Star Member cali (87,222 posts)
Is It O.K. to Watch Football? [View all]
n the past few years—thanks to a combination scientific study; legal action from current and former players; dedicated reporting; and an increased, though surely belated, openness on the part N.F.L. executives—football fans have been forced to confront something that we already knew from plain sight: the sport is dangerous for the people who play it—for their joints, and bones, and muscles, and, especially, for their brains. The recent settlement between the N.F.L. and thousands of former players or their families, who were suing the league for what they alleged was its failure to inform players about the long-term health risks of concussions and other head trauma, does not resolve the issue for fans. The deal means that no evidence about what the league has known about head injuries, and for how long it has known it, will come up in the discovery process before a trial: key language in the agreement holds that it “cannot be considered an admission by the NFL of liability, or an admission that plaintiffs’ injuries were caused by football.†Nor does it absolve us from taking time to ask ourselves some hard but basic questions: Is it O.K. to watch, and take intense pleasure from, a game that is so hazardous to its players? Should football in its current form even exist?
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In a recent column for the Times, the longtime sportswriter William C. Rhoden considered these issues and reached the conclusion that fans are left with three options, none of them entirely satisfying:
You love the product and don’t really care about its costs.
You are troubled by football but will continue to watch.
You will walk away.
Rhoden is not the only writer to think about the sport this way, but his three choices are usefully stark. And they’re especially relevant for any reader of “Slow Getting Up,†a compelling and often funny new memoir by Nate Jackson, who spent six seasons as a receiver and tight end in the N.F.L., before retiring in 2009. Jackson went undrafted as a wide receiver from Menlo College, a small school near his hometown of San José, before being signed briefly by the San Francisco 49ers. He was dismissed by some as too slow to be a receiver, and later, when he played tight end for the Denver Broncos, the knock was that he was too small. These limitations hurt his football career, but they may well have helped his writing—if there’s a sweet spot for the sports memoirist, it’s mediocrity. (Though, in this case, mediocrity means being among the best players of a sport on earth, but middling among one’s fellow pros.) Jackson is neither egghead nor meathead; he’s one of the boys playing a game he loves, but he also happens to have his eyes open to the cracks in football’s formidable mythology. And his memoir, with its competing passion and ambivalence, offers evidence and argument for fans who may be considering Rhoden’s set of choices.
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And so begins another superior-to-thou wankfest on DU, which does nothing but underscore how STUPID and DELUSIONAL they are...every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday something like 40 percent of households watch pro football, yet it's still just something enjoyed by neanderthals.Here we go:
Star Member hobbit709 (28,124 posts)
1. bread and circuses.
One of the hoariest replies ever. Hey, hobbit709? Bread, circuses, and my COCK.
Star Member 1-Old-Man (2,517 posts)
12. I've never seen any real difference between Football and Professional Wrestling
Both appeal to the same mindset, and overwhelming desire to witness mindless violence while sitting safely on their own fat asses. Show me a dedicated Football fan and I'll show you a moron. NASCAR? Same thing but with gasoline.
Yeah, we're supposed to sit around enduring the pissed-off blatherings of a constipated old bastard like you, gramps.
Ron Green (6,914 posts)
21. Without football, what else would we have to keep men
from really knowing each other?
I'm sure there are plenty of men you want to "really know," Ron. Make them all wear condoms.
Star Member Katashi_itto (2,771 posts)
34. Sorry sitting there, living vicariously through mainstream sports for the masses,
Last edited Tue Sep 24, 2013, 03:24 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
stuffing your face, getting soft, is no fun.
I known lots of people who live for football and as rule they are overweight, out of shape. No thanks.
I may practice esoteric sports, but at least I AM doing that. I prefer doing my own gladatorial combat. Not some pampered millionaire.
Thats simply my personal opinion.
Pompous assery isn't an esoteric sport...if it was, Will Pitt would be Jim ****ing Thorpe.
