If you thought the Pro Bowl couldn't get any worse

Tell your knee, the National Football League organizes American football games and a lot of people watch them on TV.

Roger Goodell is pretty much the village idiot, nothing would surprise me with that guy.
The owners are a dumber lot though, they pay him dearly for his incompetence.

Kaycee Feild just won his 4th NFR championship as a bronc rider. There. That’s my update on all things sports related that holds any interest for me. 😁😅

Disagree on both counts.  In baseball, the pitcher and catcher make a plan on every pitch, the rest of the defense adjusts to that plan, the hitter makes his own plan, and if there are runners on, they have to be on the same plan the hitter is on, pitch by pitch.  And with the rise in extreme shifts, there's even more planning on every pitch.

My criticism of football has nothing to do with the media.  It has to do with the people in football, and some of the behaviors and attitudes that, according to them, the game cannot function without.

Yes, I thought about baseball, and the game is mostly stopped, making your plan, so I agree with that. Ok, there's planning in baseball I like football better though, because it's 11 vs 11, so the plans can be more complex.

I would say the bad behaviors and attitudes come from an inability to cope with the money and fame. The media is what provides the money and fame. Remove the TV coverage and there goes your fame and money. The media is also how you know those behaviors and attitudes even exist. That's why they're called a medium - they put things in front of you that aren't part of your sphere, and people form opinions and make judgements on what they see there.

That said, I am not your judge, I can't tell you what you should believe, only what I believe.

Which is great. 

I have a feeling that will dramatically change if they’re held this summer!

No, nothing to do with money or fame.  If you're interested, look up Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.  (If you're not interested, that's okay, too.)  Read about the behaviors, then read the (mostly anonymous) defenses of that behavior from players, coaches, and FO guys from around the league.  They amounted to: football requires people to think and act like that, and can't exist without it.  Some went on to say this was not only necessary, but good.

I thought about that, and reached the conclusion that any sport that requires people to treat others like that is a sport that shouldn't exist; certainly not for my entertainment.  The price is too high.  So I dumped it.

Yup, but aside from the super bowl parties I used to go to at a friends (for the party) the only football games I've ever truly enjoyed were high school games. The players for the most part play because they love the game. Not about money, not about fame, not about sponsors. They play because they love playing and are good enough to get put in the game by the coach. (My high school never won a championship, but EVERY player that made the team got to play at least once per game!)

I'd heard of Richie Incognito and went and reread some of the media reports I could find of Incognito and Martin. I read some of the media's reports on players defending Incognito also.

I think it's clear Richie was a dick. I think he was a dick before money and fame, too; I don't think football made him a dick. There are other players I think are dicks as well (Ndamukong Suh, for eg).

Players get penalties for things they shouldn't do, but penalties are a part of the game. When players get fines and suspensions, or fired, the coaches and the league are saying that's not part of the game - continue to do that and you will not work here.

Richie had personal issues beginning in college. He had an ejection, was suspended indefinitely, sent to anger management, found guilty of misdemeanor assault, fined and later suspended indefinitely again, went to new team and was fired in a week. In the NFL, he was fined, benched for headbutting and fired two days later. The NFL fined him and warned him to stop being a dick or the fines would get worse until he was suspended. He got suspended again for his treatment of Martin, sat out the next year because no one would hire him, and later got suspended again by the NFL for personal conduct.

I don't think fooball requires people to treat others like that. Act like Richie and you get fines, suspensions and firings, and some coaches won't hire you.  Incognito's not the rule though, but an exception; most players are cool. Do dicks in the NFL sometimes get too many chances to straighten up? I'd say yes, because coaches want to win games and the NFL wants the money. Unless Richie changes and quits being a dick, he's going to have a hard time keeping any job.

Well, again, nothing he got penalized for on the field is what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the way he treated a teammate, and the way numerous anonymous players, coaches, and FO execs defended that behavior.  They said if players couldn't be gaping assholes as people, you couldn't have football.  It's all about manly manliness of manly men toughening up less manly men who need their manliness manlified.  In other words, all these people defending the game from within were gaping assholes, themselves, and they were saying gaping assholery is how football works.  Football encourages and demands it.

If that's the kind of people the game attracts, hires, defends, and rewards in any significant number -- people who would treat a player with Martin's problems the way Incognito did, or defend Incognito for doing so -- if that's what it takes to keep professional (or college or h.s.) football going, then football should not keep going, as far as I'm concerned.  It certainly shouldn't exist just for my entertainment.  So I left.

When someone says the players and owners have "ruined sports", they really mean to say that they "ruined it for ME". Tons of fans have already stopped paying and watching...which is why they're tanking so terribly. Of the 4 major sports, hockey has always been the least of them (which having played and followed the game for many years...hockey being the least simply escapes me since it requires such talent and toughness), but also seems to have been the least affected by today's politics and drama. But hockey has always had by far the least drama of the major sports. A shortened season is underway with only a tiny crowd allowed (technical folks and a few family)...but at least there's still hockey. My Red Wings are in rebuild mode...we will contend in just a few short years under the careful planning of Stevie Yzerman. OK...since I'm likely the only hockey fan...carry on.

The last time any of them got any of my money it was the Astros and look how that turned out. Never again.

Can you train a hooker to catch a ball? Lets call it a win win.