Posted on 04/26/2024 6:39:53 AM PDT by Starman417
I learned a few days ago that tonight is the start of the NFL Draft. For many years this date was marked on my calendar months out, and today I don't even now in which city it will be held. That was then; this is now.
It's hard to believe that it's been almost four years since I got tired of being insulted by the NFL and walked away from decades of fandom. Then two years later the league was kind enough to offer several reasons to affirm my decision. So now we check in at 2024, and the league is going to improve play by... having the referees throw more penalty flags for... (checks notes) tackling? Yes, it looks like the NFL is doing all that it can to alienate the kind of fans who turned the league into an empire. And yet, with all of these bad moves in the last few years, the league is getting more viewers than ever. Why? No, it's not thanks to Taylor Swift, although this has helped the league in the all important 13 year old girl demographic. The answer is far simpler: gambling.
For those unfamiliar, fantasy football (FF) is a game that allows a group of friends (or strangers) to pick various players for their fantasy team and compete based on how those player perform each week. Although FF has been around since the 1980s, it really took off around Y2K with the rise of the internet - the perfect tool for tracking and communicating in real time. But the NFL's Great Leap Forward in popularity had its roots in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Short explanation: a law written to regulate online gambling left a carveout for fantasy sports. Fast forward a few years and outfits like Draft Kings launched fantasy based sports gambling. It didn't take long to jump from professional sports leagues giving a coy wink and nod to the notion of gambling, punishing the occasional player who got caught up in it (for which Philadelphia Phillies great Pete Rose has become the poster child) to where now the NHL and NFL have franchises in Las Vegas.
I won't recap the legacy of Colon Kaepernick and the BLM protests, but viewership took a dip as a result of the NFL endorsing the Marxists. The league dialed back glorifying them, but never left it behind. They continue to sing the "Black National Anthem" before certain games (while not answering the question of where that "nation" resides), while continuing to plaster Marxist slogans in their end zones. Many forgave and returned, and I'm not among them. As a result of openly embracing gambling, the league found a way to replace the fans who loved the game with fans of gambling on the game. It was while watching this video from the always great Jason Whitlock that I finally pieced together that the changes that the league has been making over the last few years (I read the occasional news story on the league and my Eagles fandom rubbed off onto Sister Babe and she regularly watches their games when they broadcast here) have been all in the name of expanding gambling tied viewership. Hell, Commissioner Goodell has gotten arrogant enough to not unequivocally rule out ever having the Super Bowl in London. As the post concluded, "Probably, but only when the money is right".
The NFL has set itself up quite well for short term gain, but long term ruin.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
I never understood the appeal of football anyway. It’s like a religious cult.
Yea. It’s a conspiracy man. Yawn.
The NFL Draft in Downtown Detroit was a blast last night. 100’s of thousands of people, and will be the same tonight. Great time and fun.
The game is stronger than ever.
I don’t think the NFL will miss ya.
Keep whistling past the graveyard.😂
Oh yea.
Trump 2024🇺🇸👍
Being a brute I was a true fan of the Vince Lombardi/Ray Nitschke brutal days of football.
It's a grift - getting taxpayers to subsidize those who hate them, those who colluded with Communist organizations such as Black Lives MatterTM to spit in the face of Americans.
Let them disappear into the dustbin of history.
I used to see fans wearing apparel; jackets, hats, shirts. They'd put stickers on their cars, including on the glass. They'd fly team flags from their porches and have huge Sunday barbecues to watch the game.
Now I only see NFL apparel on the rare occasions that some old-timer pulls a faded jacket out of the closet.
Diana, I have been a Packer Fan since the ‘50s…but, as long as they associate with the rest of the NFL, they are dead to me.
And yes, I know that they are publicly owned.
And, sadly, the state of my birth, my home state, is gone forever, too!
I was a Dolphins fan from the late 60’s early 70’s until they hit their knees and I haven’t watched a snap of any game since. I won’t even watch highlights on the news of these brats.
Occasionally I will find a video of the Dolphins from the 70’s-80’s and watch them but to me the NFL, NBA and MLB are dead. The only way I return is with and apology from the owners, the league and the players for their odious behavior and that’s not going to happen, so I watch SEC college football on Saturdays and am quite content.
It looks like Eddie Murphy imitating Stevie Wonder.
“Really, it’s just a waste of time.”
True. An expensive one for a lot of people.
WWE is popular but at least we know that it's fake. The NFL claims that it's "real".
“65 Toss Power Trap!”
"That ain't funny...Stevie Wonder's a musical genius!"
And Old Time Hockey....Like Eddie Shore!
Every year the players change, the coaches change, and even the city changes. The only thing that doesn't change are the uniforms.
We're rooting for laundry!
It's even worse now with college football.
There is some hope. The new rules regarding kick-offs bring the game a bit back toward what it used to be, where there will be actual returns now rather than safety after safety.
Simple.
Don’t watch.
Obviously your sitting out is having No impact on the rest of us, and the NFL.
I’m entitled to my opinion. Just check out hashtages #nflscript” and you’ll see I’m not the only person saying this.
Last time .
Nobody cares about your blog obviously. It isn’t having your desired virtue signal
😂
Trump 2024
You can search for #anyidiotconspiracy and find lots of hits. Just because lots of people are dumb enough to believe something doesn’t make the earth flat, the moon landing faked, or any other random idiocy out there. The fact is the NFL would have nothing to gain from rigging the outcome. The money in sports is in the unexpected happening. The WWE is the largest scripted sport in the world and makes a fraction of what any of the other major sports makes. Even the lowly NHL, bottom of the major sports heap, makes 6 times as much as the WWE. Trying to script the results of a game with 106 players, plus the refs and the coaches would take a massive effort, would be rather obvious, and kill the revenue. Most of those #ers are just sour grapes, or fools, maybe both.
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