Football and Me

[sdelmonte]

So it's a Sunday in November. The leaves are turning, the days are shorter, and for most of my life, if I were home, there would be a football game on TV. In fact, there is a humdinger of a game going on right between the Giants and the Saints. I am following it. But I am not watching it.

I am not watching because I decided football is a terrible thing. A terrible thing that I have loved for most of my life, a terrible thing I still pay attention to, but a terrible thing nonetheless. It is a violent sport that makes billions off people trying to hurt each other, and that most likely condemns many who play it to brain damage sooner or later. That so many people watch it every week and don't seem to be bothered by this, that bothers me. That so many people are betting on what individual players are doing as if they are little more than commodities, bothers me. That the people running the sport continue to insist that there is a safe way to play the sport when it seems more and more clear that is a lie, bothers me.

So last fall, I stopped watching. There have been a few times I have ended up someplace where a game is on, and I look at the TV and find myself missing it. But I have not made the conscious choice to watch. I will admit what got me to stop watching was the spate of abuse cases involving football players, but the momentary outrage faded and I began to rethink the whole sport, at all levels. I have not reached the point where I don't care. It might be impossible to be a sports fan in America and not have to sift through tons of football talk and news, so as long as I follow baseball or basketball or any other sport, I probably can't divorce myself entirely. But the TV stays off.

The funny thing is that every time I have told someone this, they have looked at my like I grew a new head. Every time. And not just from people who like the sport. To dismiss football is, I don't know, un-American. But still I refuse to watch. And feel lonely. Ratings are up. Every time there is a new scandal, every time there is a new report about concussions, every time there is something that offends me, the ratings go up. And I keep wondering what is wrong with us.

I am not trying to start a crusade. In the grand scheme of things, this is pretty unimportant. But at the same time, I am sticking with it. And telling people why I have stopped watching. And why I hope someday not to care about it at all.

It would be nice, however, if just once someone told me that I was making sense. I am used to being on the wrong side in a political debate. Even so, I am not used to just how lonely it is.

Comments

[camwyn]

I can understand this, for whatever it's worth. When I was little, I saw men being tackled in football games and hauled off the field to recover, then getting up and going back in. For the longest time, I wanted to know how they managed to do that without getting hurt. It never occurred to me that they were being sent back on the field despite being hurt or worse; I didn't clue into that until much later. By that time I'd realized I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be seeing happen- I honestly had no understanding of what was going on during a game no matter how many times my mother tried to explain it to me. Baseball, I watched; basketball I occasionally watched; hockey, well, I read about it and I at least understood what was going on during the game, even if I didn't watch it. But football... no.

I understand why you're not watching. It makes sense.