Is the Super Bowl all that Super?

Is the Super Bowl all that super anymore? I’m sure the gamblers think so who will bet on just about anything even how long it will take for someone to sing the National Anthem at the start of the game to if the half time show entertainer will wear a hat or not and all that actual game statically stuff too.  But for the most part people are turned off by the concussion climate being ignored by the NFL, the Black Lives Matter taking the knee at games, the cheerleaders not getting paid much and all that dancing and antics being allowed every time a player catches a really long throw or gets a touchdown. The sport of football has a lot of baggage now. The New England Patriots will be battling for a sixth win and most are sick and tired of that team always getting so much luck. There was a year they were accused of cheating with not so much inflated balls giving them an advantage on the field and this year there is that controversial call in their favor playing against the New Orleans Saints that propelled the team to be in the finals on Sunday.

Even the population of the players have changed. No longer are recruits for football being taken from all those wealthy Ivy League schools. The educated folk know that concussions are a real danger to their son’s lives and they no longer expect their boys to pursue football careers. In town after town now there is a pattern. Upper and middle class boys playing football is steadily falling in recent years since 2012. The portion of teams made up by low income families rose by 25%. This is a pattern nationwide. So, the NFL instead of changing the rules to make it a softer soft they just recruit desperate poor and uninformed folk to play the sport where there is tons of money being tossed around.

It almost makes my excuse to drink beer and eat all those unhealthy snacks all day on Sunday a really bad guilt trip supporting a sport where even when guys are happy congratulating themselves for something good on the field, they do it with head butting each other with their helmets on. Meanwhile their brains are hitting the sides of their hard heads with a force that will eventually make their body functions and thought processes just plain Jell-O   someday. Should I serve Jell-O too on Sunday? The usually all male talking heads will be blah, blah, blabbing starting at 11:30 on Sunday morning that will go on continuous for 11 hours on regular network TV on CBS. Will they be talking about concussions, the poor families’ recruitments or even knees at the start of the game? Probably not. And why do they say women talk too much? Look at all those sports guys that never shut the hell up during any game?

Maybe the reason more affluent families are not playing tackle football is because of money. Poor families really need that football scholarship money and then the millions of dollars their son’s earn for the family in professional football. It’s economics over safety and health. It is the new American way. Even in politics lately it is all about money while American’s safety and health take the end of the line in priorities. Trump does big weapons deals with the Saudi’s who did 911. Iran and North Korea are making nuclear weapons to point at us and he doesn’t want to promote climate change restrictions for clean air or water. God Help America from politics to our sports.