OT: F@$& The NFL

Northside Hawk

Well-Known Member
So, everyone was led to believe that Miami Dolphin QB Tua Tagovailoa had an upper back injury on Sunday, was not suspected of having a concussion, then was rushed back out there in one of those stupid Thirsday Night games and ended up suffering a frightening injury. He appeared to display a body condition known as "fencing" which is a serious neurological condition.

Dolphin coach McDaniel was quoted as saying thank God it was only a concussion.

ONLY a concussion? Try telling that to his family when he's 40 or 50 and has to be fed and cared for if he suffers too many of them. Try telling that to the families of Rashaan Salaam, Junior Seau, Justin Strzelczyk, Jovan Belcher, and many others. It's bad enough that this league makes twelve figures off these guys and does little for the players In their later years. Now they try to minimize the damage, preclude the game announcers from being too presumptive, and stop at nothing to keep feeding their enormous cash cow. There was a game to play involving one of the biggest stories of the young season and ratings to be garnered.

But there's more. Grt rid of Thirsday night games NOW. These players' brains and bodies havent had enough time to recover from a Sunday game. Theyre the equivalent of being legally intoxicated. Dump Thursday immediately. If you want to keep the Thanksgiving tradition, keep it. But make damn sure that all teams playing on Thanksgiving get a bye the previous week.

There's still more. There was a small event that came through Florida this week. It pretty much defaced entire coastlines. Tampa Bay has a home game less than 100 miles from where catastrophic damage occurred. The city is being used as a virtual triage, base for the National Guard, linemen from all over the country. Roads amd bridges south of Tampa are impassible and roads that are open should be used for essential purposes only.

The NFL had the option of moving the Tampa Bay vs Kansas City game to Minneapolis and staying away from an area where shattered lives are just beginning to be put together. The NFL basically said F you, do you know who we are?

The prep for hosting an NFL game is staggering. And they have no business being in that area right now. But people will spend their four figures to attend and millions more will watch the game and patronize the sponsors so the cash cow will continue to moo. Worst of all, the announcing crew doing the game will go on ad nauseum about this diversion is just what the people of the area need and it gives them a rallying point to all come together and begin the healing process. Bullshit. Someone should give Goodell a hard hat and set of tools and tell him to roll up his sleeves and help rebuild for a few days.

As for me? I got better things to do with my Sundays for a while. And corrupt as the NCAA is, they at least have the decency to postpone and reschedule games in the affected areas. I encourage all of you to find other things to do with your Sundays as well.
 
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I respect your opinion, but Tua, Seau, Favre, Jim McMahon, et al. all knew the risks of playing the game. You can't earn millions per year and reap the benefits of that and then turn around and complain when you are 40-50 years old that nobody warned you about the risks of brain damage, broken bones, rebuilt knees, etc. Especially now, when all of this is pretty much common knowledge. I would guess that as many people as there are riding Tua's coat tails, there are more hoping he is healthy enough to keep playing and able to keep the cash cow going as there are hoping that he would retire to preserve his mental health.

Getting rid of Thursday night games is a solid argument, but I don't see them going anywhere for rea$ons you have already pointed out.

I totally agree with your points about the hurricane damage and what is most important, but what can you do? Money talks loudest and always has. If boycotting the NFL makes you feel better, more power to you, but I doubt it will have much of an impact on the league as a whole.

I don't watch NFL nearly as much as I did 20 years or so ago. I try to watch the AZ Cardinals when they are on because I lived in Phoenix for quite a while and became a fan. I also will try to watch a game that I think will be a good matchup, but it doesn't bother me that much if I don't. Watching a good recap of highlights and scores on Sunday night is usually good enough for me.
 
The NFL is teflon, nothing sticks to it. National anthem controversy, CTE, domestic violence and anything else you want to name, they just continue to churn out money. Bill Simmons had a pretty good rant on his pod about a month ago on the NFL. His conclusion was that we all know what this league is about and you either accept it or you don't. I have decided to accept it, but at times it makes me feel a little gross.
 
Follow the $$.... Who's paying the docs that are clearing guys like Tua to play to begin with? Be it the team or the league they have the same agenda. Get the best players on the field. That's it. As a fan honestly this may seem crass but I don't care. I don't. They are all adults making decisions for themselves. If a guy that does that for a living doesn't understand then that's on him. But most all of them do. So I'm not going to get bent out of shape over it. If Tua wants to retire early or play next week that's on him the team and the league. I'll watch with or without him.
 
I’m a Vikings fan since I can remember being aware, but I watch effectively zero nfl now. If the Vikings are on I may watch casually, but I’d rather nap.

The nfl game is one of the most boring products there are. It’s set up for parity and parity is boring. College football is orders of magnitude more exciting both in person and on tv.

So I guess you could say I’m doing my part…I haven’t spent a dime on the nfl or any of it’s licensed products that I can remember and don’t plan to n
 
I respect your opinion, but Tua, Seau, Favre, Jim McMahon, et al. all knew the risks of playing the game. You can't earn millions per year and reap the benefits of that and then turn around and complain when you are 40-50 years old that nobody warned you about the risks of brain damage, broken bones, rebuilt knees, etc. Especially now, when all of this is pretty much common knowledge. I would guess that as many people as there are riding Tua's coat tails, there are more hoping he is healthy enough to keep playing and able to keep the cash cow going as there are hoping that he would retire to preserve his mental health.

Getting rid of Thursday night games is a solid argument, but I don't see them going anywhere for rea$ons you have already pointed out.

I totally agree with your points about the hurricane damage and what is most important, but what can you do? Money talks loudest and always has. If boycotting the NFL makes you feel better, more power to you, but I doubt it will have much of an impact on the league as a whole.

I don't watch NFL nearly as much as I did 20 years or so ago. I try to watch the AZ Cardinals when they are on because I lived in Phoenix for quite a while and became a fan. I also will try to watch a game that I think will be a good matchup, but it doesn't bother me that much if I don't. Watching a good recap of highlights and scores on Sunday night is usually good enough for me.
They knew the risks to most of their bodies, but knew little about what they were doing to their brains. Today's players still don't know everything they wish they did. It's an evolving science, and frighteningly so. In this case not only did they not put Tua through protocol, they turned around and played four days later. Not smart in either case.

Even the highest paid players have every right to complain. Compared to what the league brings in they're getting screwed. It may look like a kings ransom to you and I, but it's not market value to them.

I don't pay much attention to the league to start with because I don't find the product very appealing to watch. In fact when I worked vending route sales for thirteen years and had to get up at three or four in the morning, I bailed out on many a super bowl at halftime.
 
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I love football, love watching it and playing it when I was younger. My son did too and was damn good at it, easily his teams best receiver. One game a kid lowered his helmet and leveled him during a 7th grade game at that point we decided his football days were over. It took him about 3 months to fully heal, the risks were not worth the reward.
 
I’m a Vikings fan since I can remember being aware, but I watch effectively zero nfl now. If the Vikings are on I may watch casually, but I’d rather nap.

The nfl game is one of the most boring products there are. It’s set up for parity and parity is boring. College football is orders of magnitude more exciting both in person and on tv.

So I guess you could say I’m doing my part…I haven’t spent a dime on the nfl or any of it’s licensed products that I can remember and don’t plan to n
I find the announcers and tv personalities also very boring for NFL football.
 
I’m a Vikings fan since I can remember being aware, but I watch effectively zero nfl now. If the Vikings are on I may watch casually, but I’d rather nap.

The nfl game is one of the most boring products there are. It’s set up for parity and parity is boring. College football is orders of magnitude more exciting both in person and on tv.

So I guess you could say I’m doing my part…I haven’t spent a dime on the nfl or any of it’s licensed products that I can remember and don’t plan to n
What do you think is worse...NFL or NBA in terms of boring?
 
The NFL is teflon, nothing sticks to it. National anthem controversy, CTE, domestic violence and anything else you want to name, they just continue to churn out money. Bill Simmons had a pretty good rant on his pod about a month ago on the NFL. His conclusion was that we all know what this league is about and you either accept it or you don't. I have decided to accept it, but at times it makes me feel a little gross.
I've heard nationally famous radio talk show hosts admit that they feel like hypocrites for not being able to turn away from their weekly fix of football violence, even as they have a good idea what this is doing to the player's brains.

They've admitted that it's not the game that hooks them in, it's the violence of the game. The gladiator mentality.

Do I feel dirty for loving the college game but getting on my soapbox about the NFL? Good question. But it seems on the surface that at least the NCAA has more common sense about dealing with concussed players. And not scheduling games too close together. And moving or postponing them when something the magnitude of Hurricane Ian passes through. The NFL has basically told southwest Florida "Hey, we don't give a rat's ass what just happened to your cities-we have an agenda down here and revenue to generate and Goddammit were going to generate it. We're gonna clog up your damaged roads and your hotels that essential personnel are trying to stay in and the whole kit and kaboodle".

They should take all gate receipts and TV revenue from this game and put it back into the Ian relief fund, the American Red Cross, anything. Those of you who lived through that Iowa dericho two years ago. How would you have felt if it had struck the highway 20 corridor and you were trying to asses your situation and MLB then brought its Field Of Dreams posse in? The only thing that cancelled the inagural game the week of that derecho was covid.
 
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The human body has been grown to unnatural weights in pro and college football. There should be a weight limit of 275 pounds for all players.
 
Call the NFL players the guinea pigs for the rest of society. Bo Jackson led to incredible developments in the hip replacement industry. ACLs, Tommy John, and many other sports injury have focused research of these conditions which push the fields of medicine forward and helps the general population. In return NFL players are enormously wealthy. Now with college players being paid they too have a high gain to loss ratio. Hard for me to feel to sorry for pampered athletes. I work in a field that creates wear and tear on the body and possible bodily risk. No one give a damm about that. The construction worker, logger, farmer, and ect. wreck their bodies daily for little to no fanfare and have to seek restitution through long and excruciating legal battles. Save my tears for the real people that face hard times.
 
I’m a Vikings fan since I can remember being aware, but I watch effectively zero nfl now. If the Vikings are on I may watch casually, but I’d rather nap.

The nfl game is one of the most boring products there are. It’s set up for parity and parity is boring. College football is orders of magnitude more exciting both in person and on tv.

So I guess you could say I’m doing my part…I haven’t spent a dime on the nfl or any of it’s licensed products that I can remember and don’t plan to n
lol Boy do I disagree with this

Ive been a Rams fan for 30 plus years - and watching them play vs the product I see in Iowa city.,,, its not even close

iowa football is boring as F... plus so many college football games are blowouts and non competitive.
 
NBA for me... Damn near impossible to watch a full game of that.
I don't watch a ton of NBA but a lot higher scoring and fast paced than most college basketball games.

The NCAA tournament last year was dreadful. 55-51 half court hold the ball and launch at the end.
 
lol Boy do I disagree with this

Ive been a Rams fan for 30 plus years - and watching them play vs the product I see in Iowa city.,,, its not even close

iowa football is boring as F... plus so many college football games are blowouts and non competitive.
College football as a whole is a thousand times more interesting than the national diva league.
 
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