Football's future

[tecumseh]

Anyone else watch PBS League of Denial and wonder if Duke will have a football team in 20 years? I think not

[Jarhead]

Anyone else watch PBS League of Denial and wonder if Duke will have a football team in 20 years? I think not

Yes, I watched it, but I don't agree with you. What you are saying is that the solution is to give up. I believe that the exposure of the horrid ignorance of one group, NFL leadership, is motivation enough to find a solution. That motivation would be multiplied many fold by the same kind of history from other sports such as rugby and ice hockey. What has happened is a problem has come to the surface, so some of us are saying that we should throw in the sponge. I'm not. If football can help in traumatic injury prevention, the benefits would spread throughout all of human activity. Oh, yeah, helmets really are no help in protecting the brain.

[Wander]

I don't think it will be as drastic as Duke not having a football team, but I wouldn't be shocked in 20 years if there are no more kickoffs in football (or some other rule changes about that order of magnitude).

[SoCalDukeFan]

Anyone else watch PBS League of Denial and wonder if Duke will have a football team in 20 years? I think not

I don't want my grandson to play football. Pop Warner may be very dangerous because the brain is sill developing. So if enough athletes play elsewhere can the sport survive?

I think there is a good chance that colleges like Duke drop football. I love to watch it but it's just too dangerous.

Hard for me to see what fixes it.

SoCal

[JNort]

In 20 years football will still be here and going strong, however.... I think the NBA will surpass the NFL in popularity. Basketball is cheaper, safer, easier to learn, year round, easier to market and the NBA is seeing a massive influx of young talent right now.

[tommy]

I don't think football is going to disappear in 20 years, but here's what I see as its problem:

The parents in the suburbs and the more affluent areas, being generally better educated than those in less affluent areas, are going to stop allowing their kids to play youth football. And if they don't let them play youth football, they're sure not going to let them play high school football.

The ones in the less affluent areas and the inner cities, etc. will be more likely to allow their kids to play football, either because they don't have the knowledge about the impact of all the blows to the head, or because the sport is viewed as a way out of difficult life circumstances. Problem is: the parks and the schools in those areas are usually the least-well funded of all, and football requires a lot of money. It requires not just the field, but all the heavy equipment and pads, as well as other substantial expenditures. If these kids and families are the ones who mainly want to play football, but there's less and less money for it, that's not going to work for long.

So where are tomorrow's football players going to come from?

[tecumseh]

Oh, yeah, helmets really are no help in protecting the brain.

When you say we can't give up, really ? it is only a game. I love football I was raised during the 70s in Pittsburgh with three brothers and we grew up playing neighborhood football. BUT I do remember going with a doctor friend and my son the to roughest game ever played and after that we were sort of Uhm should we really be supporting this.

I think football as we know and love is inherently dangerous and the time in coming when most mothers won't lent their sons play football and with that football will start to die a slow death. It is hard to imagine how big boxing was in its day but it has pretty much moved off the sports landscape football will do a similar move. DUKE with a leading medical center and very intelligent student body will be one of the first schools to drop football. Also the early adopters will see they can get a let up on recruiting near world class soccer talent. It will happen and it will happen first in high schools and then in small elite colleges and then to the Ivy League Schools. Football will die.

I am nto sure you statement about helmets was meant to be ironic or what. Helmets actually do create head injuries look at rugby.

[johnb]

When you say we can't give up, really ? it is only a game. I love football I was raised during the 70s in Pittsburgh with three brothers and we grew up playing neighborhood football. BUT I do remember going with a doctor friend and my son the to roughest game ever played and after that we were sort of Uhm should we really be supporting this.

I think football as we know and love is inherently dangerous and the time in coming when most mothers won't lent their sons play football and with that football will start to die a slow death. It is hard to imagine how big boxing was in its day but it has pretty much moved off the sports landscape football will do a similar move. DUKE with a leading medical center and very intelligent student body will be one of the first schools to drop football. Also the early adopters will see they can get a let up on recruiting near world class soccer talent. It will happen and it will happen first in high schools and then in small elite colleges and then to the Ivy League Schools. Football will die.

I am nto sure you statement about helmets was meant to be ironic or what. Helmets actually do create head injuries look at rugby.

The helmet argument is interesting, but rugby players do often get concussions. I don't know about rates and severity in comparison to football or soccer.

[Dev11]

The helmet argument is interesting, but rugby players do often get concussions. I don't know about rates and severity in comparison to football or soccer.

I'd bet that soccer has far fewer concussions, since players don't run full speed at each other with the intent (usually ) of knocking each other off their feet.

Some day, football's popularity will wane because of its violence the same way boxing waned. I don't know how long it will take, though.

[A-Tex Devil]

I'd bet that soccer has far fewer concussions, since players don't run full speed at each other with the intent (usually ) of knocking each other off their feet.

Some day, football's popularity will wane because of its violence the same way boxing waned. I don't know how long it will take, though.

I don't think boxing waned because of its violence, or otherwise, there is no explaining the UFC. Boxing waned because of corruption, disorganization, and a lack of personalities at the heavyweight level after Tyson/Holyfield/Lewis/Bowe fell off... oh, and the aforementioned UFC.

[Dev11]

I don't think boxing waned because of its violence, or otherwise, there is no explaining the UFC. Boxing waned because of corruption, disorganization, and a lack of personalities at the heavyweight level after Tyson/Holyfield/Lewis/Bowe fell off... oh, and the aforementioned UFC.

Do all of the fighting sports combined add up revenue on par with even the NHL or MLS? I would guess not but I suppose I'm not sure.

[jimsumner]

I don't think boxing waned because of its violence, or otherwise, there is no explaining the UFC. Boxing waned because of corruption, disorganization, and a lack of personalities at the heavyweight level after Tyson/Holyfield/Lewis/Bowe fell off... oh, and the aforementioned UFC.

Boxing? Oh my goodness. When I was a spry young lad, boxing was on TV all the time. Friday Night Fights was a national institution. Part of it was technological. A much smaller space to cover for the rudimentary cameras of the late 1950s.

And yes, concussions aren't incidental to the sport, as they are in other sports.

But as a business, boxing shot itself in the foot. Remember when you could watch Ali fight a championship fight on ABC on Saturday afternoon? Now, you can't watch a big fight unless you pony up the big bucks on PPV. How does that build your audience? Imagine not being able to watch the Super Bowl or the Final Four or the World Series unless you were prepared to go that route.

Also, the proliferation of competing governing bodies creates confusion. It's a sport with no defined schedules, no rational way of determining champions and no easy way to attract younger viewers.

In all honesty, I can't say that I miss it all that much.

Horse racing is another once dominant sport fallen on hard times. The ready availability of legal gambling options not available in the sport's heyday is a big reason, as is the gruesome rate of horse fatalities at the highest level.

Not sure if either of these is a cautionary tale for football other than in the most basic fact that being on top the heap now doesn't mean being on top the heap forever.

[hurleyfor3]

Boxing? Oh my goodness. When I was a spry young lad, boxing was on TV all the time. Friday Night Fights was a national institution. Part of it was technological. A much smaller space to cover for the rudimentary cameras of the late 1950s.

And yes, concussions aren't incidental to the sport, as they are in other sports.

But as a business, boxing shot itself in the foot. Remember when you could watch Ali fight a championship fight on ABC on Saturday afternoon? Now, you can't watch a big fight unless you pony up the big bucks on PPV. How does that build your audience? Imagine not being able to watch the Super Bowl or the Final Four or the World Series unless you were prepared to go that route.

Also, the proliferation of competing governing bodies creates confusion. It's a sport with no defined schedules, no rational way of determining champions and no easy way to attract younger viewers.

In all honesty, I can't say that I miss it all that much.

Horse racing is another once dominant sport fallen on hard times. The ready availability of legal gambling options not available in the sport's heyday is a big reason, as is the gruesome rate of horse fatalities at the highest level.

Not sure if either of these is a cautionary tale for football other than in the most basic fact that being on top the heap now doesn't mean being on top the heap forever.

Funny thing is, boxing is probably the BEST made-for-teevee sport there is. There's no ball to follow, the action is continuous, the commercial breaks are built in and just the right length so that you'll actually watch the commercials, the athletes are easy to identify and the whole thing finishes in under an hour.

Horse racing may be the LEAST made-for-teevee sport. The horsies run around the track in a big jumble and then it's over after two minutes. Also, harder to gamble from your living room, although people have tried.

I rather think the current fate of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a symptom of the recent changes in football. A franchise that emphasizes running and defense has been made obsolete.

Why isn't tennis as popular as it was 30-40 years ago? It was HUGE in the McEnroe/ Connors/ Evert/ King era. Not a violent or expensive sport and you need only one other person to play.

[snowdenscold]

Why isn't tennis as popular as it was 30-40 years ago? It was HUGE in the McEnroe/ Connors/ Evert/ King era. Not a violent or expensive sport and you need only one other person to play.

It's decline in popularity in the US has been somewhat offset by a much stronger popularity overseas, notably in Europe, but also more so in Asia over the past decade. A lack of an American men's champion since Roddick in 2003 certainly hasn't helped the visibility much either, which is too bad considering the golden era tennis has had since then w/ Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray.

A lot of it in the US was losing kids as the early ages to football, basketball and baseball (the barrier to entry for younger children was too high)... though the USTA is actively trying to change that.

[luvdahops]

It's decline in popularity in the US has been somewhat offset by a much stronger popularity overseas, notably in Europe, but also more so in Asia over the past decade. A lack of an American men's champion since Roddick in 2003 certainly hasn't helped the visibility much either, which is too bad considering the golden era tennis has had since then w/ Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray.

A lot of it in the US was losing kids as the early ages to football, basketball and baseball (the barrier to entry for younger children was too high)... though the USTA is actively trying to change that.

I think these points are spot on. I would add that the game has also become increasingly one-dimensional and arguably less interesting to watch, as baseline slugfests are now the norm, even on faster surfaces. Federer is in many ways a link to an earlier era, when all-court play was much more common.

[weezie]

Gee whiz, didn't we just have back to back great football wins (oh, okay, so the 'hoos are kind of swirling down the sewer system, but still come on!) and now we're about to see the end of the game of football?

Buzzkill!

[tecumseh]

Gee whiz, didn't we just have back to back great football wins (oh, okay, so the 'hoos are kind of swirling down the sewer system, but still come on!) and now we're about to see the end of the game of football?

Buzzkill!

Funny somehow I am on the NFL mailing list and they are in full damage control. I am a Steeler fan and I would disagree a bit, I think the real problem is the Steelers drafted lousy and it's hard to develop players when you have such a great core and tough division, the Patriots could but they did not have to fight the Ravens to win the division. The other problem is the 3-4 scheme was built on receivers catching the passes but then paying the price, can't really play that way anymore.

Here is an interesting article though...I do think football is on the way out.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/99...uilty-pleasure
And it will happen in the Ivies and at schools like Duke first. Once they get down the scans to look for brain damage ...tau protein which they are already doing it will IMHO show an awful lot of football players with early brain damage and that will be the end

[tecumseh]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/health/cte-study/

Now imagine the I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. storm if the folks at Duke Med showed like five player on the Duke football team with brain scans that lit up. Think about that and tell me football is not in trouble.

[YmoBeThere]

I think you underestimate the business need for large universities to have football programs. I would also note that very few here have been swayed by your arguments. Not that this is the litmus test, but you appear much more alarmed and certain of its demise than anyone else.

[cf-62]

When you say we can't give up, really ? it is only a game. I love football I was raised during the 70s in Pittsburgh with three brothers and we grew up playing neighborhood football. BUT I do remember going with a doctor friend and my son the to roughest game ever played and after that we were sort of Uhm should we really be supporting this.

I think football as we know and love is inherently dangerous and the time in coming when most mothers won't lent their sons play football and with that football will start to die a slow death. It is hard to imagine how big boxing was in its day but it has pretty much moved off the sports landscape football will do a similar move. DUKE with a leading medical center and very intelligent student body will be one of the first schools to drop football. Also the early adopters will see they can get a let up on recruiting near world class soccer talent. It will happen and it will happen first in high schools and then in small elite colleges and then to the Ivy League Schools. Football will die.

I am nto sure you statement about helmets was meant to be ironic or what. Helmets actually do create head injuries look at rugby.

Let me get this straight. You think that football will no longer be played scholastically, and that somehow soccer will replace it? That won't happen. Soccer's place in American sports won't change because of a "talent level" - it doesn't fit in the American sports vernacular. If football were to truly disappear, it's much more likely for lacrosse to be moved to a first semester sport, with the championships played in domes in December.

College baseball is a much more likely place for D-I schools to invest.