The Death of the NFL

Well, it's the Packers' Bye Week, so while watching college football and getting tired of hearing about the Lakers, why not go on a rant about the NFL's demise?

Why am I thinking of this? I went on a mini-rant the other day about the NFL fining Packers 3rd/4th string TE/Special Teams player, 2nd year, 7th round draft pick, Ryan Taylor.  This guy is the definition of "workmanlike."  When you are drafted #218 overall by the reigning Super Bowl Champion, and the 2nd TE drafted by the team in the draft, the likelihood of making the team is not great.  You are not handed a guaranteed multi-million dollar contract.  You sign a deal that gives you a signing bonus of about $60K, and you get a 4 year deal for about $500K a year.  Not bad right? 2 million bucks, hell, most of us would love that.  The NFL offers opportunities to 53 players on 32 teams to make a "living" playing football.  So, yeah, it's dream come true for almost 1700 people.

So why did I title this the "death of the NFL?"  Compared to normal people, the NFL life is great.  But compared to other sports (except maybe Hockey) it is horrible.  The NBA has only 15 roster spots, but almost all contracts are guaranteed.  A 1st round pick will get about 4 years 14 million before being eligible for free agency and a huge 80-90 million dollar payday.  In MLB, you have to put your time in the Minors before making the big bucks, but still, each team has 25 active roster spots, and different levels of minor league baseball to play and hone your skills.  Journeyman type bullpen relievers or utility infielders make 2-3 million a year, guaranteed.  Superstars make $150-$300 million GUARANTEED.  Alex Rodgriguez could start sucking big time at the age of 37 with $200 million left on his contract and still get paid... oh wait that is already happening.

My point is this.  The NFL is the most difficult sports league to play for.  You have a career of 3, maybe 4 years.  If you're awesome like Favre, Woodson, London Fletcher, Urlacher, or a kicker, you can play 16-18 years and make some major $$$.  But watch out for ROGER GOODELL.  The evil commissioner of the NFL.  I am pretty sure he looks for opportunities to fine or suspend players.  This is where the Ryan Taylor thing comes in .  This guys makes $28,500 (gross) a week from Sept-Dec.  Not bad, right?  Well, not so great when ROGER GOODELL fines you $21,000 in one week for a blindside block.  What the hell are you supposed to do?  Defensive and special teams players get penalized and fined so much I seriously have doubts that kids 15-20 years from now will want to put that hard work in.  I think we are looking at an NFL in 15-20 years that looks like 7-7 drills.  Hell, maybe they will just go 7-7, forget blocking and rushing the passer.  Maybe GOODELL can work that in the new CBA in 2022. On top of that, the NFL thinks it is an unstoppable beast.  They subject us to awful Thursday night matchups that compromise the health and safety of players, and put games like Kansas City/San Diego and Jacksonville/Indianapolis in Prime Time.  No one asked for that crap.  OH, and did I mention GOODELL wants to put a team in England!? What the hell?!  Has he talked to Gary Bettman for advice?  Lets dilute our brand by putting teams in markets that don't care! What a great idea.  Get serious.

One other point.  The reason why the NFL destroys every other sport in the US is because it is ingrained in us.  High school on Thurs/Fri, College on Saturday (or Tuesday, or whatever stupid day ESPN wants to show a game these days... but that's a different post...), and NFL on Sunday.  When you are 8, 12, 15, you put that helmet on and feel like you are part of something.  But as collegiate and professional sports start to target younger and younger players, I have to wonder if basketball, baseball, hell, even soccer coaches start poaching football kids at a young age.

Example: You are 14; a 3 sport star.  Baseball, basketball, football.  You are varsity, all state material at both.  The prep schools are calling your mom.  What should you do?  Who the hell is going to play football?  If I am this kid, I am playing baseball first, then basketball, then football if I am too stupid to do anything else.    So basically 3 kind of kids will play football.  Poor, southern, and midwestern kids who still love the game and want to play, athletic kids who aren't quite good enough to play basketball, and workmanlike grinders who just love to hit people and compete.  But I feel like we will run out of premier athletes (Adrian Peterson, Andrew Luck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ray Lewis) who want to play anymore.

Summation: The NFL, with it's overregulatory, "No Fun League" approach, combined with opportunities in other sports that do not have the life altering injury factor, and overexpansion, will dilute itself to the point of irrelevance by the 2040s or so.  Fortunately I'll be old and senile by then and probably still enjoy it.  But I feel sorry for the next generation.  You can blame ROGER GOODELL.