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I've been extremely disappointed with the NFL recently. I'm tired of Roger Goodell and the public both judging and punishing players outside of the legal system, I'm tired of the always-cheating, always-winning New England Patriots.

I'm tired of Thursday Night Football. I'm tired of Joe Buck. I'm tired of replays. I'm tired of awful QBs, awful tackling, awful referees, punts from the opponent's half of the field, and conservative, boring coaches. I'm tired of the Browns always being terrible and I'm not even a Browns fan.

I'm tired of the league lying about concussions. I'm tired of fans complaining about concussions and then watching the UFC. I'm tired of people thinking concussions cause CTE, when it's really all the little hits according to the research I've read. I'm tired of players, journalists, and bloggers acting like two more games a year would lead to injury Armageddon without considering expanding rosters or other possibilities.

I don't care about people kneeling at all. It's a joke that the Dolphins hired Smokin' Jay Cutler instead of Kaepernick.

I left a bunch of things out. I'm not going to watch the Super Bowl.

I think there's plenty of room for somebody to make a decent minor football league that could show up the NFL and lead to some positive change. Vince McMahon and the XFL will not be that league. No one is going to watch several hours of D-grade football just because the players stood for the national anthem at the beginning.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Surely the attraction of professional sport is that it is played by talented individual players whom we can admire and view as role-models, with a background, human interest, and so on.

I'm having a real hard time telling if this is sarcasm or not. Is it actually a common view point in some countries?

Personally I find the biggest draw of professional sports is seeing folks who put years of training effort and investment failing spectacularly, possibly even in career ending fashion. Reminds me that a. we're all human and b. my own failures aren't that bad

I detest the gakky way the NFL is only addressing concussions in a transparent PR move that still fails to protect players. I also enjoy watching the UFC. The UFC and boxing handle concussion in a safer and more reasonable and professional manner than the NFL.

@Pink Horror, honestly I think your list is closer to the real issue facing the NFL. The kneeling thing was just something that tipped it for a lot of people, because there's already so much about the NFL that seems to rile people up, who wants to deal with all the political nonsense getting drudged up on top of that?

I also heartily agree with you and Prestor John about the way CTE has been handled (and it is the little hits that cause the most issue as you point out Horror, but researchers have commonly characterized those hits as "asymptomatic concussion" or basically mini-concussions that bring about the symptoms of CTE over time). I'm not as light on the UFC about it as Prestor but I can agree the UFC at least makes a better effort to be honest and forward with how it handles the issue.

In the UFC (and boxing) if you get knocked out you won’t be allowed to fight again for at least a month, oftentimes longer if you absorbed additional punishment to your body. No governing body will sanction a fight with a fighter who was recently KO’d. Contrast that with the NFL’s “concussion protocol” which has failed to remove concussed players from the game multiple times this past season and a player can be cleared to play again the following week under the protocol which is what happened with a WR on Green Bay who then suffered another concussion. It’s clear that the protocol only exists to give teams and the league legal protection for letting players play with concussion. If Gronk got KO’d in a UFC fight or boxing match he would never be allowed to fight again in 2 weeks but Gronk can be cleared to play in the Super Bowl by the NFLs concussion protocol. It’s a farce that isn’t protecting players it’s only protecting the league from future lawsuits by the players.

I think that with the XFL rules there might be a more interesting game mechanic than in the NFL. Since games are going to be pushed to have fewer time outs, less half-time, and limited to 40 guys per team endurance of the players will be key.

Even with a full roster (no injuries) players will have to know a couple positions each and be hot-swapped between plays. Some might even be forced to play both ways.

A super-talented team with limited endurance could very well be edged out in the 4th quarter by a team with mediocre talent, but more broad training and more endurance.

In the words of Rocket J. Squirrel, "Again?". I'm a seller of this failure rehash. Where's the bid...hit it.

Prestor Jon wrote:
In the UFC (and boxing) if you get knocked out you won’t be allowed to fight again for at least a month, oftentimes longer if you absorbed additional punishment to your body. No governing body will sanction a fight with a fighter who was recently KO’d. Contrast that with the NFL’s “concussion protocol” which has failed to remove concussed players from the game multiple times this past season and a player can be cleared to play again the following week under the protocol which is what happened with a WR on Green Bay who then suffered another concussion. It’s clear that the protocol only exists to give teams and the league legal protection for letting players play with concussion. If Gronk got KO’d in a UFC fight or boxing match he would never be allowed to fight again in 2 weeks but Gronk can be cleared to play in the Super Bowl by the NFLs concussion protocol. It’s a farce that isn’t protecting players it’s only protecting the league from future lawsuits by the players.

Money has driven this for a long time and will continue to do so. You absolutely nailed it that the "concussion protocols" are a joke meant to give cover to the league, nothing more. The problem is that the more research is done, the more it looks like the sport itself is the problem. As long as you have a sport based around tackles and the associated sudden momentum changes for that squishy brain, you are going to have a problem with neural damage. It's kind of like smoking- they tried selling low tar and other "safer" cigs after they had buried research showing the intrinsic dangers of smoking (well, that and the additives to increase addictiveness...). OTOH if they were 100% transparent that football is dangerous and will destroy your body and probably your brain, they would have much better assumption of risk arguments.

I think I'd be alright with it if the league actually supporting its athletes medically (and that includes when they stop playing). At the end of the day in the risks and dangers are communicated directly and people still want to play (and they will) then I don't think there's much anyone can do about it.

But of course the league will never want to support retired athletes cause that'll get insanely expensive insanely fast.

 LordofHats wrote:
I think I'd be alright with it if the league actually supporting its athletes medically (and that includes when they stop playing). At the end of the day in the risks and dangers are communicated directly and people still want to play (and they will) then I don't think there's much anyone can do about it.

But of course the league will never want to support retired athletes cause that'll get insanely expensive insanely fast.

Especially if players are having to retire in their mid to early 20s to avoid crippling brain damage.

Well if they don't have crippling brain damage (or any significant symptoms) they probably don't need the help. My issue is that the NFL seems to use these guys as long as they can run without breaking an ankle and then drops them like last years Ford models.

 LordofHats wrote:
Well if they don't have crippling brain damage (or any significant symptoms) they probably don't need the help. My issue is that the NFL seems to use these guys as long as they can run without breaking an ankle and then drops them like last years Ford models.

The average NFL career is only 3 seasons. Players are draft eligible after 3 seasons in college so most NFL players start and finish their careers in their early 20s.

The NFL minimum salary for rookies in 2017 was $465k and will increase to $480k for the 2018 season.
http://www.spotrac.com/blog/nfl-minimum-salaries-for-2017/

While the minimum salary is 10x the median average salary in the US, NFL players also pay income tax in their home state and every state they play a game in. Players are paid weekly so their salary is divided up into 17 checks and from each one they'll have their federal income tax, home state income tax and then the state income tax of the state they're playing in if it's an away game, deducted from their check. The highest paid star players end up with around a 50% tax rate.
https://smartasset.com/taxes/NFL-jock-taxes

As high earners, NFL players face top tax rates at the federal and local level. In some places, these marginal rates exceed 50%.
But it doesn’t end there. In addition to paying taxes to the IRS and their home team’s state, many professional football players have to pay taxes to every single state in which they play a game, the so-called “jock tax.” That can mean filing as many as 10 different tax returns and coughing up as much as 50% of their salary and bonuses in taxes.

 LordofHats wrote:
Well if they don't have crippling brain damage (or any significant symptoms) they probably don't need the help. My issue is that the NFL seems to use these guys as long as they can run without breaking an ankle and then drops them like last years Ford models.

But the issue is that many of the measurable, debilitating effects of CTE only manifest many years down the line, often well into athletes retirements (with some very notable exceptions such as Chris Benoit the WWF/WWE wrestler).

And that diagnosis of CTE can be very difficult prior to death.

Quite without irony....

Executive producer of Monday Night RAW (and Smackdown and NXT and 205 Live and 16 PPVs annually) says “Sitting and watching a three, three-and-a-half hour game is laborious sometimes.