botched it badly (Pete Rose), it was in the pursuit of the integrity of the game. It wasn't until integrity stopped mattering (the 90's labor stoppage, then subsequent PED usage) that fans lost faith.

Now, football has become popular for very good reasons. I came up with my sig (yeah, I actually wrote it) because I believe it. Sports is the crucible in which we distill human virtue. And at this time in our history, the virtues embodied by Football speak to us as Americans to a greater degree than do other sports. However, the remainder of that quote is this: The distillate remains are human vice. The very aggression that makes football can also break it. I don't disagree that aggressive people are aggressive. However, I would disagree that football players are inherently wife beaters or more prone to criminal behavior. I mean, I've seen two things in this thread. 1) How can we celebrate NFL players for being aggressive which is inherently in their nature and 2) this is a witch hunt because NFL players commit crimes at a rate less than the national average. Well? If #2 is true, and I believe it IS true, then aggression is NOT a causal factor in the violence and/or criminal behavior that we've been discussing. If it were, then the NFL would be rife with criminal behavior due to the distillation of aggression, quite literally finding the MOST aggressive people to play at the highest level of physical talent and capability.

As we see on our HD TVs every day, our entertainment is hyper-realized. It's not like having a job at the post office. The requirements aren't the same just like the rewards aren't the same. Thus, we can't superimpose a regular life nor the restrictions, limit or freedoms of a regular life on someone who is in that spotlight. The spotlight shows everything and does so starkly.

Now, I would agree with you that these guys should NOT be role models. I think the GAME can be a role model insofar as my quote. The GAME demonstrates human virtue. Occasionally, a player will come along who IS a role model, but that's incidental, be he Walter Payton or Kurt Warner or some of the other really quality guys who've been in the NFL who would have been role models if they had never been in the NFL.

That said, people "vote" with their wallets, especially those who aren't hardcore fans. A brief analogy might be this: A hardcore fan might still go to an away game if the opposing stadium encouraged or allowed through overt actions or via inaction or lack of punishment the abuse of visiting fans from being pelted with thrown food and garbage to worse things like assaults. Virtually NO non-hardcore fan would subject themselves to this. And considering how pervasive, common and devastating is the domestic violence problem in this country, it's not surprising that fans who are not hardcore fans and even a few who are either have left, taken a sabbatical or are really questioning watching the NFL as an avocation.

Lastly, even Anheuser Busch issued a statement today, essentially a warning that the NFL had better get its house in order. They are one of the largest sponsors of the NFL. This is getting beyond the casual fan. When A-B gets to the point of telling you "we're monitoring the situation", via a PUBLIC statement... with all of those advertising dollars, you can bet that the NFL is getting the message. Or that they better. Oh, and hiring a lobbyist isn't it...

Again, sorry for length. Prolly could write a book on this...

 

[Mackeyser]

Why would anyone believe that a different commissioner would change ANYTHING?? I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but the commissioners of all the major sports in America are talking heads who just do what the owners of the leagues tell them to do. Not sure why SO many Americans seem to think these officials who are hand picked by the owners would make any radical changes that some owners wouldn't like. That's not going to happen.

Do you honestly mean to tell me that you believe that there is not one iota of difference between Adam Silver and Roger Goodell?

See, if you had said that when David Stern was the NBA commissioner, I might have agreed with you, but now? Really?

That's like saying that all Billion dollar corporations are all corrupt and that there is zero difference between Costco and Walmart/Sam's Club.

Baseball has a history of independent Commissioners and Basketball has one right now. May not be super common, but it happens and when that does happen, the sport is generally better for it.

 

[nanotech]

Now the NFL has real trouble on its hands.
Fed up with the league's woeful inconsistencies on domestic violence and its belligerent insistence on protecting misbehaving players, Anheuser-Busch took the NFL to task on Tuesday. No, it didn't say it was pulling its $1.2 billion, six-year contract – yet.
But it doesn't take a marketing genius to see what's down the road if the NFL doesn't get its act together. And fast.

USA TODAY
Anheuser-Busch: Deep concern of NFL handling of abuse cases
Already, Radisson has temporarily cut ties to the Minnesota Vikings following general manager Rick Spielman's inept statement Monday that star running back Adrian Peterson was simply "disciplining a child" when he left welts and bruises on his young son's body that resulted in an indictment on charges of child abuse.
"We are disappointed and increasingly concerned by the recent incidents that have overshadowed this NFL season. We are not yet satisfied with the league's handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code," Anheuser-Busch said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports.
"We have shared our concerns and expectations with the league."
With a mere three sentences, the beer maker managed to do what that ugly Ray Rice video and the sickening photos of the injuries to Peterson's son could not. The fear of ticking off big-money sponsors is what keeps Roger Goodell awake at night, and if he and the NFL owners don't get now that coddling players accused of beating their wives and children is unacceptable, they never will.
"We understand," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. "We are taking action and there will be much more to come."

USATODAY
Whippings part of Adrian Peterson's childhood
Anheuser-Busch is one of the league's largest sponsors, spending $149 million just on Super Bowl commercials from 2009-13, according to Adweek. It is also a local sponsor of more than three-quarters of the 32 teams. That's hardly pocket change, even in a league that generates more than $9 billion a year.
Remember when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban predicted a few months ago that the NFL was due for an "implosion" in the next 10 years? Take away Budweiser and Bud Light, and it would be more like two or three.
"The implications of that, in terms of the investment, not to exaggerate but it would be staggering over the years," said Chris Cakebread, a Boston University professor who specializes in sports advertising. "It would be a very, very difficult process for the league to replace that because there just aren't that many brands that have that kind of money.
"They were probably waiting for everything to blow over," Cakebread added. "This is not blowing over."
The NFL has made some moves to address its shortcomings on domestic violence. In addition to tougher penalties, Goodell announced Monday that he had expanded the role of one female vice president and was adding three women to help advise him on the issue.
On Tuesday, he announced the addition of another female executive, Cynthia C. Hogan, who will be the league's senior vice president of public policy and government affairs.
But the San Francisco 49ers have stubbornly stood by Ray McDonald, who is facing domestic assault charges while the Vikings reinstated Peterson. (No coincidence that came after a 30-7 drubbing without Peterson.) Greg Hardy, who was convicted by a judge of domestic assault and is now awaiting a jury trial, could return to the Carolina Panthers this week after sitting out last weekend.
Goodell and the teams claim they're waiting for legal proceedings to be resolved, but that's just another excuse. Employers suspend or discipline employees accused of wrongdoing all the time – often for offenses far less serious than this.
No, the NFL assumed it could weather the fallout just as it has the bad publicity from the concussion crisis. Former players are dying at an alarming rate from brain trauma suffered during their careers, and it hasn't even put a dent in the NFL's bottom line.
But shrugging your shoulders at players who beat women and children isn't just reprehensible, it's bad math.
About 45 % of the NFL's fan base is female, according to an NFL-commissioned report last year by C. Keith Harrison, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. Citing another study, Harrison also said women influence 85% of purchasing decisions related to disposable income.
In other words, all those women the NFL panders to with pink apparel in October spend a lot of money the other 11 months out of the year, too.
"It's not just a bunch of old guys drinking beer in their man caves. You've got a sizeable portion of women," Cakebread said. "Advertisers are really reluctant to lose that, and they're being very conscious in their reaction."
In other words, money talks. The NFL had better be listening.

 

[Orchid]

Wrong. If you do the research they have been much worst than the NFL. So has MBL.

 

[Orchid]

Do not go there... in hockey they are in the net the next day.

 

[Stranger]

I pretty much have already quite the NFL. If it wasn't for my undying commitment to the Rams, I would have been long gone. But I rarely pay attention to anything NFL anymore, unless it's discussed here in this forum.

 

[Orchid]

Guys...Love it or leave it, we are the problem here. We have objectived women and continue to do so.

 

[MarkMyWords]

[QUOTE="Orchid, post: 403162, member: 1630" We have objectived women and continue to do so.[/QUOTE]

That's just not true....

 

[Orchid]

MLB has the drug issues, but honestly you almost never hear about things like this in hockey. Guys dont get arrested, they rarely get in trouble. Most notable thing I can think of is when two players were driving home, speeding, and got in a wreck, one of them died from the injuries a few days later. That was back in 2003. Other than that I can't really think of NHL players really getting in trouble or making news for the wrong reasons

Google Domestic violence NHL and then talk to me. Their stuff is bad.

I pretty much have already quite the NFL. If it wasn't for my undying commitment to the Rams, I would have been long gone. But I rarely pay attention to anything NFL anymore, unless it's discussed here in this forum.

Whom else are you leaving out.... A-B, top $100M corporations, local, state federal governments, your local small business? Google A-B, violence, death, discrimination. Pot calling the kettle black. and oh yeah I bet most of the offenders were intoxicated..... on you got it beer.

Our ... OUR problem is that we have and continue to excuse DV except for high profile cases or when it is a highly paid athelete or entertainer is involved. Go look at the after incident pictures of DV incidents. Much more damage (no excuses for the blow but DV ALWAYS IS BLOODY and or violent). I want us to drop the hammer on everyone including ordinary Joes that ds this. All of them not, just the ones who are making $500k per year. This means that you first have to Change LAWS. Convicted of DV you do a minimum of 6 months out of the gate.

Sorry for the semi rant. Just want the collar to be worn by everybody.

 

[Stranger]

Whom else are you leaving out.... A-B, top $100M corporations, local, state federal governments, your local small business? Google A-B, violence, death, discrimination. Pot calling the kettle black. and oh yeah I bet most of the offenders were intoxicated..... on you got it beer.

Our ... OUR problem is that we have and continue to excuse DV except for high profile cases or when it is a highly paid athelete or entertainer is involved. Go look at the after incident pictures of DV incidents. Much more damage (no excuses for the blow but DV ALWAYS IS BLOODY and or violent). I want us to drop the hammer on everyone including ordinary Joes that ds this. All of them not, just the ones who are making $500k per year. This means that you first have to Change LAWS. Convicted of DV you do a minimum of 6 months out of the gate.

Sorry for the semi rant. Just want the collar to be worn by everybody.

Well, in my case, I'm not leaving anyone out. I've pretty much quit them all, over 1-decade a go. And even the ones that I might participate in I don't listen to or believe any of their duplicitous garbage. Take a look at my history... I've been consistently railing against the NFL's PR machine ever since I came to ROD.

 

[Orchid]

Well, in my case, I'm not leaving anyone out. I've pretty much quit them all, over 1-decade a go. And even the ones that I might participate in I don't listen to or believe any of their duplicitous garbage. Take a look at my history... I've been consistently railing against the NFL's PR machine ever since I came to ROD.

Sorry I did not mean to put the ones just on you. I am just feed up with the narrow focus. We... society have junk this " hidden issue" big time.

 

[Thordaddy]

For me the single most distressing thing is when politicians weigh in expecting the NFL to be an ad hoc justice system when the criminal justice system they control and have the power to fund through forced taxation doesn't punish adequately to render satisfaction in the public eye ,everyone PAYS for that system, it's a case of the government NOT DOING it's job and criticizing private enterprise because they don't do it for them.
PATHETIC POSTURING PANDERING PISSHEADS

 

[Thordaddy]

dp worth saying twice but I won't

 

[fearsomefour]

Don't you think the fact that wealthy individuals can buy their way out of being prosecuted of almost any crime has anything to do with that statistic?

As it relates to arrests? No.

 

[RamWoodie]

http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2014/09/15/time-fans-start-quitting-nfl/15667897/
After decades of soaring popularity and profits, professional football is at a moral crossroads. For decades, the NFL’s entire business model has been predicated on presenting an athletic spectacle so thrilling that fans were willing to ignore the dark side of the game — its extreme and inherent violence, its antiquated gender roles and its nihilistic greed, which places profits above all else, even the health of its players.

But the past few days have provided more evidence of football’s heinous underbelly than fans can ignore.

With the NFL already reeling from the Ray Rice scandal, news spread Friday that Vikings running back Adrian Peterson had been indicted on a charge of felony child abuse for allegedly beating his 4-year-old son with a tree branch. A few hours later, an even bigger bombshell: The NFL admitted in federal court documents that nearly one-third of retired players will develop long-term cognitive problems and at “notably younger ages” than the rest of the population.

A day that began with media wags asking whether Commissioner Roger Goodell would survive his mishandling of the Rice imbroglio ended with stark questions about how the league itself would survive.

At this point in any other season, our focus would be on the games. Instead, media members and fans are discussing football not as a form of escapist entertainment but as a troubled moral undertaking. Major cracks are starting to form in the foundation of the NFL empire. We are witnessing a long-overdue reckoning.

Various corruptions of the NFL forced me to turn off the games forever, after 40 years as a devoted fan, and compelled me to write a book about my change of heart, “Against Football.” Now I am hearing from fans every day who are questioning their loyalty to the game, or who have abandoned it altogether. Even a few sports reporters and columnists are following suit. We’re witnessing a cultural sea change.

Hard-core fans will surely cry foul. The conventional wisdom is that football is too big to fail, too deeply entrenched in our national culture. There’s truth to that — the league’s revenue approached $10 billion last year, and sponsors have been sitting tight. But, ultimately, the flow of that revenue depends on fan loyalty. While the league has done a remarkable job of growing its fan base over the past decade, particularly among women, many of these fans are relatively casual and new to football. It may not take much for them to turn away from the game.

Even jock pundits who serve as de facto promoters of the NFL have been unable to ignore the ill omens. And political leaders are entering the fray, too. Last week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggested that lawmakers might revisit the “broad anti-trust exemptions granted (to the league) by Congress, and hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer benefit.” Thanks to deals cut with Congress in the 1960s, the NFL enjoys tax-exempt status as a “business league” and operates as a legal monopoly.

Just as worrying is the fact that major sponsors such as Marriott and FedEx have felt impelled to announce that they are monitoring the league’s conduct in the Rice matter. The disturbing details emerging about Peterson’s savage punishment of his son will no doubt induce further jitters in corporate boardrooms across the country. Having your brand associated with alleged wife and child beaters isn’t good business. And the prevalence of cognitive damage to former players is potentially a much more damaging story. In what other workplace would it be acceptable for 30 percent (or even 10 percent) of all employees to suffer permanent brain damage?

It’s worth bearing in mind a little history here. More than a century ago, boxing was among the nation’s most popular sports. Eventually, the masses rejected its overt savagery. The Sweet Science didn’t disappear, but it became a fringe sport. Football itself nearly disappeared in 1905, after 18 young men were killed on the gridiron. Schools banned the game, and editorialists called for its abolition. Instead, at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, the game underwent major reforms, which included legalizing the forward pass, a rule change that quickly led to a more wide-open, and therefore less dangerous, game.

Given the NFL’s own admission of the horrifying health risks posed to its players, the time has come for President Obama to stop serving as the nation’s fan-in-chief and to initiate a discussion about how to reduce the game’s violence, as well as its perverse and outsize role in our educational system. It’s time for fans to take a stand, too. Given the vast reach and resources of the NFL, and the slavish loyalty of its media enablers, fans tend to forget that they hold the power in this equation. The future of football will be determined not by a mass boycott or a government crackdown but by individual fans who confront the brutal realities of their favorite sport and act as their own consciences recommend.

Almond, a former sports reporter, is the author of “Against Football.” This column was published origianlly in The Washington Post.

Dude...go to Harvard...an be an elitist or something.