In his article “Sacking the Super Bowl”, Steve Almond asks an interesting question, should we watch football? Should we continue to support an organization whose moral compass is as damaged as the brains of the players it employs and as broken as the dreams of young high school athletes? That can be a lot to swallow, so I’ll start by giving simple answers: yes and no.
Yes, Americans everywhere should continue to watch football if they desire to do so. For years football has been a great American past time, whether people watch it or play it. As Almond stated in his article, it is a sport that brings family and friends together. Football has become a holiday tradition for many, with games on Thanksgiving and occasionally on Christmas Day (the last Christmas Day game was played in 2011, Greenbay Packers versus the Chicago Bears). Almond is correct in saying that the Super Bowl would be a national holiday if it wasn’t for Sunday. Even if their home team was down for the count weeks before, people everywhere sit down to watch the big game on a Sunday night; whether it’s for the action or the Doritos commercials. Football is so prevalent in American culture that it would be difficult to give up the love of the game.
However, fans in the stadium and at home need to educate themselves about the dirty underbelly of football, the business side. Football has evolved into more than a game, it is a lucrative business. The NFL spends and earns billions of dollars each year and with that money comes a dangerous amount of power. As Almond wrote before, the NFL is a legal monopoly and is tax exempt; Congress doesn’t dare touch it. Fans should know that the NFL has denied any connection between brain damage and the physical brutality that players endure, despite medical research that repeatedly showed otherwise. Fans should be aware that football can get their children into college, but it will not guarantee excellence in education or the fulfillment of dreams.
There’s no doubt that the ferocity players show on the field can lead to mental illness and brain impairment. There’s no doubt that such damage can be linked as a side effect of the powerful and profitable machine that is known as the National Football League. So I would like to take a step back and rethink. To me, the real question shouldn’t be whether or not we should watch football. What can we do to make football safer and the NFL less dangerous?
