For those like me who need a primer on American football:
Steve Almond wonders whether watching the Super Bowl is immoral (NYT):
There are two basic rationalizations for fans like myself. The first is that the N.F.L. is working hard to make the game safer, which is flimsy at best. The league spent years denying that the game was causing neurological damage. Now that the medical evidence is incontrovertible, it has sought to reduce high-speed collisions, fining defenders for helmet-to-helmet hits and other flagrantly violent play. Its most significant response has been to offer $765 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 former players, but a judge recently blocked the settlement. It simply wasn’t enough money.
The second argument is that players choose to incur the game’s risks and are lavishly compensated for doing so. This is technically true. N.F.L. players are members of an elite fraternity that knowingly places self-sacrifice, valor and machismo above ethical or medical common sense. But most start out as kids with limited options. They may love football for its inherent virtues. But they also quickly come to see the game as a path to glory and riches. These rewards aren’t inherent. They arise from a culture of fandom that views players as valuable only so long as they can perform.
Update from a reader, who points to the below video to say it “reminds me of what Bill Maher said a coupla years ago” – comparing the economic systems of professional football and baseball:
Update from another reader:
Not only is the NFL socialist internally, it’s socialist externally. So are other major league sports. They get the city or the county or the state or a combination of them to build them stadia. I don’t have a source for this, but the only NFL stadium built without government subsidies of one sort or another is Met Life in East Rutherford, which is shared by the NY Jets and the NY Giants. But there are other hidden subsidies lurking. The massive roadways to support the Meadowlands. The train station that makes it possible for them to use the Met Life stadium for the Superbowl. The work NJTransit did at Seacaucus Junction station. NJTransit is going to be running a modified weekday schedule for that Sunday. That’s costing a lot of money. And giving ticket holders bus service if they don’t want to use the train.
The subsidizing goes on and on and one. In the meanwhile they get billions of dollars for the telecasts, merchandizing etc. And pay themselves very very well. It’s not just the players pulling down millions a year. It’s the coaches and the assistant coaches and the marketing director etc. And it’s not just the NFL. I’m sure you read a bit about what went on with the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. The Port Authority is busy spending 100 million to rebuild the PATH station in Harrison so a minor league soccer team can have games a few blocks away. They suck great big drafts of socialistic subsidies out of the system.
Recent Dish on Beinart’s moral qualms with the sport and his son here. Recent coverage of the blocked NFL settlement here.
The Dish 