The end of football?

Not seeing it here. In fact, I'm seeing just the opposite. We have a parochial school that has just started a varsity football program, and there at least a dozen other high schools in other parts of the state that are starting programs. A few of those are co-ops, but most are simply high schools - mostly in North Mississippi that have traditionally been basketball schools – that want in on the action. Even the 1A and 2A schools around here have 30-40 players, and the better programs more than that. Also, the youth football association in this area has more than doubled in size in the past five years, and that cuts across all socio-economic/racial groups.

 

Well, they have, and it does.

 

Well, of course, you are in central PA.

In my neck of the woods (California), we have two schools -- one that ruled the '80s and one that ruled the '90s -- that probably combined to send a dozen kids to the NFL. These days those schools have 40-50 kids on the whole team and are losing games by five touchdowns against the private schools that they used to play pretty evenly.

Keep in mind that concussions have only been a topic for the past three years or so and the full impact hasn't been felt yet. Will be interesting to see in 10 years when today's 8-year-olds are the HS seniors. Just in my own sphere, I know quite a few parents who are saying no to football who I don't think would have said no in 2007.

 

Well, of course, you have more chablis-sipping, clogs-wearing, tree-hugging, Dr. Spock-listening parents. You're in California. ;D

 

You stop that right now. I don't know a single fucking person who drinks chablis!

 

I doubt football goes into decline in flyover country during my infant daughter's lifetime.

 

And the wussification of America continues.

 

Said without sarcasm. Hilarious.

 

I'm thinking of that scene in "The Junction Boys" where Bear Bryant tells the father of one of the players (who had to quit because he'd been seriously injured by heatstroke) that a football season is "a war." The father, obviously a WWII veteran, says "I know what war is ... football's just a sport."

 

If the Midwest, Texas and the South are the final bastions of football, so be it. I'm a huge supporter of anything that prevents head injuries, but there is an element of risk that is inherent no matter what the safeguards.

I could see youth leagues going away thanks to our bumper crop of lawyers, though. It'd be a tragedy, no more football.

Soccer won't replace it. Neither will basketball. Football fans would just go away. A lot of our national spirit would die with it. I guess on Fall Saturdays and Sundays I'd have to go shopping with the wife.

 

Oh, there will always be enough players for pro and college football. The money is too good for there not to be. People with options and a bit more education about the matter aren't going to want their kids doing it recreationally, but that won't stop them from watching. If youth participation translated to adult viewership, we'd all be wearing Man U jerseys.

But the players will still find the field. NFL players aren't from the normal population anyway. Maybe Danny Woodhead and a couple of punters. The rest are all genetic mutants, in size or speed, who are further altered by medication.