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The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of a Decision about Boycotting the NFL This Season
PJ Media ^ | 11 Aug 2018 | Mark Ellis

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: commieball; kidsgame; nfl; timewasted
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To: odawg

>>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.


21 posted on 08/12/2018 12:33:15 PM PDT by freedumb2003 ("Trump is such a liar. He said we'd be tired from all this winning" (/dfwgator 7/27/18))
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To: Rummyfan


22 posted on 08/12/2018 12:33:43 PM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (Liberalism is the philosophy of sniveling brats. - P.J. ORourke)
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To: Rummyfan

When the Denver Donkey players took a knee, I changed the channel and have not watched since.


23 posted on 08/12/2018 12:34:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Rummyfan
This is an interesting take on the NFL tradition. In my home growing up and, later, among my friends, there were a bazillion hours of raucous fun watching NFL games on TV. Also, my Dad bought four season tickets starting the year the Vikings first appeared.

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.

24 posted on 08/12/2018 12:37:00 PM PDT by stevem
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

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.


25 posted on 08/12/2018 12:39:53 PM PDT by Empireoftheatom48 (WWG1WGA!)
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To: Rummyfan

No agongy here.


26 posted on 08/12/2018 12:40:06 PM PDT by Mikey_1962 ("Good people do not need laws, bad people will find a way around them" Plato)
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To: Rummyfan

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


27 posted on 08/12/2018 12:40:44 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat ("Moderates/Independents/Non-voters" Are DIMS REALLY who you'd want BACK in POWER?)
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To: Rummyfan

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


28 posted on 08/12/2018 12:42:30 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: Mollypitcher1

since the Blacks surrendered to and then joined the KKK/Democrat party after MLK was killed.


Blacks, (Negros then) pretty much switched party allegiances during FDR’s administrations. If you think about it, that would be about the time that the last of those freed by the Republican party were dying out. This would be blacks living in the North/West. Southern blacks weren’t allowed the vote by the Democrat party. LBJ got the lifetime support of Southern blacks. These folks are now getting old and it may be time for another party shift.


29 posted on 08/12/2018 12:42:30 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Rummyfan

What’s an ‘NFL’?


30 posted on 08/12/2018 12:44:05 PM PDT by GOPJ (August 16 - NATIONAL "CANCEL YOUR NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION" DAY)
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To: Rummyfan

15 minutes of action, 15 minutes of replays, 1 hour of commentary and 1 hour of advertising. Nope—Ill wait for hockey.


31 posted on 08/12/2018 12:44:32 PM PDT by Voltage
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To: Rummyfan

Mr. Ellis, the NFL made it very easy for us.


32 posted on 08/12/2018 12:47:42 PM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: Rummyfan

NFL out of the USA.


33 posted on 08/12/2018 12:49:37 PM PDT by Vision (Obama corrupted, sought to weaken and fundamentally change America; he didn't plan on being stopped)
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To: Popman

“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 “
********************************************
Each to their own...enjoy. By the way, IMHO your entire post is virtue signaling.


34 posted on 08/12/2018 12:50:49 PM PDT by House Atreides (BOYCOTT the NFL, its products and players 100% - PERMANENTLY)
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To: Rummyfan

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.


35 posted on 08/12/2018 12:51:55 PM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Blue House Sue
I still do not expect to see empty stadiums or TV revenue to the NFL taken away.

Stadiums don't need to be empty. Revenue just needs to drop enough to get owners attention.

36 posted on 08/12/2018 12:52:30 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("It rubs the rainbow on it's skin or it gets the diversity again!")
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To: Rummyfan

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.


37 posted on 08/12/2018 12:56:59 PM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Rummyfan
It's going to be a lot easier for me this year because other than the Super Bowl - and even that I barely paid attention to - I did not see a minute of NFL football except some highlights on YouTube well after the game was played.

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.

38 posted on 08/12/2018 12:57:17 PM PDT by SamAdams76 ( If you are offended by what I have to say here then you can blame your parents for raising a wuss)
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To: PapaBear3625

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.


39 posted on 08/12/2018 12:59:06 PM PDT by Blue House Sue
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To: Popman

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!!


40 posted on 08/12/2018 1:00:22 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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