Man, its hard for me to say, but football just ain't the same game that it was even 2-3 years ago. It's gotten to the point its actually difficult to watch. I used to look forward to Sundays getting all my church and errands out of the way before 10AM PST to hit the bar and watch all the games. The parity over the past 10 years or more has been incredible. It's probably the one American sport besides baseball which is played so damn often where you don't know which team will win.
I was looking back and remembering some of my favorite moments in defense recently...49ers Whitner knocking Pierre Thomas out on fourth down stand in the redzone, Ravens vs. the Steelers from like 07, 08, 09. Ryan Clark laying out Willis McGahee. Even the recent dominant Seattle defenses. People not even throwing at Champ Bailey and Darrelle Revis.
Everyone has their own moments and memories but the defensive side of the game is being ahniliated right now. All the penalties and protections for QBs, running backs, and receivers. You cant go two plays without seeing a flag. And 25% of the time the flag is bullshit. These games last longer than 18 holes of bad golf.
Rodger Goodell is seriously a bitch. I remember instructing professionals in labor unions and using quotes from James Harrison of the Steelers just to explain how much of a bitch that guy really is. Harrison said if Goodell is on fire and the only way to keep him alive was to piss on him he wouldn't do it. Players deserve more money and they need some serious fringe benefits. They need counciling and career planning and security to keep them out of trouble. Its not just that they've probably been hit in the head 10,000 times, but they're single males age 20-32 and most of them come from disadvantaged situations. Then you got dudes getting $25,000 fines for wearing the wrong cleats and shit. The NFL is a perfect example of why America needs unions. Goodell should be burned at the stake. Players should own the league. Steve Young IMO would be a great commissioner, he's a player and a businessman and a lawyer. He also eventually will have his brain filled with Mush.
Give a big thank you to the press, who rather than watch games and focus on rosters of 60-70 dudes for looking at 1 dude like Ray McDonald and taking 15% of game broadcasts to magnify the undeniably terrible NFL arrest record when you got guys like Patrick Willis, Russell Wilson, even Colin Kaepernick who has a negative reputation for helping the community and giving back. And the fact you have scouts, coaches, staffs, thousands of people contributing to one team's success rather than one idiot's criminal mistakes.
And give a big thank you for the owners who keep giving thugs free pass after free pass and putting them in situations where they earn a check. To tell you the truth I'm not that much against this. I work with a lot of corporations and senior management and high performers get away with murder. In the NFL we just see it on TV. Find out why at your corporation your SVP hit his wife and dumped her cause he has an asian fetish and used his company credit card to pay for the hotel room, and then find out why that fool is still your SVP?
Chris Borland quit for all the right reasons and you can't challenge his decision - but he quit. His daddy runs some hedge fund. He's set. Move along Chris Borland and let the dudes who either need the money or see football for what it is fill in for you. No one denies football is a badass sport that permanently damages people. But people who play football know this. They did some study about the Bengals 75' team or something and 80% of the guys they followed up with said "shit I'd do it all over again."
Overall we're looking at a sport with no strategic direction, where the Commissioner turns his head to everything but the money and the owners won't say shit, players making limited wages with benefits that don't accommodate side effects from the game, and common sense and reasoning having players ask "man, why the fuck are we doing this to our nation's greatest sport?" I try to explain football to people. It's 52 players with 3 operations, offesne defense and special teams. Its got coaches sitting 3 stories high in press boxes scouting and drawing up plays, strategies that give teams strategic advantages even when other teams are more athletic, you got quarterbacks who are like field generals.
And all of that shit is being neglected because everyone in the league is acting like a bunch of bitches right now and not fixing shit thats easy to fix. Start giving players counseling and security to keep them out of trouble, better long term education and planning, gaurunteed contracts at least for the year they play in. Let them finish their college degrees on scholorship. Start reviewing all the PI plays and helmet to helmet / personal fouls right when the flag is thrown, make the reviews shorter. Get rid of Rodger Goodell. Put him in James Harrison's basement with a gallon of gasoline and a match. Focus on the good guys and make the NFL more involved in community and domestic violence issues. I've never seen a league where the problems have solutions and they're just being ignored.
I love football and its still our best sport; those that take the time to learn it will continue to see its superiority to soccer...but God Damn, bring back the real football. Regular season football is tough to watch. Less fouls more defense please. Set the Commissioner on fire. Problem solved.
I was looking back and remembering some of my favorite moments in defense recently...49ers Whitner knocking Pierre Thomas out on fourth down stand in the redzone, Ravens vs. the Steelers from like 07, 08, 09. Ryan Clark laying out Willis McGahee. Even the recent dominant Seattle defenses. People not even throwing at Champ Bailey and Darrelle Revis.
Everyone has their own moments and memories but the defensive side of the game is being ahniliated right now. All the penalties and protections for QBs, running backs, and receivers. You cant go two plays without seeing a flag. And 25% of the time the flag is bullshit. These games last longer than 18 holes of bad golf.
Rodger Goodell is seriously a bitch. I remember instructing professionals in labor unions and using quotes from James Harrison of the Steelers just to explain how much of a bitch that guy really is. Harrison said if Goodell is on fire and the only way to keep him alive was to piss on him he wouldn't do it. Players deserve more money and they need some serious fringe benefits. They need counciling and career planning and security to keep them out of trouble. Its not just that they've probably been hit in the head 10,000 times, but they're single males age 20-32 and most of them come from disadvantaged situations. Then you got dudes getting $25,000 fines for wearing the wrong cleats and shit. The NFL is a perfect example of why America needs unions. Goodell should be burned at the stake. Players should own the league. Steve Young IMO would be a great commissioner, he's a player and a businessman and a lawyer. He also eventually will have his brain filled with Mush.
Give a big thank you to the press, who rather than watch games and focus on rosters of 60-70 dudes for looking at 1 dude like Ray McDonald and taking 15% of game broadcasts to magnify the undeniably terrible NFL arrest record when you got guys like Patrick Willis, Russell Wilson, even Colin Kaepernick who has a negative reputation for helping the community and giving back. And the fact you have scouts, coaches, staffs, thousands of people contributing to one team's success rather than one idiot's criminal mistakes.
And give a big thank you for the owners who keep giving thugs free pass after free pass and putting them in situations where they earn a check. To tell you the truth I'm not that much against this. I work with a lot of corporations and senior management and high performers get away with murder. In the NFL we just see it on TV. Find out why at your corporation your SVP hit his wife and dumped her cause he has an asian fetish and used his company credit card to pay for the hotel room, and then find out why that fool is still your SVP?
Chris Borland quit for all the right reasons and you can't challenge his decision - but he quit. His daddy runs some hedge fund. He's set. Move along Chris Borland and let the dudes who either need the money or see football for what it is fill in for you. No one denies football is a badass sport that permanently damages people. But people who play football know this. They did some study about the Bengals 75' team or something and 80% of the guys they followed up with said "shit I'd do it all over again."
Overall we're looking at a sport with no strategic direction, where the Commissioner turns his head to everything but the money and the owners won't say shit, players making limited wages with benefits that don't accommodate side effects from the game, and common sense and reasoning having players ask "man, why the fuck are we doing this to our nation's greatest sport?" I try to explain football to people. It's 52 players with 3 operations, offesne defense and special teams. Its got coaches sitting 3 stories high in press boxes scouting and drawing up plays, strategies that give teams strategic advantages even when other teams are more athletic, you got quarterbacks who are like field generals.
And all of that shit is being neglected because everyone in the league is acting like a bunch of bitches right now and not fixing shit thats easy to fix. Start giving players counseling and security to keep them out of trouble, better long term education and planning, gaurunteed contracts at least for the year they play in. Let them finish their college degrees on scholorship. Start reviewing all the PI plays and helmet to helmet / personal fouls right when the flag is thrown, make the reviews shorter. Get rid of Rodger Goodell. Put him in James Harrison's basement with a gallon of gasoline and a match. Focus on the good guys and make the NFL more involved in community and domestic violence issues. I've never seen a league where the problems have solutions and they're just being ignored.
I love football and its still our best sport; those that take the time to learn it will continue to see its superiority to soccer...but God Damn, bring back the real football. Regular season football is tough to watch. Less fouls more defense please. Set the Commissioner on fire. Problem solved.
