A Rant About Football

I am not a huge football fan. Since Friday Night Lights went off the air, you can safely say that I have cut my consumption of anything football related in half. Perhaps it is down to nothing since I haven't yet watched a game this year. It is not just that the NFL (the No Fun League) is made up of a bunch of felons and apologists for those felons ... it is not just that American ex-football players, aged 30 to 49, are 19 times more likely to have memory loss than the general population... it is not just that Michael Vick disgusts me ... it is mostly because I am bored with football. I see the athleticism, strategy and analogies to warfare in the game, I get it. I understand the game. Again it bores me and makes me uncomfortable watching it. I much rather watch a good tennis match, a baseball game or even walk around a golf course watching my niece play. Golf is very boring too but at least I get a walk in. Football just looks painful and watching people in pain, just is not very interesting to me. I've never enjoyed watching fights either so that's where I'm at.

I once saw a graphic of what happens to the brain when a person's body slams up against another. It looked like jello in a Tupperware bowl being thrown against the wall. I keep thinking of jello brains whenever I see a game. Not an image I want to hold onto.

I recently created a group in Facebook called "Boycott Michael Vick." This is obviously a very easy thing for me to do since I don't watch a lot of football. Not watching Philadelphia Eagles is pretty easy to do. I don't even have television reception in my home. But I do like to go out to pubs for a micro-brew and a burger and watch whatever is on. I guess I will have to schedule this around Eagles games. I am not so naive that I think boycotting this monster is going to accomplish anything other making me feel better. Also, I don't think his crime is any worse than many of the other felons in the NFL (domesticate abuse, rape, etc). I just think that if you train a bunch of beautiful creatures (in Vicks' case pit bulls) to kill each other for your entertainment, you rescind your right to be called a hero. His jail time is done but it is the NFL that I hold accountable for bringing him into people's living rooms and bars.

I bring this up today because I learned of a situation at the Philadelphia Eagles game a couple of weeks ago that pissed me off. A woman name Kori Martin entered their stadium with a t-shirt with the words "Losers fight pit bulls" on the front with Vicks' name and number scratched out. On the back were the words "you don't deserve a second chance." The officials at the stadium told her she could not wear the shirt. As a compromise, she could go to the game but only with the shirt turned inside out. This is maddening because I am a life long sports fan and I have witnessed some pretty atrocious things on t-shirta directed at players. Most of them have been worse than this. A t-shirt saying "Arod sucks and Jeter swallows" comes to mind. Once when I was a kid at Fenway (pre-Political Correctness), my dad and I listened to a drunk yell at Yastremski calling him a "dumb Pollock" for the whole game. But Phillie officials didn't allow a shirt that criticized a heinous crime like dog fighting. This is pretty outrageous to me. I'm about ready to boycott pretty much anything Phillie related at this point. Go Dodgers! It's Always Sunny in Los Angeles!