Middle class abandoning football
Makes me wonder about how college football changes also. Any thoughts?
Death of NFL inevitable as middle class abandons the game
"You really think the NFL is worried about young athletes? If so, they'd have changed the rules years ago, abandoning face masks, enlarging the ball to make it difficult to throw, switching to one platoon football."
I didn't know about one platoon football before (or the phrase). Some research pulled up this article about Fritz Crisler: The Man Who Changed Football
Sports Illustrated article starts: "When the NCAA Rules Committee voted a return to two-platoon football last month, one of the least surprised men in the country—and one of the most pleased—was Fritz Crisler, athletic director of the University of Michigan. Crisler is a life member of the Rules Committee."
September 8th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^
Viewership is suffering but it's a gradual process. The sport peaked and is on the way back down, albeit slowly. As someone who was a diehard for so many years I can honestly say I think the product blows now and I don't change any plans on a Sunday for it anymore. Also, I don't want my kid playing it as I have many issues with my spine that the doctors liken to multiple car accidents. Once told I played almost a decade of football, they just nodded and said there ya go.
We love football. College football to me is the best thing ever. But it's popularity as a sport is changing and it doesn't even take numbers to know that. When schools are having a hard time fielding teams where in the past they would have to make cuts, it's pretty obvious it's happening.
September 8th, 2017 at 2:54 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 2:58 PM ^
The guy is a mouth breather, psuedu-tough guy who talks "Chicago" tough while living in the leafy suburbs. He's a wannabe Mike Royko (for old-timers who might know who that is).
To get to the "substance" of the article, it provides no stats or studies, just his thoughts as a "soccer dad" who hates football, and talking to one guy in the suburbs who runs a 4th grade tackle league.
My strong guess is pee-wee and Pop Warner football *is* endangered, as the studies say to limit tackling & collisions at least until at least high school (and even after that, severely limit tackling in practice). But for football as a whole, there are now huge amounts of kids (i.e., 5-14) playing flag football -- that basically didn't exist about 10 years ago. Just look at all the teams in SE Michigan (and this is just one organization).
http://www.michiganyouthflagfootball.com/Default.aspx?tabid=181868
Now I don't know how many of these kids will transition to tackle football. Most won't. But it keeps them interested in the NFL, as every kid gets an NFL team jersey. And in an era where UFC fighting has become basically a major sport, and it's as violent as anything, to say we're facing the "Death of NFL" is downright stupid.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:12 PM ^
John Kass is one of many reasons that the Chicago Tribune is (at best) a second-rate paper. I've seen better work in the Jackson Citizen Patriot and Traverse City Record Eagle.A city of 2M+ should have something better.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:21 PM ^
...about the Trib and Kass. The fact they've stuck with him so long is a small window into how poorly run they are.
The Trib was legitimately a very good (if not great) paper through about the late '90s/early '00s -- their international coverage was so-so, but their local & cultural coverage was great. But they had absolutely zero idea how to handle the oncoming internet and bad hires like Kass didn't help. That doesn't make them much different than anyone else, but I could easily argue the Det News or Freep are now as good (or as bad, depending how you look at it) as the Tribune, and there is no way I would have remotely said that 15 years ago.
September 8th, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^
You could also make the argument that football has the potential to, and probably will, grow in global popularity. This will likely offset any national decline.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:03 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:39 PM ^
What about the SEC country players that have committed to playing for Michigan? What's their story?
September 8th, 2017 at 3:05 PM ^
NFL. and i grew up on it for 40 years. Commercials, replays, celebrations, announcers, refs, UNWATCHABLE. I suppose people watch if they bet the game or do fantasy football. Otherwise, I say that league is gone in 20 years.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^
If that's the future, then NCAA football disappears with it. I don't think many kids strive for excellence through high schoool so they can get a full ride to a D1 school just to go to the CFL or nothing at all.
September 8th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^
If people aren't watching, they don't have a choice. Money still makes it all happen.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:07 PM ^
and there's mass panic.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:00 PM ^
Heading a ball going 30 mph isn't exactly healthy.
Every sport has risk.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:02 PM ^
What does the data say? You assume that heading a ball going 30 mph will cause CTE, but the scientific process requires you test that hypothesis. So what does data say about soccer? Does it cause CTE? More than football? Less than football? And 'every sport has risk' isn't a justification. The key question is 'how much risk', and have that widely available to all people from parents to professionals so they can make the best, most informed decisions.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^
http://newsroom.aaos.org/images/9064/media_gallery/ConcussionAbstractAA…
Better stop letting your daughters play soccer or basketball.
September 8th, 2017 at 5:57 PM ^
Ah yes, the old "other sports have concussions too" argument.
CTE risk is not the same as concussion count.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^
That would be a big change, but less radical than what you would need to do to football to get the same reduction in brain damage.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:54 PM ^
I'm not a huge soccer fan, but it seems to me that would change the game drastically.
September 8th, 2017 at 5:08 PM ^
I wouldn't say drastically... players only head the ball something like 6 times per game, but that is easy enough to reduce
September 8th, 2017 at 7:24 PM ^
Headers are a key part of passing, intercepting and scoring. Anytime the ball is in the air over people's heads there will more likely than not be a header. Goal kicks and corner kicks almost always result in high speed headers. Ditto drop kicks by the goalie.
Source: played and coached for years
September 9th, 2017 at 4:49 PM ^
it is 6 times per game per player, there are studies on this.
Studies:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887617702001518?np=y
September 8th, 2017 at 7:33 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:15 PM ^
Why would making footballs harder to throw improve safety? IIRC, the forward pass was legalized in part as a safety measure, to open up the game from the constant scrums it had been before.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:14 PM ^
like me. BTW, the middle class is disappearing rapdily so it's probably a moot point.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:15 PM ^
Big time soccer wasn't on live ESPN every week back in the day like it is now. I think soccer is finally going to overtake football by 2040.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:19 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:23 PM ^
I kid!
Don't @ me USMNT fans!
September 8th, 2017 at 3:23 PM ^
my that sounds unpleasurable.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^
That article on Crisler was a great read. I cannot imagine the 'sleeper' ever being part of the game.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^
The rule against the "sleeper" play is now called "substitution with intent to deceive." The fact that the sleeper play existed led directly to that weird penalty in 2015.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:17 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
What happens, seriously, when the changing way content is delivered means the money dries up? We are probably in the final years here, whether it's the final 10 or the final 20, of the TV rights contract as they currently exist. That is maybe one more generation to be attracted by the promise of obscene money to play a dangerous game.
Soccer does have CTE links, but the way forward for it is much easier as banning the header would be far simplie than any change needed to football.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 4:13 PM ^
when they're going for a ball in the air. The collisions aren't nearly as bad (with respect to head injuries) when the ball is on the ground.
September 8th, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
Exactly this, almost all contact in soccer when players aren't in the air happens from the waist down. And unlike in football, there is no clunky headgear to turn lower body tackles into potential head injuries.
September 8th, 2017 at 7:21 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:22 PM ^
has more to do with the political statement-making and ridiculous levels of conventional and social media-fuelled righteous indignation, attention-seeking and validation. Lacking any drama the media will create it for themselves to feed on for days and weeks.
The fact that football fans are fatigued by this is woefully understated.
It's become noxious, and just doesn't belong in the game.
ESPN's prolific crash and burn, and that of the NFL are highly correlated. They both suck.
As for NFL football, yeah, holy crap who would have thought? Turns out fewer and fewer people wants to watch run, run, pass, punt and sissy-sliding quarterbacks sprinkled in between 2 hours of stupid corporate commercial breaks and 1998-style Fox Graphics.
They forget that all that's required is a camera, sound and a compelling, colorful voice or two to witness and share the excitement.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:09 PM ^
Heard something on the radio a couple months ago. In a normal season average fan watches something like 4 hours of actual football plays v. 96 hours of time between plays and commercials (think I have the numbers right). Yeesh...
September 8th, 2017 at 3:23 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
My son has been on 3 travel soccer teams in the past 2 years. That is not because we're griping parents who are dissatisfied with a coach, but the teams could not maintain enough players to compete, so they collectively imploded. No fault of the coach or parents or some worrisome decline in the sport, but....crap happens. I suspect this league the author interviewed is probably becoming the "loser" league in the community that parents are no longer interested in.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:23 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^
If you scratch the surface just a little bit with the author of the piece, you'll realize that (along with a general antipathy towards football) is what this column is about, rather than any well-reasoned or well-researched piece on the trajectory of tackle football and the NFL.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:32 PM ^
but college football isn't
September 8th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
Though I love football, I also believe that it is fading. I may be wrong; time will tell, regardless of personal anecdotes, examples from the small data set of a few years, fondness, or even angry words.
But right or wrong, I'm more interested here why the posted article & topic generated so much anger.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:52 PM ^
I am also curious about the data in high school sports as many kids don't pick football up until then. Youth programs are not always indicative of future health of a sport, unless someone has data to prove otherwise. As long as players are making $$$ in the NFL and as long as poverty still exists, there will be families making sacrifices to gamble on their talented children to make a run at the NFL. That motivation will keep kids playing in HS and College. Just my theory, I guess.