National Foo Foo League
Nov. 4th, 2013 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
colt_steeleHaving watched about a half season's worth of football this year, I've had a sad revelation: The illusive parity the league has long striven for has finally taken root. People should have been more careful what they wished for.
There are no more good teams; okay KC is on a ridiculous tear that NO ONE saw coming, but until they prove their pudding in the post season I'm reserving judgment. I watch almost every team go out each week and struggle to be what the league wants them to be--a pass heavy, light contact scoring machine with cardboard stand-ups on defense. Nobody tackles, probably for fear of a fifteen yard penalty, a two game suspension and a fine in the tens of thousands. Running backs are a dime a dozen, and maybe one in ten of them will reach the five year milestone before their career is over. Receivers have carte blanche to do just about anything since what constitutes both a catch and pass interference changes a handful of times during a single half. Quarterbacks are apparently disciples of Christ, since the ground they tread upon is now hallowed and anytime a team wins a game it's only because a quarterback happens to be under center. Never mind that the pass-to-run ratio usually schemes somewhere around 80-20%. Special teams are basically just an interruption between five minute advertising blocks, since all kicks end up eight yards deep in the end zone, yet everyone's returning them anyway, usually putting their offense in the hole five to ten yards short of the twenty assuming there's no illegal blocking penalty which puts them snapping the ball in the end zone.
There are practically no good teams anymore because there's no more team building. Everybody's out the door for more money or traded for draft picks about three years into their contracts, basically what any coaching staff has to do is throw all the ingredients the salary cap allows into the pot and hope an edible dinner comes out ten weeks in. It's sad for me because the sport has never been more popular, yet it's never been more unsatisfying for me to watch week in and out. I get fired up a few times a year for Ravens/Steelers and Redskins/Cowboys and that's about it. The playoffs are almost always a crap shoot and while that's entertaining, the one-and-done nature of the NFL post season means that the best teams rarely get a chance to prove it. Conversely, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are also pretty unpredictable every year, but at least the champs have to beat the three or four teams they climb over to get there four times apiece.
I might just be having a glum reaction to overexposure now that I get to watch a lot more since I no longer work Sundays, but I kind of feel a lack of interest on a deeper level because of where the game is going and it's kind of a point of no return with the NFL's being established as culpable for all the trauma inflicted on its past and present alumni. I feel like I may end up like my father, who could barely summon the interest to tune in on Thanksgiving a couple years ago, who once schooled me in the ways and legends of Lombardi, Noll and Marino. Or maybe Pittsburgh will be finished their rebuilding phase in a few seasons and I'll be hooked all over again. Who can say?
There are no more good teams; okay KC is on a ridiculous tear that NO ONE saw coming, but until they prove their pudding in the post season I'm reserving judgment. I watch almost every team go out each week and struggle to be what the league wants them to be--a pass heavy, light contact scoring machine with cardboard stand-ups on defense. Nobody tackles, probably for fear of a fifteen yard penalty, a two game suspension and a fine in the tens of thousands. Running backs are a dime a dozen, and maybe one in ten of them will reach the five year milestone before their career is over. Receivers have carte blanche to do just about anything since what constitutes both a catch and pass interference changes a handful of times during a single half. Quarterbacks are apparently disciples of Christ, since the ground they tread upon is now hallowed and anytime a team wins a game it's only because a quarterback happens to be under center. Never mind that the pass-to-run ratio usually schemes somewhere around 80-20%. Special teams are basically just an interruption between five minute advertising blocks, since all kicks end up eight yards deep in the end zone, yet everyone's returning them anyway, usually putting their offense in the hole five to ten yards short of the twenty assuming there's no illegal blocking penalty which puts them snapping the ball in the end zone.
There are practically no good teams anymore because there's no more team building. Everybody's out the door for more money or traded for draft picks about three years into their contracts, basically what any coaching staff has to do is throw all the ingredients the salary cap allows into the pot and hope an edible dinner comes out ten weeks in. It's sad for me because the sport has never been more popular, yet it's never been more unsatisfying for me to watch week in and out. I get fired up a few times a year for Ravens/Steelers and Redskins/Cowboys and that's about it. The playoffs are almost always a crap shoot and while that's entertaining, the one-and-done nature of the NFL post season means that the best teams rarely get a chance to prove it. Conversely, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are also pretty unpredictable every year, but at least the champs have to beat the three or four teams they climb over to get there four times apiece.
I might just be having a glum reaction to overexposure now that I get to watch a lot more since I no longer work Sundays, but I kind of feel a lack of interest on a deeper level because of where the game is going and it's kind of a point of no return with the NFL's being established as culpable for all the trauma inflicted on its past and present alumni. I feel like I may end up like my father, who could barely summon the interest to tune in on Thanksgiving a couple years ago, who once schooled me in the ways and legends of Lombardi, Noll and Marino. Or maybe Pittsburgh will be finished their rebuilding phase in a few seasons and I'll be hooked all over again. Who can say?
