People watch, therefore the NFL is really, really important.
You can make the same argument about porn.
And, just like porn, the people consuming and participating in football have little knowledge of its harmful side effects. We’re just now comprehending the damage football does to the brain and the quality of life of its combatants. It will take even more time for people to abandon the myth that football promotes or supports values young people should emulate.
For now, especially in the middle of this “devastating” lockout, let’s pretend football represents the best of America. Let’s not consider it reflects what is wrong with us.
We’re recklessly violent. We’re not ashamed of our violent nature. We celebrate it, glorify it and ignore its consequences. Remember, I’m not anti-football. I’m just pro accepting the game for what it is. It’s sports porn. It’s a three-hour snuff film played and consumed by men who mostly haven’t intellectually evolved past adolescence.
If the NFL is our cultural benchmark, we’re not evolving.
That’s why I abhor the NFL marketing technique of wrapping the game in the American flag and partnering it with our military. The lockout-hysteria crowd actually argued at one point this offseason that its critical games be played on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. The hysteria grew even louder after our Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden.
It’s great that football players visit and entertain our troops overseas. Let the NFL put its money where its marketing is. Congress should tax the league for selling faux patriotism and use the revenue to support our wounded veterans. I’m serious.
Pro sports leagues are getting more out of their partnership with the American military than our armed services are getting in terms of favorable marketing. Working-class sports fans think it’s more patriotic to drop $10,000 on season tickets and stand upright during the national anthem 10 times a year than to drop the same cash on their children’s education.
Again, I love football. It’s the sport I enjoy writing and talking about the most. Football is at the foundation of my media platform.
He says that NFL work stoppage, season stoppage can knock Football off its grand and lofty pinnacle.....just like it did for baseball and basketball.
