NFL admits for the first time ever that playing football causes CTE. Is this the beginning of the death spiral?
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The upper class has their kids in private schools that may or may not even have football. The majority of football is played in public schools. But again, as pointed out earlier, there is such a small % of high school players going on to college, and even a smaller % of college players moving on to the NFL, that kids being pulled out of football in grade school and high school will, virtually, have no effect on the NFL any time soon.
It's not about not having enough players and it impacting the quality of play - it's more about it impacting the number of future fans. The 0.001% that are freak athletes will still go on to play pro football, baseball or basketball if they're tall. The trickle down affect of less kids playing football may take 10, 20 or 30 years when today's kids have families of their own (which potentially means wives and children watching/buying). Look at baseball - it didn't drop overnight. It was as popular as the NFL up until the 80s. I wouldn't be totally shocked if the same happens to football.
One thing football does have going for it is that it's played on the weekend and serves as a centerpiece for social gatherings after a busy/stressful work week. It seems like half the people I know see football season as a time to have get togethers, parties or hit up the bar. They have a purpose to dress up in cute football attire, paint their face, yell, cookout, drink beer, socialize, talk about the week to come, etc. Even for those into the actual game, there are plenty of stoppages, half time and commercials to do other things (football is what 20 minutes of action spread over 3-4 hours?). Basketball and baseball just don't serve the same purpose. There's a ton of games that are played on random days of the week and each individual game isn't that important. How many people have parties to watch some random regular season MLB or NBA game on a Wednesday?
Seems like its an occupational hazard. If the players know it and willingly put themselves at risk and get paid ridiculous amounts to do so, I don't think you'll find to many not willing to chance it.
It's not about not having enough players and it impacting the quality of play - it's more about it impacting the number of future fans. The 0.001% that are freak athletes will still go on to play pro football, baseball or basketball if they're tall. The trickle down affect of less kids playing football may take 10, 20 or 30 years when today's kids have families of their own (which potentially means wives and children watching/buying). Look at baseball - it didn't drop overnight. It was as popular as the NFL up until the 80s. I wouldn't be totally shocked if the same happens to football.
I think you're reaching a bit on that theory. You're assumption would be less kids playing football equals less schools offering a football program. And less schools offering a football program leads to less exposure of the sport, which leads to less fans. I don't see that happening at all. More realistically, proper adjustments is made to make the sport safe enough to where the uproar of concussions die down, and the programs continue to exist for kids. Honestly, the only people who really think the sport will die are the ones who don't like football to begin with.
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Originally Posted by eddiehaskell
One thing football does have going for it is that it's played on the weekend and serves as a centerpiece for social gatherings after a busy/stressful work week. It seems like half the people I know see football season as a time to have get togethers, parties or hit up the bar. They have a purpose to dress up in cute football attire, paint their face, yell, cookout, drink beer, socialize, talk about the week to come, etc. Even for those into the actual game, there are plenty of stoppages, half time and commercials to do other things (football is what 20 minutes of action spread over 3-4 hours?). Basketball and baseball just don't serve the same purpose. There's a ton of games that are played on random days of the week and each individual game isn't that important. How many people have parties to watch some random regular season MLB or NBA game on a Wednesday?
Baseball's declining popularity is based on several reasons. First of all, professional baseball began shortly after the turn of the 20th century. It's been around much longer than professional football. Football has continued to increase in popularity year after year. It hasn't shown any signs of leveling off at all. Secondly, baseball is way over-saturated. You can literally watch a baseball game every single day during the season. Not only that, the seasons start in early spring and go to late fall. It's a long season of baseball nearly every day of the week. The NBA is almost as bad. They play 82 games a season and you can basically watch a basketball game every night as well. Those sports aren't as popular because the seasons are so long and unless you're a bachelor who can afford every sports package there is, you can't catch every game of the season for baseball and basketball.
Where as with the NFL and college football, totally different story. You're talking about a 16 game season for the NFL, and a few games shy of that for the college system. Most of college football is played on Saturdays, with some primetime games on Thursday nights. The NFL has most of their games played all day on Sunday, Monday night, and now, Thursday nights. To me, it's probably as saturated as it should be. I would not want the NFL on more than that each week. But, the point is, it's possible to catch every game of the NFL season, and the season is pretty short. The playoffs only last three weeks and the Super Bowl is a one and done game. NFL is probably on about enough to keep people's attention. The only thing that would hurt its popularity is if the season expanded and the games were on every night of the week. It would become too much then. I think adding Thursday nights is a bit too much, personally.
I think you're reaching a bit on that theory. You're assumption would be less kids playing football equals less schools offering a football program. And less schools offering a football program leads to less exposure of the sport, which leads to less fans. I don't see that happening at all. More realistically, proper adjustments is made to make the sport safe enough to where the uproar of concussions die down, and the programs continue to exist for kids. Honestly, the only people who really think the sport will die are the ones who don't like football to begin with.
I think I mentioned the league probably getting softer in order to retain fans. Who knows if that will work if the well is already poisoned. 40 or 50 years is a long time, but I think we'll see saturation at some point.
I think I mentioned the league probably getting softer in order to retain fans. Who knows if that will work if the well is already poisoned. 40 or 50 years is a long time, but I think we'll see saturation at some point.
The league getting softer may would entice parents to feel it's OK to put their kids back into football, but I don't think fans watching football think to themselves, "You know, this sport would be far more enjoyable if it wasn't so rough!" It's quite the opposite. After all, if that was the true mentality of people, the UFC would not be as popular as it's gotten, and pro wrestling would have never gotten popular either. People love football because it's high impact and for better or worse, people love to see someone getting "blown up". They don't want to see anyone get seriously hurt, but anybody who is not a New England Patriots fan loves to see Tom Brady get sacked.
Seems like its an occupational hazard. If the players know it and willingly put themselves at risk and get paid ridiculous amounts to do so, I don't think you'll find to many not willing to chance it.
The entire debate going into the future is if there is no school and youth football because of parental fear where will we put our youth into armor? For MMA we still do allow them to wrestle and take martial arts. The day may come that there will not be a bunch of 6'4" 265lb freaks of nature that have the background as a youth and end up playing football. They will just have to take general athletes to play a sport they never have before, something like professional wrestling just taking big fit people and teaching them a occupation with no minor, meaning youth and school, leagues to do the basic training in their craft.
The entire debate going into the future is if there is no school and youth football because of parental fear where will we put our youth into armor? For MMA we still do allow them to wrestle and take martial arts. The day may come that there will not be a bunch of 6'4" 265lb freaks of nature that have the background as a youth and end up playing football. They will just have to take general athletes to play a sport they never have before, something like professional wrestling just taking big fit people and teaching them a occupation with no minor, meaning youth and school, leagues to do the basic training in their craft.
You're forgetting that there are pee-wee leagues and pop-warner. Those programs would just simply pick up from where schools would leave off. And again, if you look at the percentages of those who go on to college football and the NFL, we're talking 6% into college and just a little more than 1% that make it into the NFL.
You're forgetting that there are pee-wee leagues and pop-warner. Those programs would just simply pick up from where schools would leave off. And again, if you look at the percentages of those who go on to college football and the NFL, we're talking 6% into college and just a little more than 1% that make it into the NFL.
I m not forgetting the theoretical problem is there isn't even an equivalent of the Little League World Series to bring in money to offset Soccer mom refusing to give young Bo Jackson permission to play Pee Wee football. Much less public schools being sued out of all their tax revenues thus closing the pipeline at the beginning.
We are not talking overnight. It took baseball about 30 years to fall to the point where they now worry that no Jackie Robinson chooses baseball and they are trying to support youth leagues so some Black players are American and not from a Latin American nation
I m not forgetting the theoretical problem is there isn't even an equivalent of the Little League World Series to bring in money to offset Soccer mom refusing to give young Bo Jackson permission to play Pee Wee football. Much less public schools being sued out of all their tax revenues thus closing the pipeline at the beginning.
We are not talking overnight. It took baseball about 30 years to fall to the point where they now worry that no Jackie Robinson chooses baseball and they are trying to support youth leagues so some Black players are American and not from a Latin American nation
The NFL would simply invest more in Pop-Warner, turning it into a national "little league" for football. There are many soccer leagues that kids play in that have nothing to do with area schools. Why would it not be possible to do the same for football?
Secondly, schools get waivers signed by the parents. It is a lot harder to get a case heard than you realize for that very reason. Yes, there have been some law suits. And yes, some of those law suits have been won by the plaintiff. But even still, in most situations, the school is protected by signed waivers.
Let's face it. Football is one of those holy grail sports in high school in which if you're good enough to make the team, you are given instant respect throughout high school. Football is also the happening event on Friday nights in a lot of communities. It brings the community together a lot more than any other sport in the US. There is simply not enough parents opposing the sport that it would ever cause such a hypothetical decline. The sport, itself, has gained popularity for the last several decades. Heck, it's so big that people even tune in to watch the NFL draft! There are even draft parties!
Football will, simply, never go away.
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