Just because... enjoy this video and understand why being a Cubs fan is such a gift. "We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we're in love."
Friday, May 18, 2012
Farwell Kid K
So I sat down to write a paper for class, and here I am. I think we can all agree that it's more important for me to take my time waxing poetic on one of my all time favorite athletes than to be spending time on an examination of the inter-organizational politics that my employer engages in. Right? Besides, it's sunny, 80 degrees, I have a porch swing to sit on with my laptop, and it's Friday.
Kerry Wood really has been with me my entire life as far as being a baseball fan is concerned. My experience as a big sports fan dates back to 1992: I remember watching bits and pieces of the Bulls - Blazers finals and rooting for the Bulls. By 1993 I was watching the playoffs and thoroughly rooting for the Bulls against the Knicks and the Suns, could name the entire starting lineup plus a few subs easily, and started collecting basketball cards. By 1994 I was so head over heels for the NBA that I was actively debating the merits of the Bulls resigning Horace Grant to my grandmother. (Keep in mind, I was eight at the time; incidentally, he signed with the Magic, the first of many times that what I wanted my team to do was not played out by what they actually did). Somewhere in the summer of 1995, with baseball just back from a strike and MJ having just returned to the NBA I watched a Cubs game with my father. It was against the Atlanta Braves, and Greg Maddux was starting for the Braves. It took me a few years to figure out that the jerk who dominated the Cubs used to play for us. It took a few more years for me to be rooting for him when he returned to the Cubs.
By 1997 I was starting to learn baseball the same way I learned the NBA: via the backs of sports cards. The 1998 season was my coming out party as a Cubs fan. That was the Summer of McGwire and Sosa: Sammy hit 20 HRs in June alone, on his way to 66 and the MVP, and Big Mac slammed 70 on his way to a record that was celebrated, briefly, until it was tainted. The moment that won me over to the Cubs, however, was a game pitched by young Kerry Wood against the Houston Astros. His fifth career start. May 6th 1998. Nine innings pitched. One infield single the only hit allowed. No walks. No hit batters. Twenty Strike Outs.
Think about that: Twenty Strike Outs. Even at the young age of 12 I knew what that meant. That was Roger Clemens territory. That was the all time record. That was "holy shit" status. Keep in mind that the Cubs in the mid 1990s, as I became a fan, were a pretty awful group. Wood, along with Sosa's home run hitting, suddenly made us viable. We made the playoffs and weren't really sad when the Braves swept us. We were on the way up, and we had the next great pitcher on our team. Sosa was a fan favorite, but Wood meant so much more because he came from our minor league system, so he was OUR player.
That offseason, I remember sitting in the living room of my grandparents house on a Sunday afternoon when the news broke that Wood would miss the entire 1999 season and would have Tommy John surgery. I was devastated, and, apparently, so were the Cubs: they didn't show up for 1999. Or 2000. Neither did Wood. He started to rebound in 2001. We started to see the promise, but the team continued to be mostly Sosa and Wood. We needed more. 2003 the reinforcements arrived. With Wood a full fledged ace pitcher (striking out 266 batters) we had a big four of sorts: Wood, Mark Prior (the next Doc Gooden), Carlos Zambrano (nobody knew what to make of him but he was really good), and Matt Clement. We made it to the playoffs, and faced Atlanta again. This time we weren't going to be happy to be there.
We took Atlanta out in a classic Cubs ulcer inducing five games. Wood, as was fitting, was the game five starter. We rolled out to three games to one series lead against the Marlins, with Game five set in Florida. I spoke with my old man who was almost giddy about the impending Cubs National League pennant. Keep in mind, the last time the Cubs had even WON the pennant was 1945 (and, of course, the series in 1908), so he was pretty excited. I told him I had a bad feeling that we needed to finish the series in game five, or we would lose. And he looked at me and said "that's stupid: we have Prior and Wood going at home in games six and seven. We'll be fine."
You know that scene in Jurassic Park where Ian Malcolm's character says that he hates being right? Well, I hated being right. The Cubs lost game five, then Bartman and (most importantly) Dusty's incompetence and Alex Gonzalez' inability to field a double play ball led to the game six collapse. Still, game seven was at home, and we had Kerry Wood, Kid K himself, ready to take us to the World Series. It seemed meant to be. Wood allowed the Marlins to jump to a three run lead, and all seemed lost. But then Wood crushed a three run home run ... and there was hope again. Think about that: the pitcher gives up the three runs, then reinvigorates the crowd with a three run blast of his own. New game. I was at my youth group, with the game on the big screen, and ran around the basketball court, full speed, with my hand in a fist in the air as Wood rounded the bases. Game on!
Alas, it was in no way meant to be. Wood collapsed, and so did the Cubs. I watched the final outs from a small black and white TV in my mother's office. Hiding. Crushed. Praying for a miracle that wouldn't come. Knowing fully what it meant to be a Cubs fan. Still, we rationalized: we signed Maddux, improved the team, and would be back the next year. Except we weren't: Wood and Prior spent much of the year hurt, and the team collapsed late. Wood battled through numerous injuries throughout 2004, 2005 and 2006. By the end of the 2006 season it was evident: Prior was done and so was Wood. The Cubs dynamic 1-2 punch was for naught, and the era was over.
But Wood wasn't ready to let it be so. He returned as a reliever, and helped the team to a surprise division title in 2007 and was the All-star closer of the 2008 team that had the best record in the league. Disappointingly in 2007, and shockingly in 2008, the Cubs were swept from the playoffs on both occasions. Wood left for more money with Cleveland in the offseason, and it seemed his run as a Cub may have finished.
But Chicago is in Kerry's heart, and he returned in 2011 to pitch for the Cubs, taking millions upon millions of dollars less than he was offered. He was good last year, but the team wasn't. He was not so good this year, and so on this day he decided to hang it up. The last batter he faced struck out on three pitches. Hardly a perfect bookend to his career, but a bookend nonetheless.
Wood is not a Hall of Fame player. Wood is not even an all time Cubs great, at least not statistically. But he played a major part of four Cubs playoff teams. And more importantly, he became a latter day Mr. Cub, resonating with the fans in a way not seen since Sandberg at least, if not Santo and Banks. Wood said in his press conference that he hopes to stay with the team in some capacity, and I hope and trust that they will find a way to make that happen. Watching his son run out of the dugout to hug him after his strikeout, seeing the standing ovation, made me wish, for the first time this year, that I was at Wrigley. Kid K, no longer a kid, but instead a grizzled veteran, fades into the sunset.
And, again, this is why we love sports. We had the opportunity to watch Kerry Wood grow from the baby faced Texas Phenom who struck out twenty. We saw him start to reach his potential after the first round of injuries. We saw him reinvent himself after the second round of injuries. And we saw him come back home, taking far less to finish where he started. Kerry, thank you for the memories, and for guiding me into become a fan of the Chicago Cubs. I am fortunate to bleed Cubbie Blue in all I do, and you are as responsible for that as anyone. I'll always remember the Kid K poster that hung in my room, showing an on-fire fastball. Sports allow us to dream, and to be young. When you're a child you take that for granted. With a bit more perspective and real world responsibilities, I can honestly say that it is a gift. It'll be different without you Kerry. Thanks for understanding what makes the Cubs, Cubs fans, and Wrigley so special.
Kerry Wood really has been with me my entire life as far as being a baseball fan is concerned. My experience as a big sports fan dates back to 1992: I remember watching bits and pieces of the Bulls - Blazers finals and rooting for the Bulls. By 1993 I was watching the playoffs and thoroughly rooting for the Bulls against the Knicks and the Suns, could name the entire starting lineup plus a few subs easily, and started collecting basketball cards. By 1994 I was so head over heels for the NBA that I was actively debating the merits of the Bulls resigning Horace Grant to my grandmother. (Keep in mind, I was eight at the time; incidentally, he signed with the Magic, the first of many times that what I wanted my team to do was not played out by what they actually did). Somewhere in the summer of 1995, with baseball just back from a strike and MJ having just returned to the NBA I watched a Cubs game with my father. It was against the Atlanta Braves, and Greg Maddux was starting for the Braves. It took me a few years to figure out that the jerk who dominated the Cubs used to play for us. It took a few more years for me to be rooting for him when he returned to the Cubs.
By 1997 I was starting to learn baseball the same way I learned the NBA: via the backs of sports cards. The 1998 season was my coming out party as a Cubs fan. That was the Summer of McGwire and Sosa: Sammy hit 20 HRs in June alone, on his way to 66 and the MVP, and Big Mac slammed 70 on his way to a record that was celebrated, briefly, until it was tainted. The moment that won me over to the Cubs, however, was a game pitched by young Kerry Wood against the Houston Astros. His fifth career start. May 6th 1998. Nine innings pitched. One infield single the only hit allowed. No walks. No hit batters. Twenty Strike Outs.
Think about that: Twenty Strike Outs. Even at the young age of 12 I knew what that meant. That was Roger Clemens territory. That was the all time record. That was "holy shit" status. Keep in mind that the Cubs in the mid 1990s, as I became a fan, were a pretty awful group. Wood, along with Sosa's home run hitting, suddenly made us viable. We made the playoffs and weren't really sad when the Braves swept us. We were on the way up, and we had the next great pitcher on our team. Sosa was a fan favorite, but Wood meant so much more because he came from our minor league system, so he was OUR player.
That offseason, I remember sitting in the living room of my grandparents house on a Sunday afternoon when the news broke that Wood would miss the entire 1999 season and would have Tommy John surgery. I was devastated, and, apparently, so were the Cubs: they didn't show up for 1999. Or 2000. Neither did Wood. He started to rebound in 2001. We started to see the promise, but the team continued to be mostly Sosa and Wood. We needed more. 2003 the reinforcements arrived. With Wood a full fledged ace pitcher (striking out 266 batters) we had a big four of sorts: Wood, Mark Prior (the next Doc Gooden), Carlos Zambrano (nobody knew what to make of him but he was really good), and Matt Clement. We made it to the playoffs, and faced Atlanta again. This time we weren't going to be happy to be there.
We took Atlanta out in a classic Cubs ulcer inducing five games. Wood, as was fitting, was the game five starter. We rolled out to three games to one series lead against the Marlins, with Game five set in Florida. I spoke with my old man who was almost giddy about the impending Cubs National League pennant. Keep in mind, the last time the Cubs had even WON the pennant was 1945 (and, of course, the series in 1908), so he was pretty excited. I told him I had a bad feeling that we needed to finish the series in game five, or we would lose. And he looked at me and said "that's stupid: we have Prior and Wood going at home in games six and seven. We'll be fine."
You know that scene in Jurassic Park where Ian Malcolm's character says that he hates being right? Well, I hated being right. The Cubs lost game five, then Bartman and (most importantly) Dusty's incompetence and Alex Gonzalez' inability to field a double play ball led to the game six collapse. Still, game seven was at home, and we had Kerry Wood, Kid K himself, ready to take us to the World Series. It seemed meant to be. Wood allowed the Marlins to jump to a three run lead, and all seemed lost. But then Wood crushed a three run home run ... and there was hope again. Think about that: the pitcher gives up the three runs, then reinvigorates the crowd with a three run blast of his own. New game. I was at my youth group, with the game on the big screen, and ran around the basketball court, full speed, with my hand in a fist in the air as Wood rounded the bases. Game on!
Alas, it was in no way meant to be. Wood collapsed, and so did the Cubs. I watched the final outs from a small black and white TV in my mother's office. Hiding. Crushed. Praying for a miracle that wouldn't come. Knowing fully what it meant to be a Cubs fan. Still, we rationalized: we signed Maddux, improved the team, and would be back the next year. Except we weren't: Wood and Prior spent much of the year hurt, and the team collapsed late. Wood battled through numerous injuries throughout 2004, 2005 and 2006. By the end of the 2006 season it was evident: Prior was done and so was Wood. The Cubs dynamic 1-2 punch was for naught, and the era was over.
But Wood wasn't ready to let it be so. He returned as a reliever, and helped the team to a surprise division title in 2007 and was the All-star closer of the 2008 team that had the best record in the league. Disappointingly in 2007, and shockingly in 2008, the Cubs were swept from the playoffs on both occasions. Wood left for more money with Cleveland in the offseason, and it seemed his run as a Cub may have finished.
But Chicago is in Kerry's heart, and he returned in 2011 to pitch for the Cubs, taking millions upon millions of dollars less than he was offered. He was good last year, but the team wasn't. He was not so good this year, and so on this day he decided to hang it up. The last batter he faced struck out on three pitches. Hardly a perfect bookend to his career, but a bookend nonetheless.
Wood is not a Hall of Fame player. Wood is not even an all time Cubs great, at least not statistically. But he played a major part of four Cubs playoff teams. And more importantly, he became a latter day Mr. Cub, resonating with the fans in a way not seen since Sandberg at least, if not Santo and Banks. Wood said in his press conference that he hopes to stay with the team in some capacity, and I hope and trust that they will find a way to make that happen. Watching his son run out of the dugout to hug him after his strikeout, seeing the standing ovation, made me wish, for the first time this year, that I was at Wrigley. Kid K, no longer a kid, but instead a grizzled veteran, fades into the sunset.
And, again, this is why we love sports. We had the opportunity to watch Kerry Wood grow from the baby faced Texas Phenom who struck out twenty. We saw him start to reach his potential after the first round of injuries. We saw him reinvent himself after the second round of injuries. And we saw him come back home, taking far less to finish where he started. Kerry, thank you for the memories, and for guiding me into become a fan of the Chicago Cubs. I am fortunate to bleed Cubbie Blue in all I do, and you are as responsible for that as anyone. I'll always remember the Kid K poster that hung in my room, showing an on-fire fastball. Sports allow us to dream, and to be young. When you're a child you take that for granted. With a bit more perspective and real world responsibilities, I can honestly say that it is a gift. It'll be different without you Kerry. Thanks for understanding what makes the Cubs, Cubs fans, and Wrigley so special.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
With Apologies to My Uncle...
I know NBA basketball isn't something many of my readers routinely watch, but I just couldn't resist showing the blatant hypocrisy of the NBA. Watch the follow play, realize that they didn't eject Wade, and that they are not going to suspend him for this either. And then please just know that if anyone on the Bulls, and certainly on the Pacers, had done this exact thing they would have been suspended for a game. This was a blatant cheap shot, and shows you all you need to know about the character of this Heat team that the NBA wants to win the title this year.
I HATE the Pacers ... but I couldn't be rooting more for them right now. Down with Miami.
I HATE the Pacers ... but I couldn't be rooting more for them right now. Down with Miami.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Presidential Campaigning 101 - Polarize and Conquer
A few years ago I wrote this post, breaking down how the Republican Party had gone from a seemingly insurmountable advantage to trailing Democrats everywhere. It's hard to believe it's been three years since I wrote that post, but we've learned a few things since that point. We've seen more and more rapid turnover in Washington, a natural product of an environment that is so negative and divisive. The great mystery of the US congress has always been clearly articulated in approval ratings. If you ask the general American citizen if they approve of the job congress is doing, they will say "no" (well, at least 80% of them). If, however, you ask them if they approve of the job their representative is doing, they typically say yes. Recently, this has shifted a bit more, and we are seeing larger swaths of incumbents losing primaries, and being forced out of office.
I could go on forever about the advantages of term limits in Congress, as well as the need to have fresh blood, but the problem with the current environment is that what we are seeing, time and again in these elections, is not the American people voting to stop the gridlock. On the contrary, every time they vote out at Dick Lugar (a good man who was, admittedly, a relic who probably needed to retire gracefully anyway) the voters are replacing one person with a more extreme version of that person. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and in this case the American people are paying for extremist blowhards, and will get more intense gridlock as a result.
And that takes me back to my original point, about my post on the GOP three years ago. In it, I said this regarding the strategy of George W Bush's "brain," Karl Rove:
"Rove's political strategies, detailed well in many places, basically came down to one thing: polarize the electorate. For team Bush this meant using as many red herrings as possible. Rove believed that if they made the election about the right issues they could mobilize the Religious Right, boosting the number of guaranteed Republican voters. To that end, Rove used any issue the Right would fall in behind, most successfully gay marriage and abortion. The 2004 election showed the success of this strategy, as eleven states passed amendments codifying marriage as being between a man and a woman. The conservative turn out in these states helped Bush out, particularly in Ohio, a state thought to be 2004's version of Florida."
Does any of this sound familiar? It should: in this primary season we've already seen Roe V Wade continue to come under fire, courtesy of Rick Santorum, and now we see the gay marriage topic rear its' head yet again. Couple this with Mitt Romney's recent push to convince the American people that he is actually running against Jimmy Carter, and you'll see what the strategy is: set up a straw man, knock it down, and hope the American people buy it. McCain failed to effectively run a polarizing campaign, and in the minds of many GOP big shots this was his fatal error. The Democrats are by no means innocent in this, but the GOP does have a history of taking issues on, making them the issue, then not doing anything with them after winning office. Bush won re-election in 2004 vowing to overturn Roe V Wade and to pass a Gay Marriage Amendment to the Constitution. Setting aside whether these issues are truly worth being the issue the government is focusing on (you know, along side world peace, global warming, and infrastructural investments), I'm sure you've noticed that Roe V Wade is still in place, and a Gay Marriage Amendment isn't.
The GOP is the best at polarizing the base, getting the religious right to turn out in droves to vote against the godless liberals, and then not following through with their promises. At the present time it appears that Mitt Romney is going to try to run a campaign closer to those that Rove oversaw and further from the campaign McCain ran. That makes sense from a win at all costs standpoint, but it will serve to only further polarize Washington, which continues to dig this country into a hole we can only hope to get out of. Until the electorate decides they won't reward politicians for polarizing issues they have no intention, or logical way, to deal with, this isn't going to get any better. It really is our fault: we complain about the gridlock and say that nobody in Washington knows how to lead, but then we reward the candidate that takes the more extreme positions. At the end of the day both Romney and Obama will scramble back to the middle in an attempt sway moderate voters. Whichever candidate can appease the base most without alienating the middle of the country will be President a year from now. Think about that, and tell me that this is a logical way to govern a country.
I could go on forever about the advantages of term limits in Congress, as well as the need to have fresh blood, but the problem with the current environment is that what we are seeing, time and again in these elections, is not the American people voting to stop the gridlock. On the contrary, every time they vote out at Dick Lugar (a good man who was, admittedly, a relic who probably needed to retire gracefully anyway) the voters are replacing one person with a more extreme version of that person. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and in this case the American people are paying for extremist blowhards, and will get more intense gridlock as a result.
And that takes me back to my original point, about my post on the GOP three years ago. In it, I said this regarding the strategy of George W Bush's "brain," Karl Rove:
"Rove's political strategies, detailed well in many places, basically came down to one thing: polarize the electorate. For team Bush this meant using as many red herrings as possible. Rove believed that if they made the election about the right issues they could mobilize the Religious Right, boosting the number of guaranteed Republican voters. To that end, Rove used any issue the Right would fall in behind, most successfully gay marriage and abortion. The 2004 election showed the success of this strategy, as eleven states passed amendments codifying marriage as being between a man and a woman. The conservative turn out in these states helped Bush out, particularly in Ohio, a state thought to be 2004's version of Florida."
Does any of this sound familiar? It should: in this primary season we've already seen Roe V Wade continue to come under fire, courtesy of Rick Santorum, and now we see the gay marriage topic rear its' head yet again. Couple this with Mitt Romney's recent push to convince the American people that he is actually running against Jimmy Carter, and you'll see what the strategy is: set up a straw man, knock it down, and hope the American people buy it. McCain failed to effectively run a polarizing campaign, and in the minds of many GOP big shots this was his fatal error. The Democrats are by no means innocent in this, but the GOP does have a history of taking issues on, making them the issue, then not doing anything with them after winning office. Bush won re-election in 2004 vowing to overturn Roe V Wade and to pass a Gay Marriage Amendment to the Constitution. Setting aside whether these issues are truly worth being the issue the government is focusing on (you know, along side world peace, global warming, and infrastructural investments), I'm sure you've noticed that Roe V Wade is still in place, and a Gay Marriage Amendment isn't.
The GOP is the best at polarizing the base, getting the religious right to turn out in droves to vote against the godless liberals, and then not following through with their promises. At the present time it appears that Mitt Romney is going to try to run a campaign closer to those that Rove oversaw and further from the campaign McCain ran. That makes sense from a win at all costs standpoint, but it will serve to only further polarize Washington, which continues to dig this country into a hole we can only hope to get out of. Until the electorate decides they won't reward politicians for polarizing issues they have no intention, or logical way, to deal with, this isn't going to get any better. It really is our fault: we complain about the gridlock and say that nobody in Washington knows how to lead, but then we reward the candidate that takes the more extreme positions. At the end of the day both Romney and Obama will scramble back to the middle in an attempt sway moderate voters. Whichever candidate can appease the base most without alienating the middle of the country will be President a year from now. Think about that, and tell me that this is a logical way to govern a country.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
2032 - The End of the NFL
If it wasn't 12:30am, and if I hadn't just finished yet another marathon 16 hour work day, I might get more creative with this post. I might write it in the future tense, as if I was writing a letter back in time from the year 2032. I might write it in the first person, commenting on things historically, and I might make it even entertaining. But it is 12:30am, I did finish yet another marathon 16 hour work day, and so I'm not going to do those things.
What I am going to do is this: I will make a bold proclamation that I know, for a fact, a ton of people won't agree with. I'm going to say something that would make a lot of people sad, and will take joy away from millions upon millions. Because what I'm going to tell you is this: there will be no NFL within many of our lifetimes. And by the year 2032 it will all be very real.
It seems impossible to believe at this point, in a world where the NFL is by far the most powerful sports league in the world. The worst NFL teams are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. The TV deals the NFL pulls down are measured in the billions. And it captivates all of the United States in a complete way that Major League Baseball, "America's Pastime," never accomplished. The NFL pervades everything; even casual fans are permeated with NFL 365 days a year. Free Agency, the Draft, the Pre Season, Fantasy Football, pick pools, video games ... all of that, and we aren't even talking about the actual games being played. The NFL is King.
Of course, once upon a time, so was cotton. Kingdoms come crashing down in capitalist economies. Ford and GM seemed impenetrable for decades, then seemed as good as dead. The NFL seems unfathomably strong right now, but if you look at it right now you can easily see the crack in the foundation.
Dave Duerson, only 50 years old at the time he took his life, shot himself in the chest. This is not a common way to suicide, but Duerson did so with a purpose: he wanted his brain studied. Duerson was smart; he went to Notre Dame and was a good businessman. But his mind went away far too early, and Duerson knew there was a connection. So even as he couldn't take it anymore, because he was no longer himself, he had the wherewithal to attempt to make it something bigger than himself. Duerson was the first time that I started thinking this, and started struggling with the issues at hand.
The problem is that no matter how many times we've seen professional football players, college football players, and, yes, even high school football players take their own lives or die before their times, the compelling part of the sport is the big hits. I've been outspoken in my opposition to the suspension lengths the NFL put on the New Orleans Saints for the "bounty-gate" saga. My issue is pretty simple: this stuff happens in every locker room, has always happened in every locker room, and the NFL has always thrived on it. As Peter King pointed out, the NFL condemned the Saints, then ran a documentary on its own network about the most fearsome hitters in league history. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the interviews had the individual being profiled talking about bounties being put on him.
My problem with the NFL's penalties is that the NFL, and especially the holier-than-thou commissioner, Mr. Goodell, are taking way too narrow a view. If they really cared about anything other than their liability in current and future lawsuits they would have done something much earlier. But make no mistake, it is the mounting pressure from the more than 1,200 NFL veterans suing the NFL at the present time that is leading to this sudden bout of consciousness on behalf of the Commissioners office.
And it is those lawsuits that will, eventually, lead to the end of the NFL as we know it. It might exist in some distorted form, but by 2032 the landscape will look vastly different. This will happen for a number of reasons. First, the various high schools around the nation will begin to eliminate their football teams as the liability of the lawsuits (which can and will be brought on the schools for injuries stemming to high school games and practices) begins to outweigh the profits for the schools. This will happen rather rapidly, and I wouldn't be surprised if it begins to happen in the next five years. As news of these lawsuits begin to hit closer to home, the compounding effect will be parents refusing to let their children play football. From the pee-wee level up through high school the "talent pool" will dry up.
Colleges will follow suit. Division III schools and Division II schools, garnering less profit from the sport than the major conferences as it is, will be the first to go. Again, liability will lead the way. Eventually you'll still have a few major Division I conferences left; the talent pool won't allow for anything else, and only the Notre Dames and Alabama's of the world will be able to draw enough profit to make it worthwhile. But as the news continues to come in, even the talent pools of those schools won't be able to continue to sustain the team.
The rules will also change, due to liability, to the point where the game isn't even recognizable. Already we see a sport where the quarterback can barely be touched. In ten years you'll have no kickoffs period, no punt returns, no hitting of the quarterback without wrapping him up entirely first (therefore giving him a chance to completely prepare), no down linemen, no pre-snap defensive movement, and no blitzing. All the things which makes the game compelling will go away, and the magnitude of the lawsuits will eventually lead to a zero-sum situation where there is no longer any way to insure a player, nor to gain a profit from the game.
In the end, even the Alabama's of the world will stop recruiting, because there will be no interest. Eventually the NFL will have the reach of the Arena Football League now; a secondary option at 1am if you have a 200 channel sports package. And in its final incarnation the NFL will become what boxing has become: a last ditch effort only for the poor or foreign players willing to do it. Boxing used to get the top athletes; now, LeBron James plays basketball. The NFL will fade the way boxing has, and by 2052 my kids kids will have no clear understanding of what the NFL once was, the same way my generation has no idea what boxing meant and how big Ali was.
Of course, all of this comes to mind today with the news that Junior Seau, only 43 and two years removed from playing in the NFL, took his own life via a gunshot wound to the chest. Seau apparently didn't leave a note, and the answers his family and friends are craving will never be known. They never are in situations like this. But Seau's death will be infinitely more visible that Duerson's, and the next will be more visible than Seau's. The ball is rolling, and as it goes downhill it will pick up more momentum with each instance. My heart is saddened, and my head is spinning. But I have seen the future, and the future doesn't bode well for the NFL. It's hard to believe that even ten years ago, when we talked about the drawbacks of playing football for a career people pointed to Joe Montana and the struggles he has moving around from place to place. If only we knew that losing the ability to walk was the easy part. Losing the ability to think and to function mentally at such a young age... that's not only a tragedy, but it will also be the end of the NFL.
What I am going to do is this: I will make a bold proclamation that I know, for a fact, a ton of people won't agree with. I'm going to say something that would make a lot of people sad, and will take joy away from millions upon millions. Because what I'm going to tell you is this: there will be no NFL within many of our lifetimes. And by the year 2032 it will all be very real.
It seems impossible to believe at this point, in a world where the NFL is by far the most powerful sports league in the world. The worst NFL teams are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. The TV deals the NFL pulls down are measured in the billions. And it captivates all of the United States in a complete way that Major League Baseball, "America's Pastime," never accomplished. The NFL pervades everything; even casual fans are permeated with NFL 365 days a year. Free Agency, the Draft, the Pre Season, Fantasy Football, pick pools, video games ... all of that, and we aren't even talking about the actual games being played. The NFL is King.
Of course, once upon a time, so was cotton. Kingdoms come crashing down in capitalist economies. Ford and GM seemed impenetrable for decades, then seemed as good as dead. The NFL seems unfathomably strong right now, but if you look at it right now you can easily see the crack in the foundation.
Dave Duerson, only 50 years old at the time he took his life, shot himself in the chest. This is not a common way to suicide, but Duerson did so with a purpose: he wanted his brain studied. Duerson was smart; he went to Notre Dame and was a good businessman. But his mind went away far too early, and Duerson knew there was a connection. So even as he couldn't take it anymore, because he was no longer himself, he had the wherewithal to attempt to make it something bigger than himself. Duerson was the first time that I started thinking this, and started struggling with the issues at hand.
The problem is that no matter how many times we've seen professional football players, college football players, and, yes, even high school football players take their own lives or die before their times, the compelling part of the sport is the big hits. I've been outspoken in my opposition to the suspension lengths the NFL put on the New Orleans Saints for the "bounty-gate" saga. My issue is pretty simple: this stuff happens in every locker room, has always happened in every locker room, and the NFL has always thrived on it. As Peter King pointed out, the NFL condemned the Saints, then ran a documentary on its own network about the most fearsome hitters in league history. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the interviews had the individual being profiled talking about bounties being put on him.
My problem with the NFL's penalties is that the NFL, and especially the holier-than-thou commissioner, Mr. Goodell, are taking way too narrow a view. If they really cared about anything other than their liability in current and future lawsuits they would have done something much earlier. But make no mistake, it is the mounting pressure from the more than 1,200 NFL veterans suing the NFL at the present time that is leading to this sudden bout of consciousness on behalf of the Commissioners office.
And it is those lawsuits that will, eventually, lead to the end of the NFL as we know it. It might exist in some distorted form, but by 2032 the landscape will look vastly different. This will happen for a number of reasons. First, the various high schools around the nation will begin to eliminate their football teams as the liability of the lawsuits (which can and will be brought on the schools for injuries stemming to high school games and practices) begins to outweigh the profits for the schools. This will happen rather rapidly, and I wouldn't be surprised if it begins to happen in the next five years. As news of these lawsuits begin to hit closer to home, the compounding effect will be parents refusing to let their children play football. From the pee-wee level up through high school the "talent pool" will dry up.
Colleges will follow suit. Division III schools and Division II schools, garnering less profit from the sport than the major conferences as it is, will be the first to go. Again, liability will lead the way. Eventually you'll still have a few major Division I conferences left; the talent pool won't allow for anything else, and only the Notre Dames and Alabama's of the world will be able to draw enough profit to make it worthwhile. But as the news continues to come in, even the talent pools of those schools won't be able to continue to sustain the team.
The rules will also change, due to liability, to the point where the game isn't even recognizable. Already we see a sport where the quarterback can barely be touched. In ten years you'll have no kickoffs period, no punt returns, no hitting of the quarterback without wrapping him up entirely first (therefore giving him a chance to completely prepare), no down linemen, no pre-snap defensive movement, and no blitzing. All the things which makes the game compelling will go away, and the magnitude of the lawsuits will eventually lead to a zero-sum situation where there is no longer any way to insure a player, nor to gain a profit from the game.
In the end, even the Alabama's of the world will stop recruiting, because there will be no interest. Eventually the NFL will have the reach of the Arena Football League now; a secondary option at 1am if you have a 200 channel sports package. And in its final incarnation the NFL will become what boxing has become: a last ditch effort only for the poor or foreign players willing to do it. Boxing used to get the top athletes; now, LeBron James plays basketball. The NFL will fade the way boxing has, and by 2052 my kids kids will have no clear understanding of what the NFL once was, the same way my generation has no idea what boxing meant and how big Ali was.
Of course, all of this comes to mind today with the news that Junior Seau, only 43 and two years removed from playing in the NFL, took his own life via a gunshot wound to the chest. Seau apparently didn't leave a note, and the answers his family and friends are craving will never be known. They never are in situations like this. But Seau's death will be infinitely more visible that Duerson's, and the next will be more visible than Seau's. The ball is rolling, and as it goes downhill it will pick up more momentum with each instance. My heart is saddened, and my head is spinning. But I have seen the future, and the future doesn't bode well for the NFL. It's hard to believe that even ten years ago, when we talked about the drawbacks of playing football for a career people pointed to Joe Montana and the struggles he has moving around from place to place. If only we knew that losing the ability to walk was the easy part. Losing the ability to think and to function mentally at such a young age... that's not only a tragedy, but it will also be the end of the NFL.
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