Thursday, November 2, 2017

Thoughts on Football


I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived there through Feb 1979.  Can you say Pittsburgh Steelers.  I was addicted to watching the Steelers rack up super bowl after super bowl.  Felt pride that *I was from Pittsbugh*, home of the Steelers.  I enjoyed watching people like Terry Bradshaw play.  
Mean Joe Green. Lynn Swan. John Stalworth.  Rocky Bleier. Jack Ham. Mel Blount. Jack Lambert !!
(Never was a real Franco Harris fan).

And play in Pittsburgh in winter where mere mortal teams from places like San Diego were not up to the task of playing in some real severe weather that was very normal for us Pittsburghers in the 70's.  Living in Pittsburgh in winter meant that you had to be up on your survival skills.  You could easily die in winter there if you screwed up. There was some satisfaction to be had that you survived another Pittsburgh winter.  Very often 40 below with the wind.

Even in those days I did not initiate conversations about the "last Steeler game" at work on Monday though I would talk about it if someone else did.

Then teams started moving around and it became less of a "hometown football team through thick or thin" and more about the money and screw the fans who supported you the last 40 years.  The Browns come to mind.  My interest level came down a few notches.

Then I found out that taxpayers were being fleeced to build the infrastructure for private 'for profit' businesses.  And none of the profits ever came back to the city.  I soured a bit more on this game.

In 1979 I moved to Phoenix.  I had never been to an actual game until some friends and I went to see a Phoenix Cardinals (which morphed into the Arizona Cardinals) game.  I thought sitting in the stands watching these guys play just wasn't very interesting.  I decided football games were more about tailgate parties and socializing.  I still watched some football but definitely preferred to watch on TV rather than live.  You have closeups, instant replay, the guys in the booth yapping away, etc and it was a lot cheaper and you had everything you needed right there - beer, chips, pizza, nude wo... er wait, more beer, etc.

Then I found I just didn't have any connection to the players or the team anymore.  Saying or thinking "We Won!" became a foreign concept.  I didn't win anything.  I watched a bunch of overpaid jocks playing with a ball and when they won a game I didn't actually get anything out of it.  The addiction was over. I was cured.

That was around 1983.

I haven't watched since.

I have since watched it from a distance turn into thug ball.  I have noticed that as one of our friendly blogger friends reported - some jock from the NFL is arrested for violence on average of every 7 days.  Domestic violence.  Killing dogs.  Public violence.  Sexual Assault. None of that shit went on when I was watching the Steelers. (Or it didn't get reported)

I have noticed the criminal Snoop Dog, who recently put out a 'music' video that showed President Trump as a corpse in the background was put on Monday Night Football.

I have noticed in a rare event of me actually watching a football event passing by a TV, a black player jumping up in the air and kicking a kicker in the face.  In my days of watching - this turd would not be playing football anymore.

Here in Cincinnati, if you listen to talk radio, they advertise football tickets and they must assume their potential audience are dumb as rocks because the ad (when it gets to who to call) goes "CALL 333- S.... E..... A...... T.  Obviously they assume their potential customers don't even know how to spell "seat".   What's that tell ya.

I have noticed moron black people protesting with their knee down based on the totally untrue premise that any significant amount of cops are bad, that mike brown was killed in cold blood, that black people should be elevated above all other races, because as we all know - none of us crackers has anything bad happen to us when we engage with police.  Of course, things might be a bit better for black folks during traffic stops and the like if they followed the instructions of the officer.

If they don't want to participate with the anthem, I really don't care.  Most blacks are anti-America anyway so no shock to my system here.


I view football now as thugball that is obsessed with some totally obtuse social justice activist thing rather than guys thankful to be making Millions of dollars working in the entertainment industry.  Typical dumbasses though.

I couldn't be less interested.  It is beyond me why so many people give so much of their time and money to a criminal organization that returns absolutely nothing to them.  I am very thankful that my addiction was cured and I've had 6 hours on Saturday, 6 on Sunday, and 3 on Monday night, since 1983 as free time to do something incredibly more valuable to me than sitting in front of the boob tube watching grown men play with a ball.

It'll be interesting next year when this years season tickets expire, how many will buy a new season worth.

Maybe if football was forced out of business many more people would turn their focus on how the democrats and republicans are screwing us with telephone poles every other minute and we could make some gains in government?  naw.

34 comments :

  1. I think it's sad not to love American football! Everything's corrupt, football isn't excluded...but it's part of our culture and we should like it and I hate that the players themselves might have finally erased the joy for so many through their stupid 'knee taking' crap.
    I had a Dad who loved sports and it was a great outlet for him. My husband wasn't American but he loved basketball and loved pro tennis. He HATED the Olympics so he shared your views about corruption and drug-use and just plain giving up on a sport because of the trappings of it. I thought that was really sad, too.
    this whole darned world seems to be coming apart when a guy who loved the Steelers thinks he's lucky to have six extra hours :-( But, I DO get your points.

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    1. Z, I would share your view if I could find anything good about this organized crime business. But for people who enjoy it? I will Not criticize them. Why do so when pretty much everything is tainted.

      There is a reason Earth isn't called Heaven.

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    2. Z, Football lost me Long before the knee taking crap. fwiw. Again, if someone enjoys watching -No judgement from me. I'm just verbalizing my own path on this subject.

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  2. This is an excellent post and particularly so in light of the context of personal remembrances. I too used to enjoy watching the game, but was never one to adopt a hometown team. Neither did I ever get caught up in the personalities of players. I think the light came on for me when one of these he-man players died from his psychological addiction to steroids and I began to understand what a bunch of these people were. Highly paid laggards, of course, but laggards nonetheless.

    Some years later, I was attending a summer training session and ended up staying at a hotel in near proximity to St. Edward’s University in Austin. This was the site of a pre-season game between Dallas and (I think) the LA Rams. The Rams players were staying at the same hotel. What I can tell you about the linemen is that they were a gaggle of fat-assed, slovenly thugs. Toward the end of that weekend, some players from Dallas showed up to “sell” their autographs to googly-eyed fans. Can you imagine making millions of dollars on a contract to play a game, and then selling your signature to a 12 or 14-year old kid for $50.00?

    The long and short of it for me is this: NFL players are not now, and have never been, America’s heroes. As you stated, NFL players fall into two categories: those who have been convicted of serious felonies, and those awaiting trial. These are not the kinds of people our children should idolize and perhaps the least of these was Lawrence Taylor. No ... if you want to see a real hero, go to any military base and watch what these young men and women are doing for their country —and I do emphasize country, as opposed to what NFL players are doing for their own enrichment.

    For me, the bottom line is this: the NFL players have the right under our Constitution to take a knee. But given who I am, what I believe, and the fact that I have friends entombed in Arlington National Cemetery, I also have certain rights: I have the right to boycott the NFL and any company that continues to support them - and boycott them, I shall.

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    1. Great writing, Mustang. Thank you. I think the reason pro-football is now so corrupt has mostly to do with Sports having been transformed into Big Business. Once MONEY becomes the primary consideration in any endeavor. love, aesthetics, ethics and integrity seem to fade away. But it can't be just "money" that's ruining sports. I've seen reports in recent years that even in the LITTLE LEAGUE some parents have become so besotted with the idea of WINNING at ALL COSTS, they've broken out into bloody fistfights over petty things like an umpire call they don't like. Serious injuries have taken place in these encounters. Police have been called in. Court cases have ensued over what was always intended to be a good, wholesome outlet for CHILDREN to test their budding skills, and learn about fair play, good sportsmanship.

      So, bad as the NFL has obviously become it may be no worse than the REST of America, because corruption and degeneracy seem to have taken over at nearly every level.

      I'm more tired of listing what-I-believe-to-be the major causes of this decline than the readers of these blogs are of seeing them put into print. I've said what i believe in no unertain terms so often I am now generally regarded as "an old wet hen." That doesn't change by convicrtions any, but I realize more and more that my particular brand of rhetoric is useless to the cause of preserving freedom and integrity in our society. A bitter pill to be sure.

      Anywa, the most simplistic explanation I can imagine would be that nearly ALL the undesirable things we deplore have arrived in full force since the Supreme Court allowed itself to be persuaded that Prayer and Bible-Reading during Opening Exercses in our schools, and public displays celebrating Christmas were "unconstitutional."

      It isn't just that, of course, but more the kind of THINKING that was permitted to evolve insidiously for several decades that eventually LED UP to a Supreme Court that became decidedly antithetical toward traditional American customs, mores and values.

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  3. Thank you so much Mustang. Let me echo you and say if young people are looking for heroes and persons to idolize, the NFL is not even on the list. From what I now know, I'd put Marines at the top of the list and work down from there.

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    1. PS - Yes, the autographs of the Blue Angels pilots are free.

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  4. I remember when the local news papers were full of writers with a commie bent,
    people were saying such as: I'm not buying that communist rag anymore.
    Then the writers one upped-and dug deeper into the left propaganda.
    A lot of callers to the radio talk shows were saying that they were canceling their subscriptions for the local commie rags.
    And a few weeks later they were calling in, the host asked if they went through with their claims of quitting cold turkey. And all most all said the news paper guy called them and asked if there was a way to keep them as they were a long time customer; a deep discount was all it took to keep them a subscriber.
    How can we as a community who cares for our country do any ground keeping if our fellow countrymen give in and not work our only leverage to keep our ground.
    And now a few years later we see and hear about not watching (not buying - tickets to games and cable subscriptions to Game Channels) football.
    Not enough of us will make the sacrifice-to keep our country.
    If Cable channels about sports (Football), and the Superbowl do not lose viewers and attendees this year, I just can't call them my fellow Americans-maybe not that drastic but I won't think highly of them anymore.
    If we don't show these commies who holds the leverage around here we will lose our ground (our country),these new people moving into our country won't think we are serious about keeping our country leftist free.

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    1. TS/WS, There is huge lack of patriotism out there today and a lot of demoralization. And to me it's more about these guys who are idols to most of the people in the hood telling them that cops are bad and many of them want to shoot you if you're black. That Mike Brown was murdered, etc etc. They instead need to be told that bad people exist in every profession and group. Bad shit happens to white people too, and guess what white people are never going to elevate blacks or anyone else above them.
      Judge people as individuals. Certainly what I do.

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    2. I couldn't agree more TS/WS. Even as far back as 1946 my father got furious at my motherfor bringing the Sunday edtion of the New York Times into our house. I was only four at the time, but I remember very clearly Dad bellowung at mother saying, "I WON'T HAVE that SHITTY COMMUNIST RAG in OUR HOUSE."

      Mother was very upset over that –– not because of the leftist political bent of the N.Y. Times, but because my father had used "such dreadful language in front of our precious baby" –– me! ;-)

      Father was right, of course, and mother –– like most Americans then and now –– was naive.

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  5. I always preferred Baseball.
    Slower, but more strategy.
    And the National Anthem ends with the words "Play Ball".
    But I don't follow it anymore since it's just a "franchise" I have no loyalty to, like when I was a younger lad.

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    1. I remember as a kid my Dad watched baseball. I slept through it. :)

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  6. I used to love watching basketball, college and pro. Then it turned into thug ball, with players choking coaches and getting bigger contracts. That was it for me. I still like to fill out my March Madness brackets, though. And watching my backwater alma mater, the U. of Oregon, make the dance.

    But pro football is exactly like you say. Thug ball. I don't lose any sleep when my Chicago Bears lose, which is pretty regularly lately. If their league goes down the tubes over this lack of patriotism, I wouldn't give a rat's ass. They deserve to go down the tubes, the f-ing traitors.

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    1. Fredd. Agree. And sometimes I'll walk into the breakroom when they are watching some football highlights and here are some guys in the end zone twerking and dancing around like Kansas City faggots. I have no interest in that shit. Tom Landry never would have allowed that crap. He kept it "professional" as professional as a sport can be.

      Soccer is even worse. Everyone with a voovoo horn. 2 or 3 points scored in an entire game and fans that are more violent than the puke we have running around over here now like the fascist antifags. Kill a refferee, stampede each other. Europe is so much more civilized ain't it.

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    2. I was never a fan, but when Dennis Rodman started to appear on the court in DRAG –– and was allowed to GET AWAY WITH IT –– that told me that the days of Americs the Beautiful were numbered and disappearing FAST.

      Extreme permissiveness at all levels, I suspect, will prove to be our undoing,

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  7. I'm with ya on the football Kid. Played the game and as a youth idolized Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. Remembering the Ice Bowl as I type this.

    The game has changed and while the athletic ability of the playerd have kept pace such is not the case with the character of many. Maybe it was OJ that started trip downhill, who knows.

    Still watch occasionally but the love for the game has really left me. Sports in general ain't what it used to be. Or, maybe it's just us.

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    1. RN, Agree. I don't know what changed since I wasn't watching when it morphed. My guess is America changed and football and the other sports came along with it.

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    2. Your instincts are sounder than today's dollar, Kid.

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  8. Great post regarding 'your path', Kid. I was cured after the second week of this season when the kneel-baggers (my term still hasn't caught on) were sanctioned and formerly approved by the NFL. I haven't watched one play since, and I was really looking forward to the NFL season. It's not like giving up eating black licorice or liver. Each Sunday I remember its on but the level of disgust I feel for this bunch makes the personal sacrifice easier to take. Besides, I still indulge in college football Saturday. Nothing better. And the Red Wings! (Love my hockey). and this thermos... and this chair... and that's all I need!

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    1. Mr Blade, I hope you always have what you need. :-)

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  10. I didn't grow up with football. I started paying attention to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about 20 years ago and avidly watching my Bucs about 10 years ago. I was disgusted by the increasing thuggery of the players, but kaepernick's kneeling BS was the death knell for football for me.

    My daughter attended UA, USF (undergrad) and UF (grad) so she and my husband watch the Bama, Bulls, and Gator games, but I don't anymore. I think it's only a matter of time before they get infected with this kneeling madness too and I don't want to see it happen.

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  11. Cube, the blacks are not going to give up this 'we want more than everybody else' crap. They're just going to turn up the volume.

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    1. Yes, but the perpetual shoulder chip wearers are going to shoot themselves in the foot with that tactic sooner or later. The use of the race card is wearing thin on people.

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  12. If I may point out something. There are many blacks, as well as other "minorities", that share the values we all posess. There are bad apples in all races and cultures, always has been including Caucasians, aka WASPS.

    Shouldn't we be focusing on the undesirable behaviors rather than race?

    Opportunity is the right of all people. Institutionalized racism, which the USA has partaken of, is what many blacks have experienced in America. They are acutely aware of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the hypocrisy that followed.

    Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Steven Covey

    Wiser words were never spoken. Unfortunately two few folks on all sides understand and live by this. Come to think of it Covey was sort of channeling the Golden Rule.

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    1. RN, Absolutely. Agree. 'They say' only 10% of blacks have truly integrated with American culture. True? Don't know, but when the subject came up in a comment sectiona nd I posted it, a black girl replied that she is living in the American culture, being educated, working, etc and she even has her hair straightened so she can fit in. I told her I judge people as individuals. If she is who she says she is, I wouldn't care what she did with her hair including leaving it the way she was born.

      All have to be judged as individuals but if I'm in Ferguson MO, or S Chicago, or Baltimore, I won't be walking down the street saying Hi Bro to the people who live there looking for the 'good ones' to befriend.

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  13. This may be your best post to date, Kid. It's a pleasure to see something so thoughtful, so sane, and so well written in the generally increasing craziness of the blogosphere.

    Your feelings about the steelers reminded me of my own (abortive) career as a baseball fan.

    I was born in Brooklyn, Kid, and most of my family lived there when I was little. We were ALL ardent DODGER fans. We identified the Dodgers as an integral PART of what it meant to be a proud Brooklynite –– an identity all of us shared, even though none of us conformed to the popular stereotyoe of talking in Dese, Dems and Dos while murdering English in "Brooklynese."

    The day the Dodgers announced their move to Los Angeles something vital in me died. The Dodgers weren't the DODGERS anymore –– and never would be again. And frankly Brooklyn, itself, lost a good deal of its allure. A lot of the magic appealing to a kid vanished overnight. The Dodger's exit felt like a betrayal –– almost like TREASON, believe it or not.

    That happened just SIXTY YEARS years ago –– a full lifetime for many –– and I STILL haven't gotten over missing the Brooklyn I knew and was so proud to be part of as a little kid.

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    1. Thanks much FT. I understand about the Dodgers. That moving around of teams got the ball rolling to where we are today.

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  14. I suppose that those of us of a certain age tend to look backward to a better time. It was a better time because that’s how we remember it. It may not have been a perfect time, just better ... in many ways. One thing that I recall so clearly were the 4th of July picnics. They were more often than not “Church picnics,” but there was still always someone who had a few beers stashed in the back of a post-War reintroduction of a Ford or Chevy.

    Everyone would bring something. I loved the fried chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, and the home-baked cakes and pies. I was never much interested in playing horseshoes —that was mostly reserved for adult men. The ladies would gather around and gossip, and someone would always organize a softball game. There were contests, too. Silly things that always ended up with some kid getting a mouthful of raw egg. We also dunked for apples.

    There was a lake nearby and someone would always get tossed it. It was a funny thing to see, unless you happened to be the one the bigger boys tossed. And if Billy or Tom ever disappeared for a while with Becky or Jane, we all knew about it and they would receive much harassment and cat calls. The girls would be embarrassed and that would be the last we saw of them for the day.

    In the evening, before the fireworks, a local musical group would show up and perform. More cake, or pie, and Kool Aid for the kids.

    These were community events, and we loved our local amateur sports; everyone knew the team members. No one threw a fit when we lost ... it was just how the game was played. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. I do suppose that after ten or twelve trips to the Ford or Chevy, a couple of adults might get into a shoving contest, but that’s all it ever was.

    No, it wasn’t a perfect time ... just better.

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    1. It sure was better, Mustang. Norman Rockwell was dling many of the cvers for the Saturday Evening Post back then, and his beloved illustrations both reflected and enhanced the charms, delights and values of the kind of scenes you so well described.

      You might like this piece on Memorial Day published at AOW's blog a few years ago:

      http://alwaysonwatch3.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-memorial-day-guest-post.html

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    2. Things I remember.
      -Boys helped girls, women, and older ladies if they needed it.
      -No one brought a gun to a fistfight.
      -Parents let their kids play a game of football, baseball, whatever without getting into fights with each other because they felt their kid was slighted. They saw it for what it was - a learning experience.
      -The music of the day was Beatles and many other group's love songs.
      -I never heard of any girls getting raped
      -I never heard of pedophilia, though some surely existed.
      -I never heard of or saw someone who was convinced they were the other sex. Homosexuality was men who liked men and women who liked women.
      -I never heard of a 450 something year old guy who thought he was a 7 year old girl, or a couple of adults who would take him in and appease his fantasy.
      -I never heard rap music.
      -The non-integrated blacks lived in 'projects' and they didn't go out and bother people. I'm guessing they mostly stayed to their neighborhood, smoking dope and having sex.
      -I never heard of a car jacking.
      -I never saw a person with a tattoo unless it was a sailor with an anchor or Mother on his arm.
      -I never saw a person with a foreign object like metal or ceramic attached to their face unless it was in the National Geographic and in an article about native African tribes or Australian aborigines.
      -Kids were encouraged to shoot rifles and pistols.
      -A good day was a family picnic or a pick up game of baseball or an explore mission down by the river and train tracks.
      -Boys mostly respected girls.
      -I never ever heard about a lousy stinking piece of shit moslem and how they live.
      -We could go on for days.
      I was obviously shielded from a lot but it was also a Very different time.




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    3. Thanks for the link, FT ... great article. Bravo!

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  15. Hey, are you forgetting that the Pittsburg Kneelers and other esteemed members of the NFL are doing their best to end SLAVERY, here in the US? GEEWIZ look at the positive side!

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    1. JonBerg, End slavery by expanding it. Yep, that's what works these days !

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