Posted on 08/12/2018 12:09:57 PM PDT by Rummyfan
On January 1 of this year, I penned a piece the gist of which was that despite the awful player protests during the national anthem, I was going to watch the NFL playoffs. The post garnered me the heaviest excoriation I’d yet experienced since starting at PJ Media in 2015. The essay provoked more disagreement and disapproval than any previous or subsequent submission. Out of hundreds of naysaying and sometimes nasty comments, both here and at Instapundit, I think a grand total of one person stated in cautious agreement that he wasn’t going to let a bunch of spoiled millionaire athletes keep him from watching the battle to reach the Super Bowl.
That’s OK. Excoriation comes with the turf, as it were. If you can’t take extreme blowback from the public at large for your published opinions, go blog for Better Homes and Gardens.
There was one comment in particular that stood out from all the rebuke and made me think about the protests and NFL boycott in a way I hadn’t before. The commenter opined that my take on the issue was dated, coming from an older generation for which sitting around watching football games together was an important aspect of social life. He or she suggested that because of all the ways we get information now, the shared sit-down in front of the boob tube is not the hearth fire moment it used to be.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
>>Agony of decision to boycott the NFL???!!! He has got to be kidding.<<
It has been for me.
No human being on Earth loved pro football more than me — the game not any particular team. I have been an avid fan since 1969 and LIVED for football season. Even preseason football was cause for me to celebrate and set the hours of my life aside to watch even 4th stringers try to make the team. That goes back to when they called it exhibition season.
The decision of the players to flip me and all I hold dear the big bird was the same as a woman I love deeply cheating on me in front of my face.
You have no idea the pain I had the last 2 seasons and continue to have. Nothing can really plug the hole in my heart that is left from not being able to watch and analyze football games.
Something dear and precious has been stolen from me. By self-important millionaire crybabies I helped make and a league which has aided and abetted.
When the Denver Donkey players took a knee, I changed the channel and have not watched since.
I stopped watching in the extreme late 1990's. At that point the issue was the Vikings and many (possibly all) other teams started filling their rosters with parolees or just some that should be considered parolees. If the NFL was always like that, the league did a better job keeping it out of the press.
It was hard to feel loyalty to a team that always seemed to have a handful of thugs making the news. Nevertheless, I went through a period of withdrawal that lasted 3 or 4 weeks. By then a whole new world opened up of finding lots to do on Sunday afternoons. There still is lots to do.
I haven't watched an NFL game this century, don't miss it and can't imagine ever going back. These moronic protests are just the latest manifestation that, if the NFL disappeared from the face of the earth today, by next week, no one would remember it was ever here.
Me too waited 57 years for it to happen, now that it’s done I’m done. Freaking insane! They kicked us to the curb.
No agongy here.
Agony? What agony?
It’s been a bore ass sports for years
And has priced the common man out with ridiculous salaries, prices, and tax subsidies
It’s been a complete garbage product for years and years before this protest dog squeeze, come on. The players really just want to have some sort of swishy celebration dance/chest slapping/raging hulk pose competition.
Freegards
since the Blacks surrendered to and then joined the KKK/Democrat party after MLK was killed.
What’s an ‘NFL’?
15 minutes of action, 15 minutes of replays, 1 hour of commentary and 1 hour of advertising. Nope—Ill wait for hockey.
Mr. Ellis, the NFL made it very easy for us.
NFL out of the USA.
“I enjoy the game...the vast majority of the players are not anti American ass clowns...
Watching the NFL is one of the few remaining things I enjoy...
Having played for 8 years on various levels, I’m not given up what I enjoy to virtual signal “
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Each to their own...enjoy. By the way, IMHO your entire post is virtue signaling.
I absolutely love football. I played in high school and junior college but not after that. But I am sick of professional football and refuse to watch any longer. They receive too much money, they are wrongly adulated, they are too biased, and more.
Stadiums don't need to be empty. Revenue just needs to drop enough to get owners attention.
I found it surprisingly easy to quit watching. And the longer I went without watching, the less interest I had in ever watching again. Count me among the many lifelong NFL fans who will never watch it again.
I had my cable cut for a few years and I used to like going to the local Buffalo Wild Wings (or similar sports bar) to see some games so I was already weaning myself because in the past, I was one of those who would get all the yard work done on the weekends so that I could spend my entire Sunday afternoon (and evening) watching the games.
As the anthem protests picked up steam last year, I decided that I wouldn't watch any games at all, not even in a sports bar. I did break down for the Super Bowl because my team was in it (Patriots) and family invited me over to see the game. So I succumbed. But I wasn't even heartbroken when the Pats lost because I hadn't paid attention all year and didn't even know many of the players.
I have some very fond memories of last fall (when my boycott went into full swing). Early in the season, the wife and I would take country drives on Sunday afternoons and we'd stop at various farm stands and collect the local produce. Then as the weather turned colder, I started taking hikes in the various state parks in my area. There was one especially good memory around late October when the first really cold weather came and I hiked about 8 miles up to the top of a ridgeline where I saw a spectacular view with deep blue skies and breathing in the icy air. By the time I got back to my car, the sun was setting and I saw a glorious sunset.
So looking forward to the upcoming autumn and it will be NFL-free.
If ticket sales decline, and networks back out of broadcast rights, we will see team values decline, and NFL teams sell for lower prices.
And we will have a good indication of that view when taxpayers of a city refuse to fund an NFL stadium.
But for now, taxpayers usually vote for stadium deals.
Good for you. I think the beautiful thing about our country is the freedom of personal choice. Group think in anyway turns me off. I personally chose to not watch. But I applaud we as citizens are free each to do as we will. Let us not forget this no matter are politics and beliefs. Group think sucks!!
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