Discussion:

Actually, this is part of my objection to this sport in particular (it applies to most team sports as well.)

• It keeps them out of trouble not by virtue of the sport, but often by
  the protection of tribal elders - how many rape or assault stories
  have you read just in the last year that were never prosecuted or
  covered on their behalf.
• And the discipline usually comes in the form
  of blindly following the orders of an unquestioned authority figure
  to inflict maximum violence upon others. Just because someone gave
  him a whistle. Just seems like they’re practicing to listen to the
  loudest blowhards who yell at them (talk radio anyone.)

So, no, not harmless, but the tragedy is as you said, just for something that doesn’t mean anything.

Contrary to the “anecdata” of selective media focus, pro athletes have lower crime rates than non athletes in the same demo. I know, I know, shocking that the media can be a distorting lens.

I think the discipline comes from learning techniques and exercise regimes. These techniques and drills are pretty standard. The motivation comes not from pleasing coach, but from mastering the skill and performing in a game.

This is no different than learning to dance, play music, make furniture … You learn from teachers, but the skills are intrinsic to the craft itself.

Yabbut.

I could care less about football if the Packers aren’t playing. Haven’t wasted my time watching a Superbowel since the last time the Packers were in it.

And even with the Packers in there (and winning, Yay!) I was still really annoyed by all the crap the NFL lards into the games. Superbowel is the worst for that, of course.

It becomes a part of your neurological production of serotonin and dopamine, as would the consistent practice of a religious exercise, a certain regularly consumed food tied to a significant regularly experience emotional upheaval, anything that is regularly done that provides the same hormone production. It’s not just football.

For some of us it’s books. It manifests differently and doesn’t spawn the same highly visible (and I would argue cynically manipulative) industry with profits, violence, beer and pharmaceutical hawkery. But pop open a tome with that old book smell and watch some people fall into the same head space. Or start a discussion in a fandom of why X or Y couldn’t possibly have happened or should have happened. Or try interrupting someone in one of their favorite books/series 10 pages before the end, even if they’re read it before.

I found it easy to quit, after the NFL did two things I didn’t like:

1. They moved the goalposts from the goal line to the back of the end zone, eliminating one of the more fascinating aspects of the game.

2. They merged with the AFL and formed the AFC and NFC, eliminating the guarantee that the Super Bowl would always be played between two teams that had not met in the regular season. Since then we’ve had at least three occasions where the Super Bowl was played between two teams that met in the final game of the season. Yawn.

At that point, even though I was only in junior high school, I just decided to move on.

I can ALWAYS find something to work on, ANY GIVEN WEEKEND, thann watch football.

I quit. Watched the sport of most of my life, until I was about 38.

Wasn’t difficult at all. Just don’t turn it on.

I’ve been a football fan all my life, began with the Raiders in the Kenny Stabler days, and now with the Seahawks (haters gonna hate, whatever folks.). I am also a woman, and as such, I have been informed that I am no longer a supporter of women’s rights, that I am a hypocrite, that I am spitting in the faces of the victims of domestic violence, that I am encouraging men to act out violently, all because I remain a fan of football.

Well, I call bullshit. I can be a fan of football, and I have even more right to say that I don’t find the League’s policies and actions regarding DV acceptable. I can be a football fan and still firmly believe that the cheerleaders need to have a union of their own to stand up to the League’s poor treatment, pay, and working conditions. I can be a football fan, and know that men can perform on the field with strength and power, and still be able to be a non-violent person while off the field. I do not hand in my women’s right’s activist card because I remain a football fan. I stand with victims of DV and demand better from every team and the League itself. I want better for the players who risk their long term future health for a game they, and I , love.

Yes, there is much to fix in the NFL, but I’m not walking away. I’d rather make change happen from the inside, rather than throwing stones as someone who has no skin in the game itself.

By the way, the NFL isn’t the only team sport that needs some serious overhaul in terms of DV policies, health issues, and player behavior. Look at the NHL (no violence there?), MLB, NBA, and other sports like lacrosse, golf, soccer, boxing, wrestling, etc. Just think a little bit, folks.

Why It’s So Hard To Quit NFL Fandom

There’s always next year. Applies to every major, minor college, high school, littles in ALL sports.

Next year. We’ll have a chance next year.

I was hooked as hooked can be. Knew everything and everybody, played from as young as I could through high school and in every no pads park game around. Took and caused a lot of big hits and had some dizzy spells too back then.

I was a Rams fan, then they moved to St. Louis, so I adopted the Raiders and then they moved into the Rams stadium then back to Oakland and their owner, Al Davis, was one of the classic jerk owners. They suck eggs now but are still my team, mostly because I just can’t get into any other team, but I haven’t known the QB in a decade and don’t watch. I live in Bronco country now so it’s like being tortured. Never met meaner fans anywhere although Jacksonville was pretty scary.
The last straw for me being really into a team was the money. It disgusts me, offends me and causes some huge issues with the athletes, as we are seeing now.
I won’t buy Jordan shoes or pay $100 for a jersey so they can make tens of millions, I could but I just won’t.
So I may not live up to your standard but I don’t believe that it is my fault. I miss all the big sports but the thug players and arrogant pricks that get overpaid to play a sport and the administrations that are just major corporations that don’t pay taxes, took the real joy out of it.
I hope football gets hit and hit hard (no pun intended) concerning their cover ups and if that hurts some seasons, so be it.

I was a huge football fan growing up, and I was a girl. Loved the Cleveland Browns, even though I didn’t live in Ohio. I was totally hooked.

But pro football has changed. Injuries, sometimes deadly; too much money involved that fattens the wallets of sports owners and those that build the fancy new stadiums and get the concession contracts. Ticket prices that are out of reach for many,

But, first and foremost, it has become a gladiator sport in some (?) franchises.

And you’re whining about the supposed whining. Raiders fans aren’t whining about the rule, it’s the play that killed us, just like the immaculate reception by Franco Harris.

You won’t get anywhere calling anyone whiners and if you are being honest with your god you’d admit that that was a heartbreaker and if it was your team you would feel the same way. And, the beginning of the end for the Raiders and just the opposite for the Patriots.
The raiders ruled in the eighties and that may be possibly all they ever get but at least they had that. Watch some old NFL films if you need a reminder.

That was very honest and I appreciate that, I try to be just like that, even though I have lost the fever for pro sports, not just football.
I’m not sure why you threw Golf in their as a comparison though? Was it because of the one Tiger Woods incident? I only play Golf these days as I can’t handle the physical end any more after years of sports and a hard 35 at least of construction.
Golf is tougher than some think, especially if you carry your bag and/or don’t use carts.
It’s 5 to 6 miles of walking up and down hills and in the heat of the day usually, I actually like that just for the exercise aspect. The game is really hard too, I was a hell of an athlete but it took me years just to be able to consistently hit a ball mostly straight and mostly where I wanted it to go. No other sport do you have such lack of control. It’s very challenging if you get competitive and care about lowering your handicap. I’m down to a solid 10 and feel like I’ve accomplished a lot to get there. There is zero violence and outside of the inevitable jerk, there is no anger. I know it’s not a smash mouth game but I’ve been there and done that. The competitive thing is all there in Golf and there is far less chance of injury.

I know. I was talking just about on-field refs who control the game. That there are seven for an NFL game also tells just how rule-bound the game is. The soccer ref and the rugby ref have some discretion available. The NFL refs have none. Rigid rules and rulebound refs and the greed for television money make for a broken, stuttering, boring game.

team co-owner here. cosigned what you said – i don’t give a crap about college football, and i watch other NFL games primarily as a form of advanced scouting for my Pack. growing up in Wisconsin, football is nearly inseparable from autumn and early winter: something that augments the smell of leaves and soil in october, and then pulls you through a dreary week of seriously subzero temperatures.

i agree with the author of the essay, though. do i feel guilt about continuing to support the NFL by contributing attention and modest money (i own a jersey)? yes. can i stop watching and disavow this central pillar of american entertainment? no.

This is your brain on corporate sponsored team sports.

Get help.

Now, just to show what a truly old fart I am, longtime Patriots fans still remember that 1976 playoff game against the Raiders that was lost on a ridiculous roughing the passer call. N.E. had given the Raiders their only loss of the regular season and was about to do the same in the playoffs when a last gasp pass by the Raiders fell incomplete but they called Ray Hamilton for roughing the passer when all the replays showed it was not the case. It was also known as the “Ben Dreith Game” because of all the questionable calls he made against the Pats. Many Pats fans still think he was paid off and the league didn’t assign him to another Pats game because of the bad blood for over a decade. We all just think the tuck call was just retribution – well not even that since, after all, the call was correct according to the rules.

I don’t watxh football anymore .Haven’t for a good 35 years. I decided that along with boxing the game was just about violence.

Baseball is my sport.

It has been easy for me to give up too. I was not a “die hard” fan of any team, including our local NFL team anyway. It was the off the field behavior that has kept me at a distance, sadly along with most sports anymore.

You are so right…a good book does it to me every time. Throw in there the fear that once done with a really good book how soon will I find another to take me to the zone again.