There is much truth in what this says but for some reason the tone is off putting. He also neglects the large gambling component of the NFL. It is difficult to measure but some say if no gambling was involved the NFL would lose half its audience. He may be right about the predictions but the gambling part may be very resilient and keep the NFL going.
Noticed the same thing. Author is stretching to tie gladiators,football, collesuims, etc. Its like he was going to make this illustration and football happened to be in the headlines, so he tried to make it work
NFL is dying BC of arrogance, greed, insulting its fan base, producing an unwatchable product, neglecting safety, enabling less than desirable culture, and ignoring the importance of the youth game.
Perhaps the gamblers can solve this problem.
Some of them could sit down with the owners and explain—you keep politics out of the game or we break your knees. :-)