I'm ready for some flames on this one.
More or less, football (for me at least) is becoming unwatchable. It's not so much the game itself, but rather the way it is packaged and delivered by commentators, the media, the NFL, analysts, and to a lesser extent the players and coaches themselves.
Football has held the undisputed top spot in American sports for years now (how long, I don't know). Baseball is boring and has steriod issues. Basketball is a showcase for thuggery. Hockey judged itself too boring, and reconsituted the game into something different, which I don't call Hockey any longer, but instead call IceBlitz.
But Football has a legion of ex-players and media faces shilling for it all the time. The players are all about hard work and honor. They are all Pat Tillman patriots. On weekends they do community service. Anyone catch the first Patriots-Bills game? Tedy Bruschi is a hero. In case you didn't get that from the commentator saying "Tedy Bruschi is a hero!" NBC played that Hero song over his slow motion high-five to accentuate the point.
I'm finding that these glibly superimposed story lines are ringing especially false these days. Deep down, I truly believe that there are more Terrell Owens' (but too a lesser degree than the real TO) than there are Pat Tillmans. Football has the same thuggery issues as the NBA (what does it take to erase all memories the Vikings' sex-boat fiasco? 5 straight wins!), and the same steroid issues as baseball. And it still lays claim to some higher standard of the noble contest.
Well, I'm having trouble buying that anymore. I thought the ESPN football drama a while back (forgot the name) was really refreshing, until it was axed by the NFL. It featured a running back past his prime, who was cheating on his wife, a drugged out thug upstart new RB star (Willis McGahee?!), and a linebacker who could only communicate in the language of violence. It was a stark look inside what, under all the dressing, I think is the real NFL. And the league hated it. So they took it down.
The NFL has its own spin machine, you see, one that encourages us to forget that Ray Lewis is a killer, that Michael Irvin is a sex and drug addict, that Jamal Lewis went to jail--one that, I'm predicting, in the future will attribute Ricky Williams' decline to his love of pot. It packages its drug-and-sex-smeared product as wholesome family friendly entertainment.
Those ex-players and coaches who don't perpetuate the lie and become TV commentators at least have a second option open to them: writing tell all nonfiction bestsellers. Thanks for keeping it real, LT.
So... tell me I wrong. Flame on.
