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When did the NFL's Popularity Start to go South?

For me, it was the day Art Modell ****ed over the Cleveland Browns fans and moved to Baltimore.

It is reinforced every time I see an overpaid player celebrate for doing their job on a play and acting like a total clown. I especially love the guy that is down 36-3 but finally, after getting pounded for 3 1/2 quarters, manages to sack the QB and starts celebrating like he did something special.
 
calamity said:
Concussions: It's a problem. So too are the broken bones, torn ligaments and ruined backs. The violence in the game is probably off-putting to many, but I do not see that as the reason for the decline. People against the violence were always against it. The concussions and CTE are just icing on that cake.
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It's not about the injuries necessarily, it's about knowledge of the risk. Players always knew they were at risk for broken bones and even lacerated kidneys or ruptured spleens. What they didn't know (but the NFL did for years and willfully kept it under wraps) was the risk of injury to the brain. Players have a right to know that they're risking mental health problems (including self-mutilation and suicidal tendencies) as much as they are risking broken femurs. After that it's their choice, but without that knowledge it's not really a choice. The NFL's coverup was exposed for what it was and I think they lost a few fans because of it.
 
OK...I just saw a video segment on Odell Beckhams crazy year and I have to say...he won me back with his proposal to the kicking net. Laughed my ass off.
 
Perotista said:
I was never a big NFL fan, I grew up in the 1950's when baseball was king. I am still an avid baseball fan, but I don't watch that many games anymore as I tire of all the commercials and their length. The NFL has succumb to that same disease. Both games have changed immensely. Perhaps the changes made have been to enhance TV revenues instead of making the game more enjoyable or geared for the fans.

I began to lose interest in both baseball and the NFL when all the player strikes began in the 80's and the NFL 90's.
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I didn't really like football until the Dolphins went undefeated the year we went there for Christmas vacation in early 70's. After that season, I was a fan of that team for a long time. Easy to do growing up in Chicago since the Bears were horrible until the mid-80's. But, back then, I was mostly a fan of hockey and baseball, mostly hockey. Over time, I lost all interest in hockey and follow baseball only sporadically.

Football is the most interesting sport, IMO. Like some radio guy said recently: you don't even have to speak English to manage a baseball game, but you need six coaches to effectively guide a football team to victory. I like that complexity.
 
calamity said:
I didn't really like football until the Dolphins went undefeated the year we went there for Christmas vacation in early 70's. After that season, I was a fan of that team for a long time. Easy to do growing up in Chicago since the Bears were horrible until the mid-80's. But, back then, I was mostly a fan of hockey and baseball, mostly hockey. Over time, I lost all interest in hockey and follow baseball only sporadically.

Football is the most interesting sport, IMO. Like some radio guy said recently: you don't even have to speak English to manage a baseball game, but you need six coaches to effectively guide a football team to victory. I like that complexity.
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Baseball was made to listen to on the radio and not watch on TV, unless watching in person at the ballpark. Here we had the Atlanta Crackers of the old AA Southern League growing up. Back then there was only 8 teams in each league and the world series usually ended by the 10th of October. We didn't get the Braves until 1966 I think. But the Crackers were a minor league affiliate of first the Boston Braves and then the Milwaukee Braves except for a year or two when they aligned with the Cardinals.

I totally ignored the NFL until the AFL came along. College football was king and the NFL was someplace where the has been college players went. But Joe Namath from neighboring Alabama sparked my interest in pro football for the first time. The Falcons never interested me, it was always Georgia Tech. It was being in the army when I first started to really get into the NFL. It was Namath and his Jets beating the Colts in the super bowl and I became an avid fan. But the strikes in the 80's and the so called replacement games soured me.

Today, I check out the standings on a daily basis in baseball. I listen to a few innings of the Braves or have them on as background noise. I rarely check out the NFL standings, posting on this thread caused me to do that for only around the second or third time this season.

I follow Georgia Tech in football and root against the Georgia Bulldogs. I have watched all the Cubs games so far during the playoffs and I think there are way too many teams these days involved. But I suppose a lot of that goes back to when I grew up when only the best team in each league went to the world series. No playoffs unless two teams finished in a tie for first which happened in 1959 and 1962 in the NL.

The one thing I hate the most in both the NFL and college football is this silly overtime. There were no overtimes in the NFL until 1974 and in college until 1996. When one plays 60 minutes of football, that should be it unless it is in the playoffs. There are things like the two point conversion that are available for a coach to use if he doesn't like a tie.
 
Perotista said:
Baseball was made to listen to on the radio and not watch on TV, unless watching in person at the ballpark. Here we had the Atlanta Crackers of the old AA Southern League growing up. Back then there was only 8 teams in each league and the world series usually ended by the 10th of October. We didn't get the Braves until 1966 I think. But the Crackers were a minor league affiliate of first the Boston Braves and then the Milwaukee Braves except for a year or two when they aligned with the Cardinals.

I totally ignored the NFL until the AFL came along. College football was king and the NFL was someplace where the has been college players went. But Joe Namath from neighboring Alabama sparked my interest in pro football for the first time. The Falcons never interested me, it was always Georgia Tech. It was being in the army when I first started to really get into the NFL. It was Namath and his Jets beating the Colts in the super bowl and I became an avid fan. But the strikes in the 80's and the so called replacement games soured me.

Today, I check out the standings on a daily basis in baseball. I listen to a few innings of the Braves or have them on as background noise. I rarely check out the NFL standings, posting on this thread caused me to do that for only around the second or third time this season.

I follow Georgia Tech in football and root against the Georgia Bulldogs. I have watched all the Cubs games so far during the playoffs and I think there are way too many teams these days involved. But I suppose a lot of that goes back to when I grew up when only the best team in each league went to the world series. No playoffs unless two teams finished in a tie for first which happened in 1959 and 1962 in the NL.

The one thing I hate the most in both the NFL and college football is this silly overtime. There were no overtimes in the NFL until 1974 and in college until 1996. When one plays 60 minutes of football, that should be it unless it is in the playoffs. There are things like the two point conversion that are available for a coach to use if he doesn't like a tie.
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I remember listening to the Cubs on my little transistor radio while delivering the afternoon paper with my bike. Also, during summer vacation we listened to the games while my friends and I played "fast pitch" against a wall at the local school yard.

I didn't actually watch baseball until the playoffs. Same as now, I guess. I never watch a regular season game, but I will go to one now and then. However, I haven't done that in years.
 
calamity said:
I remember listening to the Cubs on my little transistor radio while delivering the afternoon paper with my bike. Also, during summer vacation we listened to the games while my friends and I played "fast pitch" against a wall at the local school yard.

I didn't actually watch baseball until the playoffs. Same as now, I guess. I never watch a regular season game, but I will go to one now and then. However, I haven't done that in years.
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The last baseball game I went to was the third game of the 1996 world series, Braves against the Yankees. My oldest at the time worked for coca cola and she got free tickets to include parking. One reason is I hate big city traffic and I very rarely go to Atlanta although it is only 25 miles north of me. In fact that world series game was probably the last time I went into Atlanta.

Yeah, as a kid the radio was always on either to the Crackers game or to a Braves game since the same station carried both. Speaking being kids, I remember using baseball cards, putting them into the spokes of the wheels. Good times.
 
Perotista said:
The last baseball game I went to was the third game of the 1996 world series, Braves against the Yankees. My oldest at the time worked for coca cola and she got free tickets to include parking. One reason is I hate big city traffic and I very rarely go to Atlanta although it is only 25 miles north of me. In fact that world series game was probably the last time I went into Atlanta.

Yeah, as a kid the radio was always on either to the Crackers game or to a Braves game since the same station carried both. Speaking being kids, I remember using baseball cards, putting them into the spokes of the wheels. Good times.
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I worked in LaGrange, GA for better part of a year back in 2002. I believe I visited Atlanta about 4 times. Horrible traffic in that city. But, I liked some of the night life.
 
calamity said:
I worked in LaGrange, GA for better part of a year back in 2002. I believe I visited Atlanta about 4 times. Horrible traffic in that city. But, I liked some of the night life.
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After spending six years in Bangkok, 1967-69 and 73-76, the night life in Atlanta is nothing. I really haven't been in Atlanta at night except for either a Braves game or a Tech game and that was decades ago.

I think one of the reasons it took me so long to become an NFL fan was when I went to school it was an old country school. Real small and we never had a football team. If I remember right there was just 47 kids in the whole high school and over half of them were girls. We had basketball and baseball and that was it.
 
Perotista said:
After spending six years in Bangkok, 1967-69 and 73-76, the night life in Atlanta is nothing. I really haven't been in Atlanta at night except for either a Braves game or a Tech game and that was decades ago.

I think one of the reasons it took me so long to become an NFL fan was when I went to school it was an old country school. Real small and we never had a football team. If I remember right there was just 47 kids in the whole high school and over half of them were girls. We had basketball and baseball and that was it.
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I played one season of tackle football in the 7th grade and decided I did not like getting hit on a regular basis. I played a lot of hockey, pretty much up until age-16, but we didn't allow checking in my age group. So, it was far less harsh on knees and other joints.

Baseball was very popular when I grew up. We all played through high school. And, then, as young adults, we picked up on soft ball. I also played a lot of basketball, pretty much all the way into old age. lol...35 or so.

Now at 53, I'm big into cycling, although not competitively.
 
I just got bored.

Too much hype, too many commercials, ticket prices too high (and I really don't like the team that moved to my town), the whole monopoly. I wish NFL was like Premier League....in that league, the bottom two teams at the end of the year are relegated to a lower level league, and in all the lower level leagues, two teams move up, and two teams move down.

I do love soccer, but it can get a bit over hyped.....

 
calamity said:
I played one season of tackle football in the 7th grade and decided I did not like getting hit on a regular basis. I played a lot of hockey, pretty much up until age-16, but we didn't allow checking in my age group. So, it was far less harsh on knees and other joints.

Baseball was very popular when I grew up. We all played through high school. And, then, as young adults, we picked up on soft ball. I also played a lot of basketball, pretty much all the way into old age. lol...35 or so.

Now at 53, I'm big into cycling, although not competitively.
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Hockey and the south don't mix. I played both baseball and fast pitch softball in the army up until the day I retired from active duty. But none since. I played basketball and baseball in High School, a little basketball my first couple of years in the army and that was that.

I try to walk 4 miles a day now, I'm almost 70 and will be in another couple of months. I think I had a good life and there isn't much if anything I would change. My bike riding days ended at 16 when I could finally drive. Its all good.
 
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