I do not have a dissent regarding the game of football at any level. I just can’t watch it anymore. There are many reasons why this happened. One is tragic. The rest is just personal preference clouded within the tragedy. No disrespect to those who enjoy the weekly games whether they are high school, college, or professional. Football, just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.

Over the past seven years the only football I have watched was the Super Bowl, mainly to see the halftime artist and the commercials where companies spend millions to influence the capitalist paradigm. I will be honest the game has changed quite a bit and the egos of the athletes have gotten quite a bit larger. I have found the game to be unwatchable in many aspects. Don’t think of this as an attack on your joy. It isn’t. I am just sharing my perspective, and I am perfectly okay with your love of the game.

The first reason I stopped watching the game of football was the death of my stepson Caleb at the age of ten. When he was alive he found out I participated in fantasy football and fantasy baseball. He was a Patriots and Pirates fan. His favorite sport was football though. I’m glad he got to see the Patriots win Super Bowls and see some of the greatest players in the recent history of the game. His favorite player was Julian Edelman, a scrappy wide receiver, who managed to find all kinds of ways to get open and create a window for Tom Brady to throw in. Watching the two of them was quite impressive.

When Caleb discovered my fantasy football team he became very invested. I played for fun, but I really didn’t follow the sports shows, follow the statistics, or follow the injury reports. I was too busy to spend my time watching sports commentary, with my career or other household chores. To invest hours in front of a television, or satellite radio was not an option for me. Insert Caleb. He had a knack at the age of eight and nine years old to memorize all kinds of statistics, trends, and injuries. He had a mind for the sport, and I am sure he would have played the game or coached the game upon entering adulthood. Sadly, that was taken away from him shortly after turning ten.

During a two-year span, where his mother moved in and later married me we did very well in my fantasy league. We never won, but we placed in the top four of our league both times. My best finish prior was eighth place. When he died, I dropped out of the league. I could not stomach the idea of doing this without him. We bonded over the sport of football, and it just felt lonely without him… I tried to watch an Iowa Hawkeye game the following fall after his death, and I just couldn’t do it. He wasn’t sitting there. I just couldn’t enjoy it like I had in years past. Watching the game is forever clouded by his death. Tragedy has a way of altering your way of life.

In the years since, my other stepson’s team (The Kansas City Chiefs) has performed well, while my team floundered (The Chicago Bears.) When watching the Super Bowl or turning on a game for my children I became irritated with the receivers who would do ridiculous celebrations for receptions that would be a few yards, or at most a first down. Ten other players on the field with them, yet they had to celebrate a small piece of progress like they won a race. In baseball that would be the equivalent of catching a fly ball on the run. I don’t see left fielders celebrating such insignificant accomplishments… Keep it humble boys…

Another change in the game that had bothered me was the abandoning of the running game. I grew up watching Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, and Earl Campbell run like an art form. The thousand-yard rusher is becoming rarer and rarer. The flashy arm behind center was all the rage. Sure, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomet, and Russell Wilson were all fun to watch, but pass after pass just got boring to see. It made the game drag with all of the incomplete passes. I know it is a small trend in the evolution of the game, but I missed seeing those types of running backs run. Marshawn Lynch was really the only runner that could be comparable to Earl Campbell in the 21st century. Beast Mode would have made a great Chicago Bear in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Then we have all of the changes in the kicking game and protection sensitivities of the quarterback or exposed receiver. Football is a collision sport. The nature of the game is violent. With the concussion protocols and referees making borderline personal foul calls for the slightest hit on an unprotected receiver or quarterback the game became too soft. I can empathize with all the athletes that have suffered from concussions and CTE issues post-career. I don’t want to see anyone hurt in a way that prevents them from enjoying life, but then again football is a violent sport. They knew what they were getting into. This dancing between safety and collision is not improving the game. I think it is hurting the game. I thought Mike Sitka had a good answer, play with less equipment. This would force the players to learn proper techniques to avoid injury when tackling. It would prevent athletes from leading with the helmet. I feel the golden era of football has passed away. If you disagree, that is fine. There is room for both perspectives.

Then we have the marketing and profiting off the game of college football. I find it sad that multi-billion dollar companies are profiting off of amateur athletes through the televising and radio calls of college football. Yes, there are NIL contracts that pay amateur athletes, but now we are blurring the lines between amateurs and professionals. It seems the competition is more important than the education of our athletes for colleges and fans. The entertainment of sport has become more about money than the sake of competition and camaraderie. The innocence of the game is being crushed by the gambling and capitalism of outside forces.

The next grievance with the game of football, and most every sport is the rise of gambling on the sport. Many athletes over the years have been punished for their gambling ways, or at least frowned upon. Now we have athletes that are currently playing or just passed retiring from the game advertising gambling sites (trading scams.) It started with football, but now it is prevalent everywhere. The players that have been banned from halls of fame over gambling transactions need to be elected to their progressive halls of fame. If the player was not Hall of Fame caliber, their banning from the sport needs to end. I’m just tired of the hypocrisy of it all. I don’t gamble currently. I have gambled in the past. I don’t need this form of capitalism as another way of separating me from my hard-earned cash. I just find the whole process excessive and unnecessary. If you enjoy it, good for you. There is room for both perspectives. I am incredibly fatigued by the ever-present and over-advertising of the services that cater to gambling.

Do I still follow the Chicago Bears? No. With recent events where they want a community to build them a stadium, it has soured me on the franchise. Billion-dollar teams should build their own stadium. This franchise and the city ruined Soldier Field by putting a UFO on top of it. It was the destruction of a mighty historical building. With the team seemingly relocating to Indiana, and holding the taxpayers of NW Indiana accountable for their greedy needs, I just don’t need their bull****. Billionaires and billion-dollar franchises need to pay for their own stadiums. Beggars can’t be choosers… To be frank, I despise the direction the McCaskey family has taken this historic franchise in. Sadly, no franchise in my life… no connection to the game…

Do I miss watching the game of football? No. I miss my stepson. Do I want you to give up the game? No. I really want you to enjoy your pastimes. I am just sharing my story for why I gave it up. Am I going to change anything with my disillusionment with gambling? Nope. As long as there are people who are willing to lose their cash through gambling there will always be a market for them. I feel sorry for those who revolve their love of sport around gambling. Chasing an adrenaline high is temporary… It is a temporary rush… Find something that gives you satisfaction, rather than a short high…

I lost my love of a sport, when I lost a child in my life. Even seven years later (see blog post “18,”) I still don’t feel like embracing the sport like I once did. The sport and child are intertwined within my head and I am just not in a place where I can let that go. I am content to embrace baseball season by itself. The beauty of American professional sports, is our diversity of choice. There is something for everyone. If I do get a desire to watch something else it will be hockey. Thanks for reading…

…so it goes…