"Television ratings for Major League Baseball aired on regional sports networks continues to dominate prime time in the markets that host teams."
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That's good news. NFL ratings plummeted last year.
Ripken Fan posted:That's good news. NFL ratings plummeted last year.
NFL prime time ratings were down last year. There were some real bad matchups in prime time. In some cases teams that were supposed to be good had flop seasons. There were a lot of one sided games.
football has no future, I'm afraid. Great sport. But the damage it causes to the human body long term will be its undoing.
SluggerDad posted:football has no future, I'm afraid. Great sport. But the damage it causes to the human body long term will be its undoing.
that and the (likely) upcoming player's strike in 2019 or 2020. Players want guaranteed contracts. Owners won't budge
SluggerDad posted:football has no future, I'm afraid. Great sport. But the damage it causes to the human body long term will be its undoing.
Yes but I'm a little worried about baseball too if baseball doesn't find something against pitcher injuries. Harder throwing leads to more injuries and it is getting worse every year. Not life threatening like in football but you can't pitch if you are hurt.
But maybe baseball will use a really fast pitching machine instead of pitchers in 30 years. That way hitting still would be hard enough so that it doesn't become a hr derby
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SluggerDad posted:football has no future, I'm afraid. Great sport. But the damage it causes to the human body long term will be its undoing.
The danger issue has been around forever. Banning football was considered in the early 20th century. I remember hearing week after week in 1987 the fans won't come back. If the 1987 strike didn't kill football nothing will.
But the knowledge about CTE is a more recent revelation and some players who are in the NFL are retiring early deciding it is not worth the risk. Ex players are visibly showing the effects of the damage of a career in football. They used to hobble around on canes--now they are brain damaged, suicidal, etc. Big difference from prior fears about safety.
While I agree that interest in watching the sport will remain strong (mostly due to the billions of dollars spent gambling on games), the erosion of talent has already started and will continue as fewer and fewer kids play the game. Those ugly prime time games last year were a reflection of bad teams of which there seems to be more and more due to the lack of depth in talent...particularly the QB play. Football becomes unwatchable when there is bad play, and I'd rather watch paint dry than see two teams with bad QBs play each other. I'm guessing I am not alone based on the ratings decline.
Dominik85 posted:SluggerDad posted:football has no future, I'm afraid. Great sport. But the damage it causes to the human body long term will be its undoing.
Yes but I'm a little worried about baseball too if baseball doesn't find something against pitcher injuries. Harder throwing leads to more injuries and it is getting worse every year. Not life threatening like in football but you can't pitch if you are hurt.
But maybe baseball will use a really fast pitching machine instead of pitchers in 30 years. That way hitting still would be hard enough so that it doesn't become a hr derby
Really fast pitching machines and robot umpires? Wonder if the pitching machine could get ejected?
Try and get in an owners pocket for the cost of the dain bramage going on right now to the players. Somebody is gonna pay the costs of the long term medical care of the players. Most likely they will tax the fans and call it a "Heros Fee" (I'm Trade Marking that) and the fans will line up and pay it LOL, just like they line up to pay for Billion dollar stadiums.
The death of football will not initially be noticed at the professional level directly. The NFL will endure and be a major spectacle for some time to come. The real death of football will be caused by the drying out of pop warner, jr High, High school programs and eventually perhaps even college football programs. Football will die in much the way that a star dies. First the core burns out. But it takes many years for the burn out of the core to effect what is happening at the surface of star. In the case of a dying star it takes, I believe, millions of years. In the case of football, a decade or two might suffice.
If there is not talent in the pipeline, eventually the NFL will eventually succumb. It will take a while. But it is already happening. It will only get worse. As somebody already implied above, eventually talented and promising athletes, willing to give their all to a sport, but who still want a life after sports, will begin to find their way into sports that exact less of a long term physical cost. As the talent level in the NFL gradually wanes, fans will gravitate to these other sports as well. Eventually the NFL may go the way of Arena Football. An entertaining curiosity without mass market appeal. Once that happens a negative feedback loop will have been created.
I could not care less about american football in any shape, age, size or form. IF the players want to bash their heads in , let them....football will die off , numbers are going down... better short the NFL
I like Australian Rules Football that's a real mans game, no time outs for injury...
A survey was once done of high school football players. The question was, "Would you still want to be a college and pro football player if you knew you would die at fifty?" 88% responded yes. At the time the mortality age of a lineman was 56. Hiw would the knowledge of CTE change the 88%.
The players aren't worse in the NFL now. The NFL shot for parity and got it. Parity equals mediocrity. Part of the last CBO was a lot less says of contact. You can't teach proper tackling technique without contact.
The one thing I find very noticeable watching football is poor tackling technique. There's way too many body tackling. There's not enough leverage, arms around and wrapping up the ball carrier.
Going back to baseball the Red Sox are mentioned as one of the most watched teams. There was an article in the Globe a couple of weeks ago viewership is down 30% from last year. Maybe it's what happens when a team expected to be good gets four or five hits in way too many games.
In the past any time I'm home I would turn the game on even if just to look up when the volume increases. Who can actually watch every game? This year I've found myself not turning on the game and watching the MLB TV At Bat 20 minute condensed version in the morning. Even that can be boring if the team isn't hitting..
RJM posted:A survey was once done of high school football players. The question was, "Would you still want to be a college and pro football player if you knew you would die at fifty?" 88% responded yes. At the time the mortality age of a lineman was 56. Hiw would the knowledge of CTE change the 88%.
HS football players -- you mean 14 - 18 year olds, who still need their parent's permissions to play the game, to whom 50 will seem like really old and decrepit already, and who tend to think of themselves, as all youth do, as invulnerable.?
Jeez, what a surprise!
Ask these kids parents, who have a little more perspective, presumably, " if you knew that your son would die at 50, or would suffer from debilitating brain injuries for life, and might end up a vegetable, would you still encourage/permit him to play football?"
Parents are the ones who make the decision, especially at the earliest ages, to get sons started on football or not.
That's how the pipeline will dry up.
SluggerDad posted:RJM posted:A survey was once done of high school football players. The question was, "Would you still want to be a college and pro football player if you knew you would die at fifty?" 88% responded yes. At the time the mortality age of a lineman was 56. Hiw would the knowledge of CTE change the 88%.
HS football players -- you mean 14 - 18 year olds, who still need their parent's permissions to play the game, to whom 50 will seem like really old and decrepit already, and who tend to think of themselves, as all youth do, as invulnerable.?
Jeez, what a surprise!
Ask these kids parents, who have a little more perspective, presumably, " if you knew that your son would die at 50, or would suffer from debilitating brain injuries for life, and might end up a vegetable, would you still encourage/permit him to play football?"
Parents are the ones who make the decision, especially at the earliest ages, to get sons started on football or not.
That's how the pipeline will dry up.
Look at the faces of the players. Many black kids believe they will be shot before they're twenty-five. They believe football and basketball is the only way out of their situation. Do you think the possibility of dying at fifty is going to deter them?
Participation is a growing danger but IMO the real threat to HS football is liability. When school districts can either 1) No longer afford liability insurance 2) Get taken to cleaners in court for brain injuries ...that will stop HS football. The dominos fall from there.
As for blacks playing baseball - that door might swing back open as baseball continues its move into becoming "browner" as latin players come to the sport in bigger numbers and starring roles. This makes the sport more diverse. As people like Jeter and others take up front office and coaching positions the games diversity will act as a attraction. The money is there as is longevity. Sooner or later black mothers will start to decide to put gloves and bats in kids hands. If the peer pressure allows it - someday some young African American from Alabama will dream of playing center for the Braves rather than RB for the Tide. And there will be another Henry Aaron.
WSJ did a big article on HS football a few days ago, and the conclusion is that HS football is doing OK in SEC country, but not the rest of the country: https://t.co/uHPQHCyAxJ
Across the country, the number of players fell 2.5 percent from last season and it’s down 4.5 percent since 2006, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sp..._concussion_concerns
RJM posted:Across the country, the number of players fell 2.5 percent from last season and it’s down 4.5 percent since 2006, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sp..._concussion_concerns
I think youth football (pre-HS) is being even harder hit. Today's Washington Post (in the "On Parenting" newsletter): wapo.st/2y0FBkA
Repetitive hits, concussions, and a mother’s long goodbye to youth football
2019Dad posted:RJM posted:Across the country, the number of players fell 2.5 percent from last season and it’s down 4.5 percent since 2006, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sp..._concussion_concerns
I think youth football (pre-HS) is being even harder hit. Today's Washington Post (in the "On Parenting" newsletter): wapo.st/2y0FBkA
Repetitive hits, concussions, and a mother’s long goodbye to youth football
I don't believe kids need to play football before middle school. We didn't let our son. My wife didn't want him playing at all. My reason was different. He would have been the fastest kid on the field. I didn't want some yahoo coach telling players to go for his knees.
Kids should play flag football before middle school. A lot of coaches and pros believe this.