Posts Tagged ‘NFL football’
Not Buying
Today, I am going to take great pleasure in not buying what the NFL and all of their corporate sponsors are selling. I have an undulating, on-again-off-again spectator relationship with America’s National Football League that started a little before the Minnesota Vikings first made it to the Super Bowl in 1969. Overall, I feel bad for what broadcasting the games on television has done to the sport, even though televised games have provided me with many benefits.
I’ve taken the good with the bad, but it has meant I’d rather stay home and watch than attend a game in person. While the athletes are standing around looking bored during commercial breaks, I can work on my jigsaw puzzle or entertain myself in other ways.
While still on my expedition to avoid news about the political disaster playing out, I saw a report that the NFL had chosen to remove an anti-racism message from the end zones of the field. That’s their prerogative. At one time, they chose to add such a message, and it is their right to stop or change it at any time. There is no requirement that they have to keep doing something forever after they have started.
However, the timing of this decision is something that triggered me and soured my opinion of the league once again. At a time of the kleptocrat-in-chief and all of the billionaires who support his bigoted money-grabbing ways wreaking havoc on society, I don’t want to catch myself chuckling at a creative multi-million dollar commercial during a broadcast on a network I abhor during a game that is hyped beyond reason to be the biggest thing the human race has ever accomplished.
I don’t want to buy the beer or pickup truck or sports gambling app or big pharma wonder drug or snack chips or energy drink or future crypto investment opportunity. I don’t want to know how many times the broadcast will insert a glimpse of Taylor Swift in a suite when Travis Kelce makes a big play.
I also hope to avoid learning which team’s fan base celebrations turn into a festival of drunken property damage.
In its place, I am going to snack on chips and salsa just because I still can. I am going to think about the people who are suffering in the world and gaining nothing from the money being exchanged by corporate advertisers, the NFL, and the FOX broadcast network.
Speaking of snacking, check out the job some critter did on this dead tree:
It munched holes through the snag!
That’s what I plan to do to a bag of tortilla chips later today.
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Time Out
Even though my home team didn’t play football yesterday, I watched games all afternoon and evening. The Vikings will play tonight. Might as well watch that one, too. There was a time when I wanted to be done with the NFL. I guess I’ve gotten over that.
I watch differently now, though. Outcomes are interesting but more meaningless for me. The fanaticism of some ticket buyers is almost scary by the looks featured in glimpses on the network broadcasts. I’ll wait until my team makes it to the Super Bowl to become fanatical.
If that were to actually come about somehow, win or lose, the results would still be meaningless.
Some NFL players have taken to wearing a puffy soft covering over their hard helmets. I hope it solves something for them enough to justify how silly they appear. It got me thinking: why don’t running backs wear soft outer padding over their torso? Entire uniforms could eventually start looking like the Michelin Man.
As a fan of spectator sports, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with the NFL, but this year, I’ve been watching more games than ever. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s an attempt to reconnect with my youth. I grew up watching the games. I used to study the faces of the team roster in the gameday magazine programs and tear out the full-page portrait of featured players when I was a kid.
One of the things that annoys me about the present version of the NFL is the confusing variety of uniform variations for each team. Garish colors and hard-to-identify helmets disrupt continuity and mess with team identity in highlight reels. When it comes to team uniforms, I’m an old fuddy-duddy. One dark version and one light works just fine. Home and away colors. Leave it at that.
What I do appreciate about the games is that they provide a time-out from real life. It’s an escape for a few hours from things that matter. Like watching a movie or reading a good book, except it is happening live while I watch, and tens of thousands of other people are sharing the same experience simultaneously.
And sometimes, it can be a train wreck, yet I can’t get myself to look away. The NFL corporation has me under their spell despite my better judgment. And it’s because they hooked me when I was young.
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Relative Something 