Posted on 09/15/2023 7:51:14 AM PDT by aculeus
A decade ago, high school football seemed doomed. Stories of retired NFL players haunted by head injuries filled the news. Participation dwindled as parents feared putting their kids in the sport. Then the pandemic further dimmed Friday night lights across the country and threatened to speed football’s decline.
But the sport has staged a surprising comeback. Turnout of boys for high school football rose 5.6% last year, according to recently released data by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Soccer should be called "feetball" since they kick with either the left or right.
“We’ve actually had a lot more support come back for football as a good, disciplined activity for teenagers,” said Matt Johnson, head coach at Mountain View High in Tucson, Ariz. About 130 players are out for football at Mountain View this year, up from 85 in 2019, Johnson said.
Perhaps a minor backlash from the national war on males.
College football and the NFL are unrivaled in terms of popularity. The NFL rules the ratings. They can do no wrong. Young men see that. They love football and want to play. The media talks about injuries, but serious football injuries are rare and most kids have not seen any in real life. Plus, youth football rarely practices with full contact.
I think the current rash of shootings going on under the Friday Night Lights are also drawing bigger crowds.
It was the concussion hysteria that caused it.
Growing up in west texas in the late 80’s and early 90’s all our football practices were 110% every time from YFL through high school. Then again, Odessa Permian HS team was flying around on private jets at the same time, so you get the vibe. I’m sure it’s all different now.
I will watch HS football (even city league) before I watch an NFL game.
So the left hyped up some of the players' hate of the U.S. and even encouraged some of them to express their racial hate towards whites. That seems to have worked fairly well in the NFL.
But it didn't work in college football, at least not with Bama. In year 2020 when Saban and the players did a Blame Lighter Melanins march the fans took note. Life long Bama fans got online making videos of ripping up jerseys and vowing to never watch another game. People ripped up tickets even though in that year those tickets were extra special with the limited seating of 2020 from covid. It wasn't just a brief fad. It's all us Bama fans talked about for a while, even with 2020 looking like a year Bama would do well (which they did).
Saban and the players got the message. They quit saying BLM except for a few times using the phrase as a transition in their message, like: "black lives matter because all lives matter". They was Saban and the players telling us they got the point. After a few times of them saying that, they quit saying anything like it, showing that they repented. Us fans forgave them and cheered them and filled up the stands (best we could with the year 2020 limited seating) as they won another national championship and Bama's relationship with the fans are back to being strong.
Bama didn't make ads virtue signaling to pretend to think like us (think what Bud Light's damage control after Dylan looks like). All Saban and the players had to do was quit giving the message of blaming whites for everything under the sun. They did. And we're good. The NFL hasn't really done that. I don't think the NFL wants the kind of fan support they had before.
Soccer should be called “feetball” since they kick with either the left or right.
It really never left in some parts of the country. Texas, Florida, Southern Columbia in Shamokin, PA.
HS Football is so embedded in our culture that another few generations will have to die off before the powers can kill it.
Was at the DE/PSU game last week - playing golf at a local resort and the DE Football Alums were all there. Got to talk to a lot of them in the bar and they were total class acts. Every one of them ripped, young, and - you could tell - accomplished.
Football is good for people, and it starts in High School.
Part of it is probably that it would self-exclude the girls that claim to be guys.
Couple of good hits and they’d drop out of that activity right quick.
The NFL hasn’t ruled the ratings for years.
Check out the latest numbers.
Even figuring in all platforms, ratings still suck.
Chicks still like jocks. You want to get the chicks in high school, you have two options: Play football, or be in a band.
A decade is a long time for keeping something in the social consciousness. People moved on from the concussion thing.
As for what’s football it’s actually rather regional. Sure for most of the world soccer is football. But each of the variations is most popular somewhere and that’s football. What we call Aussie rules football is just football in Australia. Rugby is football in New Zealand. Canadian football, oddly enough, just football.
People like to claim it’s an American thing, but it isn’t.
While ratings for almost everything are down, football still very much rules. Here’s the 100 most watched shows last year, and this is done by series, if you go to individual episodes football’s dominance is even more start:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/most-popular-tv-shows-highest-rated-2022-2023-season-yellowstone-football-1235623612/
So SNF was #1, MNF #3, and TNF #6
You have to get all the way down to 35 before you get another sport, the NBA playoffs
Heck even the “stunt” broadcast of the MNF Manningcast makes the list at 96, just above the NHL playoffs
Oops, starK not start.
"Then again, Odessa Permian HS team was flying around on private jets at the same time, so you get the vibe. I’m sure it’s all different now."
Well said Pink.
:)
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