I’m (Really) Done with the NFL

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post documenting my frustration with the inadequacy of the NFL’s referees. In a fit of rage, I made an oath not to watch the NFL for an undetermined amount of time, so long as the NFL didn’t take responsibility for their employers. I cracked under pressure and watched the AFC-NFC Championship games and the Super Bowl soon after. It was almost akin to a child throwing a tantrum because they weren’t getting their way.

Fast forward to present time and with two weeks of action, I haven’t found anything particularly troubling about the state of the refs (though that may depend on what game I’m watching). Even so, there’s something unsatisfying about the entire game in its current state. Perhaps its the media overblowing everything. Norman vs. Beckham. Gurley is the second-coming of Christ. Kaepernick sat during the national anthem and now everyone’s joining in on the fun. It seems the game has become less of a game and more of a circus, a gladiatorial type conglomerate that soothes itself on embellishing itself in drama and glory. It’s too much sometimes, and how I’ve been able to stand it for this long amazes me. I love football as a sport that much, it seems. But it’s getting to the point where it’s not worth the time.

I spend a lot of my free time on football. Not just watching football games, but looking up football history, football stats, watching the NFL Network, playing Madden 12, and researching for my occasional NFL Top 10’s. And this is only with the NFL. I also watch College Football, Canadian Football, Arena Football, and had I the chance to, High School and Indoor Football. The only thing I don’t watch is Lingerie Football! That’s ten hours on Saturdays and Sundays, and an additional three and a half on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. That’s thirty hours a week! I don’t even work that much in a week!

I don’t even get much out of football. Just three hours of raw enjoyment and nothing more. I can’t really critique it (outwardly) or make anything out of it as a writer (They want things called “degrees.” Pfft!), and the NFL is pretty strict on their copyrights. It’s something one can only watch and appreciate, assuming the game is actually good. In the long run, I’ve wasted so much time watching games when I could’ve been, ahem, “productive” doing something else. The time when I was writing my picks for weekly games was the least productive my blog had ever been. I was constantly burned out by the pressure of writing long, complicated posts and doing so within a self-reserved deadline. Ever since I stopped doing so, my passion for blogging has increased exponentially. My writing has been more fruitful and my desire to do so at an even pace has (almost) never faltered. I was content watching football on my own time and blogging whenever it was done. But whenever football was concerned, something always took a backseat.

I’ve recently been getting back into video games (Partly due to my own ambition and partly due to my desire to do video game reviews on Youtube). This typically conflicts with a number of things, as video games aren’t something to be enjoyed for short periods of time. Usually, football would always take precedence. In the long run, video games would take less time to indulge in than football, and let’s face it, video games don’t have commercials to hog up that time, too. It’s more beneficial to me, too, as a control-freak and as a reviewer to be able to control the game at my pace and rely on my own to make something out of it. The NFL is big business. It’s controlled like a corporation and advertised like a carnival. After five years of watching, I think I’ve finally gotten over the desire to keep up with it.

This isn’t to say I will never watch (or keep up with) the NFL again. I wouldn’t mind sitting down and watching a game or two every so often, but I’m not going to let it take up nearly as much time as it did in the past. The same can be said for College (Though I care less about College than the NFL). To be “done” with the NFL is slightly exaggerating the point of this entry, but I like harking back to my old, embarrassing posts every once in a while. The point is, I’m not going to be known as “the football fanatic” in my household anymore. I’m moving past that. I may look back sometimes, but I’ll keep moving forward in the meantime.