Obviously, professional football is a big deal in America. Its popularity has only grown since it was established 92 years ago, and as a result, numerous businesses have formed that depend on the NFL’s fanbase to make their profit. This, of course, is wonderful for our economy, but it’s also one reason why, despite how destructive the game of football is, the NFL will most likely be around for a very long time. Plus, Americans love watching football, and that’s not just going to come to a screeching halt.
But why do people love professional football so much-- so much that the NFL has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise? Or I should say, why do people love professional football so much, when they know how much bodily harm it causes the players? That’s a tough one. And thinking about how much football I’ve watched, I feel a little bit guilty.
The players certainly get paid well, which is what I think helps us justify spending all of Sunday on the couch, or planning large social gatherings for big games. In reality, we are watching men who train their whole lives to take other men down with force, and it seems like injury reports, now more than ever, are a mile long. So, it no longer shocks us when a player goes down hurt, or we hear of an ex-player suffering side effects of their time spent in the pros.
Fortunately, the issue is gaining more awareness, but who would have ever thought that deciding whether or not to watch football could be a test of morals? I typically don’t support physical violence, but that’s essentially what I am doing when I subscribe to Sunday Ticket, play DraftKings, and buy Eagles merchandise. How come I, like many other Americans, make an exception to that policy for this sport?
Pro football is one thing, but youth football presents the biggest issue in my eyes. People are recognizing that children's bodies should not be giving or receiving tackles because of the harm it can do to their development. In normal circumstances, parents wouldn’t purposefully do anything to harm their child’s development, and they wouldn’t purposefully promote violence to their child, but for decades parents have been doing just that. Again, why is football the exception?
Maybe it’s because of how traditional football is, or maybe it’s because the athletes truly want to play football and are willing to put their bodies at risk for serious, permanent injury. If the latter is true, I suppose I could get on board with it--it’s their choice-- but the children are obviously too young to decide what is best for their own development.
Ironically, parents who are NFL fans could cause its fall by keeping their children out of youth, or even high school, football. This would virtually make the NFL and associated commerce extinct-- there would be no one to grow up to be the next generation of pros that make the economic benefits possible.
It’s hard to imagine a world without football, but I don’t think we have to worry about that anytime soon. Football is such a large part of American culture that it would take a significant decline in popularity for it to come to an end, and right now there are no signs of that. So until then, I will probably still participate in professional football festivities, and hope that I have a son who likes golf.
