Posted on 02/03/2018 7:22:56 AM PST by Kaslin
I love pro-football. From the plains of Iowa, I became a Cowboys fan. Most of my friends like the Packers, Bears, Vikings, or Chiefs, but not me. I loved those Dallas Cowboys. Why? First, Iowa doesn’t have a professional football team and secondly in the late 70s the Cowboys were awesome.
The days of Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett gave way to Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. As a boy those guys were larger than life…real life sports heroes. I suffered through two-a-days as a seventh grader because football was the greatest game I’d ever seen. I wasn’t too fast and at the time I was way too skinny, but I wore my #12 jersey with pride learning about great victories and sorrowful defeats.
Sports are great that way. They have the ability to put a Democrat and a Republican firmly and passionately on the same team. That special bond between fan and team seemed unbreakable. Until this year.
I didn’t boycott the entire season, but I can count the number of games I watched this year on one hand. That is unheard of for me. The reason was 100 percent because of the players kneeling for the national anthem. It hurt me so deeply that these sports heroes would so callously turn their backs on the greatest country that ever existed. The very country that allowed them to make millions of dollars playing a game. My father-in-law would stand from his wheel chair and remove his cap for the anthem. He took some shrapnel in Korea and old age had won its war on his body, but he stood till the end. And when they handed that triangle folded flag to his wife, we all wept.
That is what the protesters spit on for me when they knelt, and I am still not over it.
The NFL doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. They dig their hole a little deeper with the American public every day. As if the kneeling controversy spinning out of control wasn’t bad enough. They took it another step and banned a veterans’ group from running an ad in the Super Bowl asking people to “Please Stand” for the American flag. Now they’ve banned a digital currency from running a video advertisement because it mocks North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, insinuating that even his best hackers couldn’t hack this new cryptocurrency.
Of all the horrible commercials that have been allowed to run during the Super Bowl, outlawing these two smacks of a political agenda.
The NFL has not gotten the memo that Americans like to stand for the anthem. President Donald J. Trump received a huge applause during the State of the Union when he pointed out a young man, Preston Sharp, who was putting flags on the graves of 40,000 unmarked veterans graves when he said, “Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.” The NFL is doing its part in dividing America by getting involved in a controversy over disrespecting the flag. The flag is a unifying symbol for Americans of all heritage. In the flag, we are all red, white, and blue.
The fact that the NFL rejected not one, but two ads, because of political considerations simply shows their true colors. Rejecting an advertisement from Veterans is outrageous when they merely wanted to ask people to stand for the American flag. Rejecting a video advertisement from a new digital currency because it pokes fun at Kim Jong-Un is a head scratcher. Who doesn’t think Kim Jong-Un is funny? The ad uses humor to make a point and to encourage people to buy their product.
I suspect the NFL would have gladly run a commercial that made fun of President Trump, yet they are selectively infringing on the spirit of the First Amendment to the Constitution when they politically screen ads. If the NFL has proven anything this year, it’s that they don’t care one bit about what their consumers/fans want. The NFL trouble smells like politics and most of us have enough politics in our lives without it taking over our sports too.
If anything, the NFL has done a great job of making me a baseball fan.
“It’s the same thing that’s wrong with America-too much prosperity for too long. It’s ruinous to human nature.”
Yes, some poverty will help human nature. You are on the wrong thread brother.
The real problem with the NFL is rooted in the following:
1. Their game has gotten boring as hell over the years.
2. An NFL game now looks more like a staged event than a competitive sport.
3. The economics of entertainment is working against the NFL. Forget about ticket prices; even people who watch football at home for free are realizing that an NFL game is an enormous waste of time.
4. Demographics is working against them, as their older fan base dies off and isn't replaced by new fans with the same passion for the game.
In addition to the good postings on this thread, consider the fact that NFL football has become predictable (everyone in the world knows what will happen on 3rd and long), uncreative and tedious. The college kids have fire and enthusiasm as opposed to treating the game like another day at work.
In a word?
Goodell
The NFL used to be fun, but now it sucks.
I grew up in Irving Texas in the 60s and 70s - at our Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings there was always a Dallas Cowboy there.
You will enjoy the museum very much.
Everything about the place is First Class.
Even the food
If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow afternoon and you’re close by, come and visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. I’ll be working there as a docent.
What happened to the NFL?
It turned into another ghetto!!!
Get out the ghetto!!!
Yeah, just the place I want to spend my Sunday! /sarc
America no longer likes the NFL.
The owners want cash cas and more cash and the players are arrogant oafs with an anti-American mindset.
The best thing for America would be for the NFL to go out of business.
... and I do not intend to watch their Super Bowl or anything else they have.
That does not mean people are going to watch those games. When FOX loses money or does not make enough money to justify the expenditures guess what happens?
The NFL was able to hide their losses this season but next season it's going to be really clear they have lost a huge number of fans and those fans will not be coming back. Next season is going to be devastating and will begin the end of the NFL
Does this guy really think the NFL is going to approve commercials that criticize them? And does he really think the people that submitted those commercials could actually afford the time? It’s an old publicity stunt, submit a commercial you know the NFL will say no, put it on youtube, send out a press release about the “commercial the NFL won’t let you see”, more publicity than showing your commercial during the game, and for free.
The people who have not gotten the message are white male NFL fans over the age of 30 or so who think the old league will eventually come running back into their arms.
The people who run the NFL know exactly what they are doing. They are repositioning the league to account for shifts in technology, demographics and changing American culture. Broadcast ratings will fall but that was going to happen anyway.
The NFL is a consumer product and that product will change to adapt to the market it has to sell into. It's like toothpaste. I use toothpaste because that's what Proctor and Gamble sell now. But my Grandfather used tooth powder until the day he died. He thought the paste was weird.
I let the new NFL go because I think it's weird now.
watched every super bowl ever played. will not watch this year. Wave that flag that so many have died for so we can live in freedom!
I read this week that the NFL stands to take in $52 BILLION in Super Bowl ad revenue... Think about that next time some owner demands a new stadium, parking concessions or local tax breaks. His share of that ad revenue could build a new stadium every freaking year (which of course isn’t necessary).
Ungrateful cowards?
Along with a number of other reasons, one big problem is...it’s boring.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area — which automatically made me a diehard Eagles fan. In my near 60 years I have seen the birds make just 3 Super Bowls, including this one. The stink of it is that I haven’t watched an NFL regular season game in — I dunno — 5 or more years. The pro game just isn’t what it used to be for myriad reasons. Now the SJW crap has really prevented me from coming back just when the Eagles are making their latest bid to break the ice in the big game. I still care. I guess it’s reflex. But I won’t be watching.
Some years ago, I remember seeing an article where a black man - perhaps he was some sort of race relations guy, I can't remember - was asked the question "What American cultural institutions, if any, exist that are appealing to both whites and blacks?" and his joking answer was "NFL football."
Almost since the day that article appeared (probably around 2009 when Saint Barack ascended his throne) the NFL has turned deliberately away from white Americans. Obama-era social justice activists certainly noticed that NFL fandom was a unifying force in American life, and set out to undermine it.
What a stupid comment. There are plenty of black head coaches (and position coaches) in the NFL who are very good men.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.