The Fall Of Football
Or The Rise Of Something Better?
Since the Super Bowl first started on January 15, 1967, the sport has grown to epic proportions and has even started to branch out to other countries. It is predicted that the super bowl will bring in 150 million dollars for its host city alone this year, and that's not even accounting for the 4 million it dollars it cost just to place one commercial ad between the breaks of the game. The average pay for an NFL player is 2.4 million a year and Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears just signed a 7 year $126.7 million contracts making him the highest paid player in the NFL. This doesn't include the side work they do on TV shows, movies, in magazines, and appearances. Let's not forget that the NFL isn't the only people raking in the money off of football so are middle schools, high schools, and colleges as well take home the cash on the backs of their most talented players. So it's really no wonder why being a football player in America is almost like being a king.
It is well known in schools where football is played that the players can almost get away with murder so to speak. It turns out that attitude doesn't end in school and last year in 2014 football took some big hits when it came to moral conduct of the players. Normally these little bumps in the roads don't affect the NFL but this year the NFL has lost a lot of fans. It has also been predicted that they will keep losing fans more and more every year. Blogs are popping up all over the internet giving ideas on parties to throw in place of the super bowl parties, ideas like the fish bowl and the nerd bowl. So what happened and what is happening to put that bad taste in the mouths of football fans, fans who once saw these players as untouchable?
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| Healthy brain on the left football players brains on the right. |
Well, one reason might be the health risk the game brings and how this year was the major campaign to make people aware of how much harm the sport is bringing to players both young and old. It doesn't help that there was a $750 million class-action lawsuit by former professional football players against the NFL this year. The lawsuit hits on the fact the players received injuries while using standard protection equipment. A settlement was set and the players use the funds to bring to light the harms of playing football and how young players are taking advantage of and aren't being taught how to protect themselves from injury. While brain injuries are serious this year was also about violence related to football.
The year started off pretty bad with Derwin Pasley, Leon Watson, and Jerry Sandusky finally being charged in court for harming children. The courtroom didn't even have time to dismiss when football related rape charges popped up in Tennessee, Kentucky, Oregon, Ohio, Missouri, and Florida, and two girls commit suicide out of fear. Peoples hearts were still clenched for these girls when word that Ray Rice knocked his wife out in an elevator and knocked around her unconscious body around like a "rag doll" people said. He was one of eleven players this year to be charged with domestic violence the other ten are Davone Bess, Jah Ried, Josh Morgan, Greg Hardy, T.J. Ward, Ray McDinald, Keelan Johnson, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Adrian Peterson, and Johnathan Dwyer. Adrian Peterson hit his four-year-old child with a tree branch, turned himself in and paid his own bail of 15,000.
The unrest continued with the football hazing scandal in New Jersey, and there also seems to be mixed feelings about The Rams Michael Brown salute. Some people like the Rams salute and some people didn't like it at all. It seems that this year has given a lot of people a reason to take a step back and look at how much power football has over people and what can really be done when that power is in the wrong hands. Football really has seemed to take a dive from its high throne this year. There has been less NFL advertising and stores haven't been jam-packed with football gear or super bowl gear. Thanksgiving was about giving thanks without the underline tonne of football, and no one seemed to notice the lost.
The question now doesn't seem to be will football fall now the question seems to be how far will football fall. Even Rome had to fall, and maybe this isn't such a bad thing. Children will now be taught how to reduce their risk of injury when playing football instead of being taught to hurt themselves for this countries love of the sport. They will no longer be toys for people to watch but they will be people playing football. Not just children but everyone who plays will seem as people. The Rams who did the salute to Michael Brown were told to "shut up and play football" in many media forms. They were told "You are here to perform a service, not give your opinion" and whether they were wrong or right they are still people, not pawns. The NFL should care if their helmets don't work and if their chest plates are faulty, they should care about what happens to them as the age results from playing football when they were younger.
Football players and members should be held accountable for what they do when they hurt other people and not have their bad deeds swiped under the rug or hid in a closet for the love of football. Which seems to be what people are starting to realizing now and why football has taken such a hard hit this year. After the flaws are fixed and players, owners, principals, coaches, and the people can get back to the game maybe football will get back a little of what it lost this year. This isn't something that happens in a day, it takes years to fix something that has been broken for years. Someday the stains will fade, the new and improved helmets will be brushed off and the players will settle in for the first hike, and someone will say, 'I remember when I was a kid' and the magic of football will be reignited.
