The NFL has started and I do not care. Do I think football is a bad sport? No. Do I think it should be called football? No. Do I find it more entertaining than baseball? Yes. With all that said, I can probably tell you more about football than the next guy who isn’t interested in it. I can credit that to the fact that my dad was/is a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan. And I am not innocent of getting excited when the Cowboys win (so not all that often). However, I just do not find football that incredibly interesting. I am one of those people who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials, and most importantly, the halftime show.
However, this last year was a bit different from all of the rest. The reason being that I moved to Denver and that happened to be the year the Denver Broncos went all the way. And let me tell you, we still have banners and signs up around the town showcasing this fact. But the fact withstanding, what does it mean anymore? Don’t get me wrong, I understand that they played something around 20 games (give or take) but even if they do go all the way, what do they actually get? Some may argue that money is gained from this win however I will again cite the Dallas Cowboys who don’t win very much but still make a lot of money. So it doesn’t seem to me that winning makes all that much of a difference in their paycheck. So the elephant in the room is currently that it’s the prestige/honor/glory that comes with winning. And far be it from me to suggest that sports are all about glorifying oneself. However, it just doesn’t seem that risking one’s bodily functions (see the movie Concussion) quite makes it worth the ego booster.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I am probably missing something here. But let me process through this for you. It has been shown time and time again that the current equipment used to protect the players is hardly doing so. We see every season many players getting injured (enter Tony Romo joke here) and it doesn’t seem that much has been done to change that. And in a sport where harsh collisions are very commonplace, I feel that something should be changed. On top of this, football doesn’t seem to enrich society in any way, shape, or form. In fact, some of the most vicious and extremely primal people I have seen have been advocating for one of their favorite sports teams. Let me reference the celebratory parade that was given for the Broncos after they won it all. Essentially there was a long line of sports related personnel spread apart by advertising in many shapes and forms. And after it was over, some individuals took it upon themselves to trash the city of Denver. Cars were flipped, storefronts were trashed, and fireworks were thrown into the center of busy streets. I hardly find that relevant to the success of their sports team.
So again, let us open a season to watch who can throw the farthest, run the fastest, kick the hardest, and who can go the longest without getting injured.
