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Changed perception and changed reality: the NFL

For those who know me that I would talk about the National Football League will elicit surprise.  I've never watched a football game on TV (or maybe while surfing channels years ago on a rainy September...) and I think I want to one game (the Montreal Alouettes) in the 1980s -- free tickets or something at the Montreal Olympic stadium.

In a nutshell, I don't follow American football at all (I don't follow any type of organized sports) but the NFL is an interesting economic beast.  In a country that has outlawed slavery "players" are being bought and sold, there is clearly a huge concussion problem in the NFL (its a problem in many organized sports) that the NFL has been downplaying for years.  The NFL was the embodiment of masculinity with big arms tight asses...well you get the picture.  It was also a sport in which the team leaders (quarterback) were all white and the guards and "muscle" were all black.

The concussion thing is a huge problem that hockey has addressed seriously -- the NHL's best player was benched for nearly a season because of a concussion -- whereas football, not so much.  The kicker (sorry for the pun) was the President's obsession with certain players (mostly black) kneeling during the national anthem, kneeling to protest the treatment of the American black population that was/is being harassed (and killed) by the police -- "Driving while black" was a bit of a joke in the media, but to a black man --- no so funny!!!

What is amazing is that a year ago, the NFL could do no wrong.  Granted that I care little about the sport, but many "fans" told me that the sport is boring and predictable and that the teams are so unbalanced as to make the sports unwatchable (a bit like formula 1 racing -- where often the first three starters are also the winners).  Despite that the kept on making money because of television franchises that were paying a fortune to get the rights. 

So the NFL was sitting pretty; via lobbying, they were getting new and free stadiums (under the threat to leave the city/state) and were able to trade their players and make tons of cash.  Then it all came crashing down:

The concussion issue that football alone denied as being a problem
The kneeling issue

Two little and seamless issues (especially the second one)  The NFL has avoided/dismissed the concussion issue for years and the kneeling issue underscores the basic racism of its fan base:  "How dare these rich players spit in our face and protest the treatment of their race"  That was a surprise to the owners.

Two small things brought down the "untouchable" house that was the NFL.  I suspect that the NFL greatest crime was to offer a terrible product, that eventually fans would discover was bad and expensive.  The moral outrage (and I use that word with caution) is killing the franchise...

The lesson of economics: you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.  Football loved the status quo -- the status quo was not viable!

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