Football

The Super Bowl is here again and, call me un-American but, I do not care. Why? Because I hate football. It is a silly, boring and overly violent event. I do not call it a game or sport. That is what it used to be. Now, it's just an event.

I used to love football. The game changed. Once upon a time, it was dominated by running. Great quarterbacks like Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas seldom threw more than 20 times a game and often mush less. They passed a lot only when a) the running game didn't work, b) as a surprise move, or c) if it was late in the game and they were losing. The League decided that passing was more exciting and tweaked the rules. This did 2 things.

First, it slowed thins down. A lot. Every time a pass goes incomplete, the clock stops. Every time a receiver steps out of bounds, the clock stops. With running plays, the clock runs, unless the runner steps out of bounds, and in the old days, a lot of the ground game was up the middle. The time to play a game has become absurd. The game has a 1 hour time frame. In the past, a game took 2 to 2 1/4 hours, 2 1/2 tops. Now, the norm is about 3 1/2 hours, so, obviously, there is a lot of time with no action.

Second, all of that passing results in the horrific damage we see done to current players. When a QB drops back to pass, he is exposed to enormous beings trying to slam him to the ground. Heads bounce, necks get twisted, and severe concussions happen. Receivers, at the moment they catch the ball are sitting ducks and defenders tend to smash them. As a result, we now see many ex-players who have suffered severe brain damage. In days past, sure, players got beat up, but the injuries were more nagging bruises and sprains and such. These caused many players to wind up with near crippling arthritis, but that beats dementia. Football is now just short of boxing in terms of brutality.

The game, the sport, of football has become the spectacle of football, and when they take the field in the Super Bowl, it is no different than the gladiators entering the arena in Rome.