NFL
By: Brandon Blake
It has been a while since I have written a Babble for Nuts and Bolts Sports. I had prior writing and personal engagements that have prevented me from doing a Babble so bear with me as I try to get back into the swing of things.
However, I am having a hard time writing a new Babble and not because of writers block or lack of new ideas. I am having a hard time writing this because I am concerned with the issues that are plaguing the NFL both on the field and off the field as well.
First, with the on the field issues and those issues include the terrible Thursday night games, the poor play which is stemming from the lack of practice time the teams have per the CBA between the league and the NFLPA, the pick-and-choose nature of the roughing the passer calls. (Example Cam Newton is taking helmet to helmet shots and no flags but let Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, etc. get hit like that and its flags for days)
And not to mention the overall questionable officiating (The whole “Is this a catch or not” trope was cute for a while but now is ridiculous), the absurd idea of trying to expand the NFL into London by playing two games a year in London (please save your “the new home of the Jaguars” jokes for someone who likes them) the flags for “excessive celebrations” are just another example of the NFL really living up to the moniker of the “No Fun League”. And the player safety and concussion issues are another matter that the NFL is doing a poor job at that needs to be corrected.
But those issues are so minor compared to the league issues off the field especially in the matter of domestic violence. We have seen many examples and most recently with the matter of Josh and Molly Brown that this league sorely lacks the ability to handle domestic violence and violence against women matters.
As a human being, the NFL’s handling of these matters angers me. The NFL and society at large, has a serious issue in handling these matters and the zero tolerance approach is not the way to go about it. Instead of the NFL trying to brush off and ignore domestic violence, the league and society must continue to have uncomfortable conversations about this matter because that is the only way we can try to resolve the matter is to have a thoughtful, nuanced conversation about the matter. It is important as a society that women be treated with dignity and respect and when a woman says she has been abused, please listen to them.
I don’t want to make this a “woe is me, I have a hard time watching the NFL because of the bad stuff” article but I cannot just watch the games knowing what is going on off and on the field and just ignore it. And telling people who bring these issues up to “not watch” is just retrograde thinking. We, as consumers of the NFL, should demand that the league be better in the on-field product and be better when it comes to treating women as human beings and not cash cows to be set up for exploitation and marketing ploy.
I am still going to watch because I enjoy football but I will do whatever I can to make sure that the league is better for players and for fans and I don’t know how but we all have to do our part. I know we can do it we just have to work at it.
