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 2:56 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^
if it dies, it will be replaced by human cock-fighting. I mean, MMA.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:42 PM ^
and I'm also old enough to have watched MMA on Mexican cable channels in the late 90's, before there were any rules. Fighters nowadays are a bunch of pansy-asses. My point stands, it's human cock-fighting.
ST3 WANTS A TAMALE!!!
September 8th, 2017 at 3:49 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:14 PM ^
Compubox is killing the sport. Mayweather is boring as shit to watch.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^
pay attention to the wrong fights. Some of the best boxing matches I have ever seen have taken place in the last ten years. Miguel Cotto fights are uniformly awesome to watch. GGG has been on HBO Boxing After Dark (free with subscription) like 5 times in the last 3 years and those fights are always a blast. People spent $100 on that Mayweather-MgGregor nonsense a couple of weeks ago when the best middle-weight fight in some time is happening next weekend (and there was a better fight on HBO that same night!)
I think boxing is awesome and my interest in the sport has not decreased at all. I just stayed away from Mayweather stuff. I don't dispute that he is/was an incredible talent, but my god his fights were awful.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:29 PM ^
quite a bit a few, ok several, years ago.
I think for most people the heavyweight division was what boxing was. Almost all of the famous boxers of the last 100 years (few notable exceptions) were heavyweights. Once that division died, boxing fell out of sight.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:33 PM ^
was awesome to watch in his prime. I really, really wish he would have fought Mayweather in or around 2009/10 because I really think he would have beaten him.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:37 PM ^
Pac in his juiced up prime still wouldn't have won
September 8th, 2017 at 3:48 PM ^
never really understood the basis for that assertion. The has never been any evidence linking Pacquio to steroids. The only "connection" was Mayweather's unsubstantiated assertion. Pacquio signed to fight him in 2010 with blood tests conducted immediately after the fight but Mayweather unreasonably would not agree unless Pacquio agreed to random blood tests up until 14 days before the fight. At the time, Pacquio was a bigger draw than Mayweather and had absolutely no reason to bow down to Mayweather's demands. I believe that Mayweather was afraid to fight Pacquio in his prime because he saw him as a legitimate threat to beat him.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:03 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 5:09 PM ^
that he had helped Pac shoot up steroids.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:28 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 6:13 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^
I think he would have kicked the shit out of him. Manny was unstoppable in his prime. I've never seen a boxer move his hands that quickly.
Mayweather knew it, and that's why he kept ducking him.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:26 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^
is true of people who don't genuinely enjoy the sport. Personally, I could really care less about the personality of the fighters, I just like boxing. Kind of like how if two random college football teams were playing an absolutely great game I would be glued to the TV regardless of who the teams were. I guess there may not be that many of me though.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:42 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:50 PM ^
He's just not an entertaining fighter. Ali, Frazer, Foreman, Tyson, et all were fun to watch.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:21 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
Those things may be true, but it doesn't change the fact the Mayweather has been boring as hell to watch for the past several years (more, really). Defensive football is fun to watch, boxing, not so much.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
Mayweather is boring to watch to me because Mayweather is a boring fighter. He may be the best defesnive fighter of all time, he is exceptional in his command of the ring and only throws punches that he knows will land clean even if they do absolutely no damage. He is the best scoring boxer ever to fight. He is also very boring to watch.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 4:46 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 5:46 PM ^
Plenty of people who understand boxing still think Mayweather is boring as shit.
Mayweather is an extremely talented defender and counter-puncher, but his bouts have been pretty painful to watch for the last 7-8 years. Go back a decade or so and you'll find Mayweather showed the same level of talent and elusiveness, but with much more willingness to mix things up, go on offense and occassionally trade punches.
Nowadays he's content to spend an entire fight simply moving backward, and trying force his oppopnent to chase him, while pick him apart with counter-punches. The one saving grace of the McGregor fight is that we saw one of he few flashes of Floyd going on offense since forever.
September 8th, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 7:02 PM ^
Sweet science... I also understand the other side of boxing is the crazy emotion you feel while watching the violence \bravery exhibited during Hagler\Hearns or Frazier\Ali or not uncommomly a Thursday night bout on USA or an undercard on HBO. You are the one who's missing the point,
September 8th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:27 PM ^
Boxing isn't dead but you're an absolute idiot if you think it is anywhere near the level of mainstream popularity as it was even 25 years ago. One fight every 5-10 years generates massive interest, the rest of the time it's a niche thing.
September 8th, 2017 at 2:46 PM ^
I keep hearing about the death of football, but why does the sport continue to dominate tv ratings? Why is the Super Bowl a de facto national holiday? I think its essentially a troll from people who don't like sports.
September 8th, 2017 at 2:50 PM ^
Certainly viewership isn't suffering. I think, if the sport is going to dwindle or die, it will be many years from now. As more research is done on the chronic effects of the sport, even at amateur levels, I suspect fewer and fewer folks will play. That could, in turn lead to much lower popularity, viewership, etc.
Who knows? As another poster said, boxing is still (incredibly) around, so maybe it's just noise.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:12 PM ^
of the NFL is suffering, but that is because:
1) players keep doing highly publicized bad things,
2) the NFL keeps on botching highly publicized disciplines of those players,
3) NFL football is played on too many different days and times,
4) NFL football is really, really boring to watch and has way too many commercials,
5) games are not properly spaced out on Sunday so unless you have one of the subscription services and your team plays at 4 PM you are going to miss the first quarter,
6) people are being turned off by the National Anthem stuff and/or excessive discussion of the National Anthem stuff,
7) there is way too much discussion about salaries and contracts throughout the off-season and season and people are constantly reminded of the business aspect of the game.
Football is not dying. I am going to the Clarkston High School game tonight and it will be packed and the play on the field will be excellent. Every time I drive down basically any street in the summer or fall there is some sort of organized football practice going on. The first Saturday of college football was like a national celebration.
The sport of football is fine. The NFL is beginning to suffer because it is a terrible product. Fantasy football propped it up for a while but that is also fading. Notice the crickets last night on opening night. Ratings down 12% last night from last years opener while college football ratings soared on Saturday. The NFL has to quickly re-evaluate some things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE football, and I will maybe watch one or two NFL games this year. Something is wrong there.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:29 PM ^
Lots and lots of good points in here. +1 to you.
You mentioned it, but to me the reason viewership in the NFL is dropping is because its boring/bland/too even and too much of the offseason focus is spent on negativity. Meanwhile for something like CFB all of the offseason is spent on being positive. New recruits, new coaches, things are going to better, etc.
Also CFB ratings are still going up. This past weekend was the best opening weekend for CFB ever -- even better than the monster opening weekend from last year that had a much better slate of games.
So I don't think football is dying, but I do think people are getting tired of the NFL.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:50 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 4:02 PM ^
If it wasn't for fantasy football (and sigh sadly the Lions until I get fed up and decide to mow my lawn I probably wouldn't watch the NFL for several of the reasons above. Too many commercials. Too much hypocrisy (player safety? HA!) Bland announcing, etc.
It reminds me of what Brandon was trying to do with UM. At some point you can see behind the curtain that it's just a veiled attempt to market a flagging product to get people to spend more money.
CFB is an emotional and memory-building experience for me. I share it with my kids now.
September 8th, 2017 at 4:14 PM ^
All fair points, and those above you as well. I enjoy football - both college and pro. I enjoy watching UM more than anything else, but then enjoy watching random NFL games over college games I'm less invested in. Admittedly, I'm big into fantasy sports, so that is a big NFL draw. I also have Sunday Ticket so I have zero commercials on Sundays to annoy me (and zero of much other discussion other than actual football).
Personally, I think the "NFL is declining" is a bit overblown. Numbers were down last year, but that's happened before in election years, and the game last night saw declined ratings, but Houston/Florida numbers were likely very low given the Hurricane issues there that could have easily moved the numbers around (two very large football markets). If the trend continues from last season then I think people still start getting more worried.
September 8th, 2017 at 3:59 PM ^
I personally made a clean break from the NFL last year after all the National Anthem crap--I have to say I dont miss it one bit and have more time to do productive things on Sunday. Probably could and may well go the rest of my life without watching another snap.
September 8th, 2017 at 5:00 PM ^
do you live in clarkston?
September 8th, 2017 at 5:40 PM ^
The NFL is dying because of terrible marketing practices. They went way overboard trying to make football part of your life.
It doesn't matter how popular the product is, if you overload your audience they will be turned away.
September 9th, 2017 at 7:45 AM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^
I don't think I'll let my son play, but he's a middle class white kid with decent prospects in life.
There will always be poor kids willing to risk thier health for a chance at a better life.
September 9th, 2017 at 8:00 AM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:55 PM ^
September 8th, 2017 at 3:33 PM ^
NFL viewership is in decline for the non-spectacles... but more broadly, there are a LOT fewer players every year. I, along with most everyone I know, probably will at least discourage my kids from playing and will steer them toward baseball or soccer or something.
I actually think the headwinds for sports as we know them are pretty uniformly terrible... with the media landscape what it is, the money will dry up eventually, which will have massive effects at all levels of all sports. Low impact sports like soccer are already rising rapidly in terms of players, I wonder if Olympic style sports might eventually come to dominate everything.
September 8th, 2017 at 7:49 PM ^
You write that "low impact sports like soccer are already rising rapidly in terms of players." To what extent is this true? (a question for anyone)
I read an article recently citing all sorts of statistics regarding the rise of soccer in America. At one point in the article, the author explains that participation in youth soccer is currently 30 times what it was in the seventies and twice what it was in 1990. However, when you dig deeper into the very same youth registration statistics that the author is citing, you find that using 1990 as the most recent comparision is really convenient for the argument. Why? Because, according to those numbers, youth soccer participation hasn't actually grown at all since 2000. During the first fifteen years of this millenium, participation sits at just over 3 million with little deviation.
Now, maybe there are more "unregistered" players. Maybe more adults are playing. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more people in the U.S. are watching soccer, which might lead to increased participation in the future. I never played soccer, and my kids don't play, so, as I said, I honestly don't know if what you say is true.
September 9th, 2017 at 1:38 AM ^