Football

College football is winding down to what seems like about a thousand bowl games and the three games that really matter, the four-team playoffs. And the NFL season is chugging to a climax. I say chugging because this year has seen such mediocrity among so many teams, only the Patriots and the hated Cowboys looking like winners. I won’t even mention what the Arizona Cardinals look like.

Football on all levels has become a silly game of penalty flags flying all over the place, making most games mud-slow, with victories and defeats too dependent on the referees. It’s been said by football pundits that offensive holding could be called on every play, that defensive holding or pass interference could be called on every pass play. The referees have too much influence on who wins or loses. What can be done about it? Don’t call any offensive holding. Let the linear combatants do battle. Best man wins. Don’t call any defensive holding or pass interference. Let the receivers and defenders do battle. Best man wins by catching it, intercepting it, or knocking it down. There would still be penalties for unnecessary roughness in case the combatants got unnecessarily unruly. But at least it would reduce the role of the referees and their penchant for throwing yellow flags.

What about football injuries, especially concussions? The game at all levels now involves players who are gargantuan compared to people of average height, weight, and muscle mass. A man (or boy) who is six feet tall and weighs 175 can, with a weight program, pump himself up to 225 or more, with arms and legs like tree trunks. Then you put him on a football field and have him try to knock opponents out of the game—concussions, broken ribs, torn acl’s on knees. The game has become so fast and furious that players suffer injuries that affect them for life, even cause early dementia or thoughts of suicide. How can the game be made less dangerous? How about touch football? No more tackling, no more knocking the quarterback down, no more injuries. As a nation of fans of violent sports, the more blood we see, the happier we are. But now in football we see a much needed attempt to curtail concussion injuries. Good. Now, what about boxing and kick boxing? How can football be so concerned about concussions and these two barbarisms be so unconcerned? Aren’t boxers as susceptible to concussions as football players? I see a future not that far down the road when football and boxing are as extinct as dinosaurs. No football, no boxing of any kind, just quietly intense chess matches.