Disillusionment With The NFL

When I was growing up I loved watching the NFL Draft. My father would become angry at me for staying inside the house all weekend to watch because the draft is held in the end of April and it's usually beautiful outside in Northern California that time of the year.

I would buy draft preview magazines and do my very own mock draft. I was fascinated with the new draftee's names, their suits, and how fast the draft moves in the later rounds. I loved all of it. Hell I loved the NFL. The 49ers were good while my baseball and basketball teams were either crappy or mediocre.

Lately though I feel a disillusionment with the NFL and football in general. There are a variety of reasons I feel this way, McCovey Chronicles and other great MLB sites has given me a greater appreciation for baseball, I'm enjoying the NBA more than ever as just a fan of the league. The main reason I feel disillusionment with the NFL though really is the coverage.

I had to get The Colonel's thoughts on this since he's a amateur psychologist.

"I know you've always been much more of a baseball fan than of any other sport," I say to the Colonel. "But I know you're a football fan. What do you think of the constant coverage the NFL receives?"

"It's absurd," says the Colonel with a twinge of laughter. "It used to be after the Super Bowl was over you got a little break from the NFL until free agency started. Then another little break until the draft. Another little break until the start of training camp. Another little break until the preseason games started. And then when the season started on Monday you would break down what happened the previous day, take a little mid-week break, then get started again on Friday.


Now a player can't even blow his nose without a 24-hour report investigating if he used tissue paper or a handkerchief. We're constantly bombarded with NFL coverage that I'm not even sure if the season has ended or not?"

"Wow," I say. "I guess you're even more tied of the NFL than I am?"

"I'm just tired of everything with the NFL," says the Colonel. "Between concussion talk. 18-game schedules. Expanding the NFL Network games to 15 weeks on both Wednesdays and Thursdays. Constant coverage of the sport. Enough is enough.

I'm happy we live in the information age, but I don't need to know if Peyton Manning uses Charmin or Quilted Northern for his morning dump. I liked it better when the NFL had their little breaks. Then when the season started everyone was all in on football. I don't feel that way anymore."

"I know baseball isn't exactly the most popular sport anymore and is probably behind the NBA at this point in popularity, but I find myself watching more baseball than I used to," I say.

"I'm with you there," says the Colonel. "Baseball knows they have a long season so they can just disappear during the winter months except for maybe a week for free agency and the GM meetings. And you know what I love baseball even more because of that. Hell even the MLB Network basically goes dark during the offseason."

The Colonel and I would continue to watch the NFL Draft on one TV and the NHL playoffs on another in the Mos Eisley Cantina. We mostly paid attention to the great NHL playoff games that were on that night instead of the draft. We do live in a world where there are other sports besides the NFL.

The Bandit eventually showed up and had this to say about the NFL, "Football will eventually be humbled. All these leagues have been humbled in the past. MLB with steroids and work stoppages. NBA has had all sorts of problems throughout the years. The NFL will eventually be humbled.

Everything has a tipping point and so does the NFL. I read a Mike Florio piece a few weeks back about how other sports writers are hoping this concussion issue knocks down the NFL a peg or two. Like the fanboy he is, Florio says that won't happen because too many people crave the NFL like a drug. But look at what happened to boxing over the years? MMA in my opinion will never be as popular as Dana White thinks it will be. Hockey is having their own issues over violence and concussions.

The NFL's tipping point will be violence. People will eventually say enough is enough. Why would we want to see grown men concuss each other? The NFL might not decline this year or the next but eventually that league too will have it's own issues just like the MLB and NBA have had. Everything goes in cycles, it's just a matter of time for the NFL's cycle to end."