I've always been a HUGE football fan. I've ate, slept, and dreampt football since I was 8. I've followed the phins since '91, been running a family fantasy football league since 2000, and read about the phins EVERY day. But lately, I'm just kind of getting tired of the NFL in general. The NFL is changing, and with it, my attitude. I used to tune in for football games, enjoyed the breakdowns of opponents, but lately it seems that I can't watch a weekend without getting upset. And it's not just about this past week (I actually missed the game if you can believe it). -We go into this season with the dark cloud of a lockout next season - Megatron caught/didn't catch a TD that fueled crazy amounts of Drama in week one. A team lost as a result of a highly questionable call -Defensive players seemingly can't hit opposing QB's......ever. I watched as a defender got pushed into Tom Brady, who in turn looked at the ref and essentially threw a flag on the play himself -The league is starting to fine and suspend guys for hitting too hard...HITTING TOO DAMN HARD! -Last year the we knocked a ball out of the endzone against the saints in a play that could have swung the momentum our way. They called it a TD....I initially thought "that sucks, but everyone makes mistakes" until I saw the two page spread in SI....the mother ****ing ref was standing RIGHT THERE! That's not a ****ing mistake! That's mother ****ing ignorance! -Now we have a game where ref's called the play over BEFORE it was finshed which cost us a TD. -The problem is extending to the "amature" sport of College football where college athletes are on the take. These players reap huge benefits while the programs left in their wake face the devastation. Scholarships for innocent high school athletes are revoked while the players on the take go on to make millions in the pros. -And people defend this saying that Universities...which are offering a FREE education (I know the price of education...and I'd do about anything to attended school for free) have the audacity to make money off of the athletes. -And schools with rivalries spanning back 80+ years are jumping conferences to create a good 'ole boys club of high earning schools which neglects to reflect quality of the schools education or athletic programs other than football. Instead it reflects only the amount of TV sets that a school can brink. More and more the game is being taken out of the hands of players and being decided by ticky tacky calls by the ref's, insulting rules put in place by a clueless management system, and just plain luck. Maybe it was because I was a kid, but the game has lost a lot of luster for me. I have a hard time sitting through pre-game conjecture on how great of a comeback a rapist is having, how great Bret Favre is, or whether a guy should be suspended for hitting a WR too hard that was running full speed down the field. More and more football is becoming an ugly mirror reflecting the turmultuous world around us. We're watching a once great game become overrun by clueless execess. A game which used to be decided by talent is being decided by PC moves and ruined by greed. I for one have drastically reduced the amount of time that I spend following my team. I spend weekends working on hobbies, rather than watching football, and I spend more time reading about investment strategies than the miami dolphins. I'll always root for them, but I'm really starting to feel a detachment from football as a whole.
From the transition to flag football and accepted horrid unmitigated officiating every week, to players being fined for celebrating the fruits of their labor on the field with teammates, to the preferential treatment of certain quarterbacks, to sending games overseas, to the ridiculous canned "storylines", yes, I kinda see your point. I certainly can't blame you. You're most likely right, the 2010 NFL is a complete 180 of the NFL of the 1970s-2000 (I'm not old enough to have watched but from all the ESPN classic footage and highlights of memorable games, this seems to be the case- by comparison).
Well said DaPhins....football season is something I always look foward too and probobly am a little to abbsessive about. I have spent lots of money, time, and energy following it, ecspecially the Dolphins. Time to take a step back and re-evaluate my priorities aswell, the game is looking more and more corparate every day. We cant even get a 1pm home game because the league factors in that "it may be too hot for fans to attend" wich is complete horseshnit. All BS aside, it is time for me to ask myself if this is all worth it.
What, u want a GD link or something? Hold on Ill copy/paste a site that pronounces the sky is blue, gimme a minute!
I've never seen the NFL say anything of the sort, especially since TB and Jax had 5 1pm home games, and JAX had 2 more 4:05 games.
As for bad people succeeding thats life man. Hate to break it to you but there are a fair amount of scumbags in the nfl and in professional sports. Good people don't always win. Now if you are pissed about the attention they get and forgiveness, well thats our society reflecting on the nfl, not the other way around. Thats societies fault, we look the other way on guys like jeramy stephens because they can play a game. Meanwhile some school teacher is in the ghetto spending all his time counseling kids and trying to keep them away from gangs and we ***** and moan when someone wants to give them a raise. You want it to change, change the way you view it, at least thats a start.
Wasn't it Stephen Ross that pined for primetime games to start the season because he thought it was too hot for fans (the greed aspect of getting more butts in seats to make a buck)? But I've certainly never seen anything about the NFL saying it's too hot...at least they've got something right this year.
Ofcourse the NFL wouldn't say anything about that? Bottom line is our number of 1pm home games in September has decreased, call it ironic if u will.....I call it BS.
I've about had my fill for awhile! Plenty of other more important things to fill my weekend. I'll still spend some time in here, check the scores Monday or Tuesday morning, but I've pretty much had my fill for awhile.
daphins, great post. You took the words right out of my mouth. I've been saying for some time now that it seems the NFL is becoming more and more of a joke by the day. I take the games so seriously and I've been wondering why. Why should I take it so seriously when games are being stolen from us because of incompetent, biased or cheating refs that are born in the same town as the f***ing team they are officiating? I am so fed up with how Miami is NEVER on the good side of these calls. It's starting to look like a real pattern to me. Seriously. The big money was on Pittsburgh last weekend, was it not? The NFL has LITERALLY become a joke. It's f***ing pathetic. It really is. It makes me sick.
