Is the NFL compatible with the 21st century?

[Saturnmane]

My opinion is no, this sport and most of its players are straight up Neanderthals!!! Its filled with rapists, gang members, bullies, drug traffickers ,murderers and even a serial killer. It seems society is determined to rid the country of negative elements and the NFL is an amalgam of people who would be in prison if not for the league. Some may say that is good since it gives them a role in society but what they fail to realize is that paying psychopaths millions of dollars for being psychopaths is sending the wrong message. Plus giving them lots of money in some cases just means they have more money to buy bigger quantities of drugs like Hurd. Instead of starting out small they can begin as a sort of kingpin. Some former and present players are ticking timebombs (Kansas cities Belcher) just waiting to go off and putting anyone with one of these people in their life in danger!!! Lastly the league is in campaign mode to fool people into believing the sport is now safe. The heads up commercials subliminal message to parents was,"we have the heads up program , football is safe now, don't worry parents sign your son up."

 

[cdumler7]

Can't the same be said about any of the major sports right now? In baseball you have all the roided out players, skateboarding there is r*pe and murder, boxing there was an athlete found to be running a prostitution ring, murder, child ******ation by NBA player, human trafficking. Every sport out there has some idiot who has decided to do something idiotic and downright immoral in this world. Football is no exception to that.

 

[fastforward]

 

[Naughtymax]

You forgot the buzzword of the month - bullies!

Compared to the NBA these guys are choir boys and role models.

All the NFL needs is a waiver to be signed by all players as a condition of all contracts acknowledging it's a violent game with injury risks and that they agree to incur these risks.

Owners can decide whether they need personal behavior clauses in contracts or whether they prefer to hire 3 full-time babysitters for their less mature stars (known as the Dez strategium).

 

[Wedgie]

Ahh, the 21st century, where nerf guns are outlawed, (Ohio?), trans fats are banned, (FDA),
Scores arent kept in little league for fear of damaging poor widdle feewings, kids must wear helmets to ride a bicycle.... The list of the pussification of this country is endless.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

The OP should revisit history.

21st century...violent entertainment (even more so than NFL) has been part of society since the days of early Rome. The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world, but boxing at one time was a major world wide sport, MMA is now a legit sport...point...as people we really have not changed much.

 

[Wolverine830872]

This coming from an NBA fan is rich. If you want to talk about thug life and going straight from the hood to multi-million dollar contracts than look no further than basketball players. The NFL has forced kids to be three years removed from highschool for a long time now. The NBA very recently required kids to be one year removed (once they got Lebron in).

But lets get real here, all professional sports are a pretty good cross-section of our country as a whole (except for race ratios). You'll have your druggies and your criminals but you also have your devout religious people and upstanding citizens. And sports is something that we can all relate too and cherish. So to answer your question, yes the NFL is compatible with the 21st century and will continue to be so long as we, as Americans, continue to cherish and support the league and the sport.

 

[Clayton]

In baseball you have all the roided out players

Yes, because the guys in baseball are the only ones doing roids. Have you seen what NFL players and NBA players look like?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I've said it many times, football has already peaked. In the future it will either die out the way boxing has or it will be radically different from the sport we see today. The youth participation numbers have plummeted, the injuries are just too much to ignore. Parents are far more reluctant to let their kids play now.

A lot of people hate the thought of this, but soccer will eventually become the go to sport. With the country's demographics shifting to a latino majority, more television coverage and an expanding domestic league, combined with the fact it literally costs nothing to play soccer and our economy not what it once was, there are a lot of signs pointing toward soccer becoming the go to sport in this country. Won't happen tomorrow, or in 5 years, but in 20 years? Very real possibility.

 

[Clayton]

I've said it many times, football has already peaked. In the future it will either die out the way boxing has or it will be radically different from the sport we see today. The youth participation numbers have plummeted, the injuries are just too much to ignore. Parents are far more reluctant to let their kids play now.

A lot of people hate the thought of this, but soccer will eventually become the go to sport. With the country's demographics shifting to a latino majority, more television coverage and an expanding domestic league, combined with the fact it literally costs nothing to play soccer and our economy not what it once was, there are a lot of signs pointing toward soccer becoming the go to sport in this country. Won't happen tomorrow, or in 5 years, but in 20 years? Very real possibility.

Agree with your first point but not so sure about the second point. Hispanics will assimilate before soccer gains traction.

 

[cdumler7]

Yes, because the guys in baseball are the only ones doing roids. Have you seen what NFL players and NBA players look like?

I'm not arguing that point. If you read the OP's thoughts he is pointing towards the issues that have become a major part of the NFL and how it reflects on society. I was merely responding to the thought that the NFL is not the only sport in the US or around the world that has criminal/medical issues.

 

[Clayton]

I'm not arguing that point. If you read the OP's thoughts he is pointing towards the issues that have become a major part of the NFL and how it reflects on society. I was merely responding to the thought that the NFL is not the only sport in the US or around the world that has criminal/medical issues.

Sure, but the NFL has additional problems that it has to address that other sports don't. Players are getting too fast and strong. Players are having really short careers. They can stop head injuries but now they have to deal with knee injuries.

Are kids going to be signing up for this at the same rate as baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc? I doubt it.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I've said it many times, football has already peaked. In the future it will either die out the way boxing has or it will be radically different from the sport we see today. The youth participation numbers have plummeted, the injuries are just too much to ignore. Parents are far more reluctant to let their kids play now.

A lot of people hate the thought of this, but soccer will eventually become the go to sport. With the country's demographics shifting to a latino majority, more television coverage and an expanding domestic league, combined with the fact it literally costs nothing to play soccer and our economy not what it once was, there are a lot of signs pointing toward soccer becoming the go to sport in this country. Won't happen tomorrow, or in 5 years, but in 20 years? Very real possibility.

Participation....plummeted? My boss has 3 boys, 10 12, & 15 all play football & Lacross in the north GA (metro ATL) area. He's pretty connected to the leagues and he's not getting that impression. He feels parents are waiting longer to start kids in the game, but at the level his kids play, no teams are having problem fielding teams. For now I would say the numbers maybe decreasing.

Soccer...growing, but not in 20 yrs, not in 30 yrs will it be the go to sport.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Pop Warner youth football participation drops; NFL concussion crisis seen as causal factor - ESPN

 

[Clayton]

I think the main argument against your theory, Nasty Magician, is that America has an infrastructure and talent pool for the best football in the world and doesn't have anything close to the infrastructure and talent pool for the best soccer in the world. Europe has soccer on lockdown. A lot of places around the world watch European soccer leagues. Then when World Cup comes around, its about national pride and that will split Hispanics with the country they are in vs the team their family roots for.

I think people will progressively get more and more of their violence fix from forms of virtual entertainment other than sports. Gun violence is WAY up in TV and movies and video games and I suspect that trend will continue as computers get more advanced

 

[cdumler7]

Sure, but the NFL has additional problems that it has to address that other sports don't. Players are getting too fast and strong. Players are having really short careers. They can stop head injuries but now they have to deal with knee injuries.

Are kids going to be signing up for this at the same rate as baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc? I doubt it.

Injuries are definitely a concern in the sport. And it could be the reason the sport eventually begins to die down in popularity. The point of this thread though was not to argue that. The OP was speaking about the issues within the sport of the players being nothing but thugs and criminals. So again you keep commenting towards my post but ignoring the fact that what I have been responding to was geared towards that of the OP. Yes I realize the injuries have caused some to have to step back and take a look at whether kids should start playing football. I will say in the area I live in football is still the sport that kids as young as 1st grade dream about getting to play in high school and be a star. Some parents yes have started pulling their kids out of the sport and I don't blame them for making that kind of decision. I also realize though that there are companies out there working on making equipment that is pretty impressive to protect players. They have helmets now that can actually detect concussions without even having to do a concussion test because they gauge how hard a helmet was hit on any given play and alert those around that a player has been hit to the point of most likely being concussed. They have started programs to try and teach kids better and more proper tackling and training coaches how to teach kids from a very young age how to tackle. There are steps being taken to make sure the NFL is around 20 years from now. We shall see if they make the necessary changes in time.

Also just another point to throw out there. With the NFL now expanding over into the European area and gaining popularity there might be a whole new group of recruits for teams to look at. Numbers might be down here in the States but my guess is numbers are probably increasing overseas of how many kids are starting to play football.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I think the main argument against your theory, Nasty Magician, is that America has an infrastructure and talent pool for the best football in the world and doesn't have anything close to the infrastructure and talent pool for the best soccer in the world. Europe has soccer on lockdown. A lot of places around the world watch European soccer leagues. Then when World Cup comes around, its about national pride and that will split Hispanics with the country they are in vs the team their family roots for.

I think people will progressively get more and more of their violence fix from forms of virtual entertainment other than sports. Gun violence is WAY up in TV and movies and video games and I suspect that trend will continue as computers get more advanced

The time frame for soccer is debateable. However the MLS has expanded for something like 7 or 8 straight years. In terms of international competiveness, the US was once a joke and is now a legitimate team. Not quite on par with Europe just yet but I think the MLS and US Soccer are certainly on the rise.

Football will be a slow death as there will always be hotbeds such as Texas, just as with boxing there are still pockets of loyalists in places such as Detroit, Philly and NYC.

 

[Wolverine830872]

I've said it many times, football has already peaked. In the future it will either die out the way boxing has or it will be radically different from the sport we see today. The youth participation numbers have plummeted, the injuries are just too much to ignore. Parents are far more reluctant to let their kids play now.

A lot of people hate the thought of this, but soccer will eventually become the go to sport. With the country's demographics shifting to a latino majority, more television coverage and an expanding domestic league, combined with the fact it literally costs nothing to play soccer and our economy not what it once was, there are a lot of signs pointing toward soccer becoming the go to sport in this country. Won't happen tomorrow, or in 5 years, but in 20 years? Very real possibility.

Sure, If the latino population takes over and the economy never recovers and we become a third world country, then yes, we may very well become a soccer country.
But in certain pockets around the country (see Texas) Football is a way of life and kids play it for the prestige factor. I don't see that changing any time soon, even with the exploding latino population down there. And lets not forget the dangers of soccer either. They have done scans of soccer players' brains and they are just as fucked up as other athletes, if not more.

So if safety is your only concern, then football will remain on top. If soccer players all of a sudden made more money than other sports, only then would it become a major player. And once that happens you better believe that soccer players will be risking their health with PEDs as well.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

I think the NFL is a joke. People love the violence the NFL provided in the past. By violence I mean HITS. I also hate to see guys helping each other up. It wasn't long ago teams hated each other. Now it's a love fest every Sunday.

Peyton Manning wouldn't have gotten up from that hit he took last Sunday back when they played actual tackle football because the player hitting him would have made sure he had a serious injury.

 

[Clayton]

The OP was speaking about the issues within the sport of the players being nothing but thugs and criminals. So again you keep commenting towards my post but ignoring the fact that what I have been responding to was geared towards that of the OP.

Oh ok. Yeah, thugs come in every sport because athletes will always feel entitled. I have met exactly zero football or basketball players that I would actively have a beer with. I'm always shocked that their heads' fit into helmets but its not like players of other sports are any better or any cleaner.