With Goodells vision of the nfl beinf qbs wearing skirts and dresses, two hand touch, and the qb being the only player who matters its sure possible
No way IMO. Basketball, was just having issues...Hockey, although I love it will always be what it is in this country. Baseball maybe but with 162 games its too diluted. Who can really give a shit about game 87... Every week....every play... in the NFL can make or break your season. Your heart stops every time you see your star player rolling on the ground after a hit...losing even 3 in a row can tank your season. Maybe its just me but the excitment the NFL brings can not be compared to anything else in sports. Although I did see a soccer game in Europe...Im not a soccer fan but those games are a non stop party. You constanly fear for your life but its a good time.
Interesting take, I think at the end of the day it won't make a difference since I'm sure adjustments will be made. People love football and always will. LeBron is the exact opposite of a Jordan type.
Amen to that ... Anyway, out of all current sports, football clearly dominates in my opinion. Baseball and Basketball may be more personal in terms of the actual players (AKA Linsanity) but football's all-around thrill will keep it number 1 for a very, very long time.
Michael Jordan was revered by most of the basketball watching public. LeBron James is not. That's a huge difference. Michael Jordan was in the Julius Erving mold, a captivating performer who made people ooh and ah even when they were rooting for his opponents. LeBron James is more like a Wilt Chamberlain, a force of nature who overwhelms the court but leaves people cold because they can't connect to that.
I think the NFL is in danger as more head injury research comes out. It's going to lead to lawsuits, more rules designed to protect players, and a "pussification" of the sport that leads many fans to something else. In addition, the long and short term danger of head injuries could lead more parents to forbid their kids from playing , which would dilute the available talent pool of skilled athletes. To me, those are the real threats to the NFL's claim as the #1 sport, and not Aikman's bitching about Thursday night games on NFL Network.
+1, great post. The more information comes out about concussions, the more parents will push their kids towards other sports when they're young. In the same way that American kids who used to play baseball moved to basketball and football, soon American kids who used to play football will move to other games. Would you want your kid to play football at a level where the hits can do real damage? I sure wouldn't.
I wouldnt want my kid to be afraid to play a sportjust because of a potential risk. What kinda way is that to go through life? maybe its just my opinion, but it seems that the real injury risks dont start until college/pro levels when you start constantly going up against these mammoth physical freaks who can exert significantly more force.
The injury risks in football are there from high school on. Most towns have a kid who was badly hurt playing football and never recovered completely. That's just not true for the other main stream sports. The game is fundamentally unsound from a physiological standpoint. When it was people getting into padded gear and playing it was on the edge. Now that players are getting so large, and the big high school programs have 250 lb kids all over the place, the collisions are beginning to get out of control. If football is going to survive as a sport people are going to need to start thinking about how to make it less dangerous at all levels. That's going to require some serious thought if it's going to fix the situation. Here are some ideas: 1. Ban hard shell helmets. The hard helmets are a big part of the impact problem, both because they're hard and because they give players a false sense of security about what kind of tackles are ok to commit too. Make helmets that specifically guard against the ground vs skull concussion issues. These would be multi-layer shock-absorbing helmets that spread the impact of ground vs skull more evenly than hard helmets do. Think hockey helmets as the model for what football players should wear and for the same reasons: few expected hits on the crown or rear of the head, most impacts expected to be ground (ice) on head instead. 2. Change the rules to expel players from the game for hitting the head with any part of the body or hitting any part of the body with the head and ban them from organized competition for repeated violations. Make it clear that injuries caused by contact up high are potentially criminal offenses and people who commit them are very likely to be charged with felonies if serious harm is done to the opponent. 3. Enact strict weight limits based on body-mass-index. Do not allow players to bulk up and play. When a player has a specific weight limit they need to reach (think boxing weight divisions for the different roles) they are more likely to remain in very good shape with as much muscle as possible and no incentive at all to add extra fat just for mass. This would be part of a bigger effort to control steroids and HGH and such. Testing for the weight limits and BMI should include mandatory screens for any artificial attempts to create more muscle mass. This would also help very much in avoiding some of the other injuries that occur that are not so much life-threatening but create crippling circumstances post-career. 4. Create a simple standard for artificial turf that is designed to minimize the head to turf injury factor. If necessary ban cleats if the resulting surface is too spongy to allow players to dig in without creating more joint-based injuries. 5. Have an independent medical commission appointed by the AMA or similar ruling body set the rules for all levels of football play from Pee Wee to the NFL. Have the commission appoint a consultant to be at every game to ensure that the rules are being adhered to and that no team is trying to gain a competitive advantage over its opponent by flouting them. 6. Hire full time referees to manage the transition to the new systems and empower them as the final authority on safety issues at each game with the input of the consultant and the teams. Have their job security dependent both on their performance as referees and on adherence to the safety rules in play. The NFL needs to start working on this now because it's going to get away from them in a hurry if they don't.
Kobe is the only one that comes close. LeBron and Wade do not have the killer personality to dominate they way Jordan did. MJ did not just want to win, he wanted to crush his opponents. LeBron often shows up timid in the clutch. with Jordan you could feel that he was going to destroy anyone in his path to greatness.
The NFL and NHL both have extreme head injury problems. the NBA and MLB do not, bt also suffer from being slower moving games. Soccer has barely a foothold in the States and is not really a consideration. No sport dominates a day like the NFL does. Fall sundays are football days for many, many people. It has that event feel to it more so than any other sport. Its also the only one of the big 4 pro leagues that has a one game championship. Every where else you get a series. I do not see the game falling out of favor in the US anytime soon.
Soccer is the only sport that has a legit shot at overtaking the NFL. And that wouldnt be because the nfl starts to suck (unless Goodell is commissioner for life, then its a possibility) , but from all the espanolas taking over the country and bringing their soccer fanboiism with them
Soccer programs are important also though. The local high school football team may well be shut down because of the insurance costs, which are 5x the costs of the soccer program.
You have some good ideas, but you do realize that by using BMI that a person who is 5'8" and 200 pounds is considered obese? Using BMI for athletes is a joke
I think the only sport that could pass is soccer, and that is only if USA wins a world cup soon just to get the hype going. Growing up, I see more and people talking about and watching the World Cup and they don't want any other soccer. Hockey seems like the perfect sport for America, but for some reason it does not translate over easily to new fans so I don't see it making a push
:rofl2: Soccer is packed away in the attic next to the Christmas decorations...but unlike them they only come out once every 4 years.
There are maybe two guys in the NFL who are in that configuration or worse, MJD and whoever else is really short and very muscular. I think you could set the point at which the limits kick in at about 210 and be ok. The point would be to stop people adding bulk once they'd reached the designated limit for their frame. No more 350 lb guys playing football at any height. No more 6'3" 300 lb guys either. Tone the game down so that the physics stopped destroying bodies on normal contact.
