I love it when the public Jazz/NPR station in Denver tries to do sports ....the hepcat DJs or newslady will say something like,

"And in football action yesterday the Broncos were victorious over the ...Tennessee ...Titans. Wow, looks like that Payton Manning is one heck of a quarter back for the squad! And across town, the Colorado Rockies baseball team fell in action against the Cardinals from St Louis. Oh well, get 'em next time."

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/08/26/steve-almond-against-football

FYI, it was more about both pro than college. Almost all about pro. Concussions, cartels, tax dollars going to private endeavors that don't improve the area like people think they do, racism...

...drew a parallel to boxing, which was once the biggest sport in the nation.

Gulo Blue said:

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/08/26/steve-almond-against-football

FYI, it was more about both pro than college. Almost all about pro. Concussions, cartels, tax dollars going to private endeavors that don't improve the area like people think they do, racism...

...drew a parallel to boxing, which was once the biggest sport in the nation.

Click to expand...

Football is not alone in that regard. Baseball, hockey, and basketball all have the same issues, except maybe concussions.

The most no-nonsense way to get college football fixed would be to "tax" the profitable programs and conferences, and have the proceeds go to guarantee a cost-free bachelor's degree for all athletes, and also fund trusts for lifetime healthcare (at least for football-related injuries), treatment for brain damage, and royalties or proceeds from marketing/licensing of their images and likeness during their college days.

this would eliminate the major complaints: that CFB unfairly profits by imposing amateur requirements on the athletes while entirely reaping the windfall of licensing their images/likenesses, and "rewards" athletes with scholarships that don't cover the full cost of attendance, or leave them high and dry if they get cut or injured.

I think those changes, along with better rules enforcement, would go a long way to reforming college football and making it a more sustainable business model going forward (until the cheaters find ways to circumvent the reforms and new rules, at least).

I don't really care much for professional sports, aside from watching or going to the occasional baseball or football game. if they all went bust, I wouldn't mind.

michchamp said:

Football is not alone in that regard. Baseball, hockey, and basketball all have the same issues, except maybe concussions.

Click to expand...

I didn't dig too far into the comments, but one of the first posts was a Canadian complaining about the violence of football being one of America's blind spots. Yes, the first reply brought up hockey.

Then there is the study that soccer players suffer even more concussions:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-07/soccer-concussions-are-more-frequent-than-you-think

Man I look forward to the day soccer gets banned...I hate that sport.

Nowadays I seem to have a love-hate relationship with football. Concussion issues aside, college football is rotten and corrupt to the core and the NFL has gotten too big and arrogant for it's own good.

That said, most autumn weekends I still ultimately cave and tune in at least some of the time. I still find entertainment value in the sport itself, but would like to see those 2 organizations cut down to size in some way, unrealistic as that may be.

MSUMatt28 said:

Nowadays I seem to have a love-hate relationship with football. Concussion issues aside, college football is rotten and corrupt to the core and the NFL has gotten too big and arrogant for it's own good.

That said, most autumn weekends I still ultimately cave and tune in at least some of the time. I still find entertainment value in the sport itself, but would like to see those 2 organizations cut down to size in some way, unrealistic as that may be.

Click to expand...

I could not agree more with all of this. I actually quit FFL this year. It wasn't very much fun for me last year. The other guys in my league were shocked. I had been the commish for five years running previously.

I'm interested to see if this returns my love for the game. Being a Lions fan aside, I was about to pull the plug on the whole thing last year.

If there was some way to watch games and only support the players, I think we'd all sign up.

jared said:

I could not agree more with all of this. I actually quit FFL this year. It wasn't very much fun for me last year. The other guys in my league were shocked. I had been the commish for five years running previously.

I'm interested to see if this returns my love for the game. Being a Lions fan aside, I was about to pull the plug on the whole thing last year.

Click to expand...

My participation in Fantasy Football the past couple of years has involved doing a couple hours of homework in the several days leading up to our draft, then drafting my team and sending in my lineup each week. No trades. No free agent moves. I do manage to keep track of which players are on byes when do my lineups. Just don't care to take the time to do much more, though I haven't been able to bring myself to outright quit.