Most people have the same response when I tell them I played football growing up. There’s a facial expression mixture of surprise, amusement, and a little pity. Usually an incredulous “really?” or an adamant “no way!” accompanies this expression. I explain that I played during middle and high school. Yes, I played. Yes, I got laid out mostly every play. It’s a song and dance I’m pretty familiar with now that my playing days have been over for almost six years. But it’s embarrassing. More than that, my internal embarrassment brings up other aspects of the complex and layered relationship I have with the game of football.
The Love
On one hand, I love football. I love it’s precision. Each offensive play is highly choreographed. Snap count, pulling linemen, route patterns, passing progressions. In theory, every play should end in a touchdown. Defensively, there’s a similar collection of detailed instructions for players. Stunting gaps, coverages, formations and assignments. But flip the goal: no play should ever be a touchdown. These two goals are simple, but the two outcomes cannot exist simultaneously. At the meeting of these elementary, opposing goals, a drama is born that. In my opinion, it’s something no other sport achieves. I think there is something poetic, and even profound, about how the philosophy of football is seen in every play.
The Hate
At the same time, I feel in my bones that football is detrimental to society at large. Literally, I have bad ankles, knees, and arthritis in my big toes. My joints whisper to me on humid days that it might have been a mistake to play at all. Don’t even talk to me about brain damage from the sport. Study after study emerges showing that even a single head injury is detrimental for one’s long-term health. On top of that, I believe the NFL as an organization is close to moral less. This article could very quickly evolve to become “Bad Things the NFL Has Been Involved In, Ever” and we’d both leave feeling guilty that we think Peyton Manning is funny, sometimes.
Cue 2020
Over the summer of 2020, my internal struggle with how I ultimately feel about the game has kicked off again. Seeing the Washington Football Team in the process of changing their moniker, a literal racist slur, gave me a flicker of distant hope for the future of the game. This name change could initiate a domino effect. Other major sports teams could, and should, change their names away from caricaturing indigeneous peoples. “Maybe this is signaling progress,” I thought to myself, naively. But go down to the comments section of any article discussing the Washington name change. You’ll likely see a handful of football fans who are, shall we say, disappointed in the decision.
Shortly after the naming controversy, the Washington Post released an article detailing sexual harassment allegations from 15 women, all former employees, against the Washington Football Team’s workplace. While this is not directly related to the sport of football, it is another bullet point in a long, disturbing list detailing the type of detrimental conduct that football is seemingly constantly clouded by. Other sports encounter these issues of conduct as well. But look at the league-wide responses. The NFL consistently struggles to be act morally. They fail to meet the bare minimum acceptable action. Oftentimes making things worse.
At this point, we all know about the NFL’s infuriating treatment of Colin Kaepernick. His decision to kneel during the national anthem in protest of police brutality sent ripples throughout the country. Shortly after exercising his first amendment right, he was cut by the San Francisco 49ers and has not seen the field since.
Meanwhile, as I am writing this article, we are currently embroiled in the largest demonstrations over civil rights and racial injustice in the history of this country. Sparked by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by state actors. The NFL has paid lip service to the Black Lives Matter movement. But up until this point, they have done next to nothing with their considerable wealth and influence to make this country a safe place for all its citizens. In the upcoming season, the NFL is going to allow players to don social justice stickers on their helmets. But given their track record on the matter, this gesture feels cavernously empty.
Greed
The NFL is extremely aware of its image, and as an organization behaves in whatever way ensures its fanbase, and thus its capital. The move to allow social justice stickers feels corporate, ineffectual, and impotent. What’s so enraging, is that the NFL is in as good a position as any group or person to affect real, lasting, positive change in this country. Yet they continue to act as bystanders. The fact of the matter, though, is that the NFL cannot maintain bystander status with the amount of focus it draws.
According to a CNBC article from late last year, NFL games had an average of 16.5 million viewers per game during the 2019 season. This continued the trend of increasing viewership from the previous season. Regardless of controversy, people are tuning in to games Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays throughout the season. That’s when things are normal. What will be interesting is seeing how the coronavirus pandemic continues to alter the season, the viewership, and the organization.
The Pandemic
Up to this point, the NFL maintains a defiant air regarding the pandemic and its effect on the season. They aim to play without interruption, outside of canceling the preseason and installing virus testing protocols. This includes the season starting on time, to full stadiums. This is ambitious, at best. At worst, it’s reckless.
We have already seen the risks as the MLB season encounters coronavirus problems of its own. The NFL has a golden opportunity here to learn from the mistakes of the MLB and put together a semblance of a normal season. They have an opportunity to demonstrate what a safe return to quarantine-less life could look like. That is, if they take a strong stance on infection prevention measures. But given the political implications of responding to this virus appropriately, and the NFL’s history of bystander-ism, many fans like myself aren’t holding their breath for leadership.
With the arrival of September, so has the NFL season. In my opinion, it’s a huge, risky, potentially disastrous gamble in attempting to have a season. This, seemingly, all for the goal of ensuring the profit margins of the NFL brass. Potentially, even at the expense of players and fans. Personally, that’s not behavior I want to support. And the unfortunate truth is that the NFL’s response to the pandemic is simply a continuation of the same greedy, selfish behavior we’ve seen it display for some time now.
I know I’m not the only fan struggling. I can’t be the only fan having a crisis of conscience in supporting the league and sport. My only question is when will the viewers of the NFL hold it accountable for its actions? If the NFL can change, fundamentally, and the game can be made safer, then I can very easily see myself becoming a big fan again. Football, the game, will always be compelling to me. But until I see my values reflected in the league and it’s fanbase, I’ll struggle to throw my support behind the NFL. As the 2020 season commences, the act of viewing a game will be tinted with guilt.
