I'm glad someone posted this. Thanks Bid.
To me the more I watch the NFL the more a chore it is to watch. The only reason I keep coming back is because I love this sport so much, but it's a captive audience and the NFL knows it. It's like Facebook, if you want to use that type of friends based social media site you HAVE to use it. Sure there's Goolge Plus but no one is on it so Facebook has a monopoly. Same with the NFL, same with the WWE. Sure there's TNA but TNA sucks (IMO)
Lack of competition can ruin a powerful organization. Ever since Spygate I've known the league has it in for us. I mean we've got a former Jet as the freakin commissioner for God's sake. And if anyone, ANYONE wants to call B.S. on that just look at how terribly he managed the Ray Rice thing.
If there was a viable alternative to watch American Football I'd be GONE. But there isn't. For years now I've wondered how much more I could take. how much B.S. I'd have to put up with to watch my favorite sport. The officiating is the worst part, I mean it's just awful, it's biased, it's just plain garbage.
I'll probably always watch the NFL, honestly. Life-long love of the game and of our New England Patriots keep me from quitting regardless of the flags, the idiotic commissioner, or anything else. It's incredibly hard for them to maintain a level of enjoyment with the games while maintaining the long-term wellbeing of the players. But, I still find lots of games exciting regardless.
The point about the lack of competition is a solid one, no doubt, and it's an issue in sports. But is this an NFL issue? Wrestling fans are doomed because after WWE, you have a whole bunch of promotions that no one else would hear of unless you're an actual die-hard wrestling enthusiast. The #2 wrestling promotion isn't even the abysmal TNA, but New Japan Pro Wrestling, which obviously won't appeal to anyone that considers themselves a casual wrestling fan. Lack of competition is a huge problem in WWE, because about 85-90% of the time, the product sucks because the writing is lazy and they aren't compelled to write anything that entices and engages the audience. Just like with the NFL, the WWE's higher ups (correctly) assume that the fans will watch regardless.
NFL's stronghold over football is well-documented, although you can argue that their main competitor is NCAA Football. But, professionally, there isn't a league that can remotely touch the NFL. Same with the NBA and the others.
But the main difference is that I don't perceive all of the NFL's problems to be because of a lack of competition. I just think they have a bunch of incompetent people running the organization that simply aren't preserving the quality of the game. They simply have other things to focus on (player safety, money, etc). If another football league made it to the level of competition that the NFL is at, while preserving player safety and health and etc, I'm not sure that the NFL would do anything differently to maintain their audience.
Good post.
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