Why I gave up watching pro football, by Daniel Ruth

Part of my "The company you keep" series, installment two ( https://www.democraticunderground.com/1172203296 )


SNIP

It is also certainly true that no organization is better at marketing its product than the National Football League. (With the exception of the NRA*) It sells brutality masked as entertainment. It sells a vicious, crippling sport as an American tradition. It's sells family values while abandoning its employees for the sake of a dollar. And there is no shortage of customers eager to be served up young men willing to risk having their brains turned into tapioca.

SNIP

The sports bars will be packed. The stadiums will be sold out. The television ratings will be high as the public eagerly awaits another year of literal gladiatorial combat. There will be blood, enough for our dining and dancing pleasure.

But I can't do it anymore. Perhaps you see incredibly gifted and superbly conditioned young men performing on the gridiron. I did too, once. Now I see guys who won't remember their kids' names when they are 50. I see Darryl Stingley and Warren Sapp.

I used to be a rabid fan. Now I feel like a recovering enabler. No more.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/ruth-why-i-gave-up-watching-pro-football/2329228

*note by HAB911