I’m not OP but I dislike football because it’s got a huge risk of TBI for the players, like way more than most sports, even with the helmets. Also it feels really nationalistic and militarized
Comment on Might be fun idk
capybeby@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks agoDo you personally dislike all sports or just football?
YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
andros_rex@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Also how it’s a cult in southern states.
Our high school state association/hall of fame has several coaches on it who have sexually abused their players. If it becomes too much of a problem, they move on to the next small town, but a lot of them will play golf/go hunting with their superintendents (very small districts = a grift for lots of “admin” positions)
Being a football player is a free pass for all kinds of behavior, at all levels. Think of how regularly we learn that a professional player is a batterer - but in Ringaling or Waco - no one is going to care if the quarterback rapes a cheerleader.
It’s also funded disproportionately. It pissed me off looking over at a brand new football stadium and shiny new uniforms and cleats - while I was spending my own cash on vinegar and baking soda so I could have some semblance of “lab” (my sink also didn’t work lol)
But they also shaft girls athletics - that’s a big part of title 9’s sports regulations. School districts will simply pump all of their funds/attention into boys football and to a lesser extent boys basketball program. They have to be forced to allow girls chances to play.
I have no problem with people being passionate about a team, enjoying watching games, enjoying football. There’s just an extremely disturbing culture of tribalism that spills over into harmful social dynamics.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
the problem is the helmets do jack shit to prevent TBIs. A TBI is when the brain hits the skull. A helmet will do jackshit to stop that.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Yeah, I always feel like I’m just watching people give themselves brain damage for trivial reasons when I see a football game. Especially one involving teenagers (or even younger). Then it’s the parents also allowing their kids to get brain damage. It all makes me a little queasy.
limelight79@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
I used to be huge into college football, planning my weekends around when my teams were playing. I drifted away for a few years after they instituted the “targeting” penalty; in particular, there was a game where it was called twice on one drive, one was outright wrong (and overturned upon review*), and the other was borderline. It wasn’t a decision to protest; it was more of a “this isn’t important to me any more” kind of thing.
*It was overturned, but in that first year of the rule, the 15 yard penalty still counted. The player that committed the potential foul was simply allowed to remain in the game. (They have changed this rule since then.)
To be clear, I’m not in favor of people being injured. It was just that targeting penalty that made me realize that football was never going to be a safe game. No sport is completely safe, obviously; there’s always a risk of serious injury. But football seems especially designed to inflict injury, as opposed to other sports where the injuries are more incidental. And that scandal where the New Orleans (I think) NFL team was giving bounties for hits on specific players did not improve my opinion at all.
These days, we’ll watch football games if we don’t have anything else going on or whatever, but it’s not a high priority. We did watch some of the super bowl - in that it was on TV while we were reading or working on paying bills, etc. - but we definitely didn’t stay up late or anything like that for it. There’s not much else on TV during the super bowl anyway.
fl42v@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
I don’t dislike most of them per se, I just don’t understand most of them. I mean, it’s quite impressive what those people can achieve, but I’d rather watch some dude free-climbing in the grand canion or something of that nature ('cause for me even climbing a 20m pipe was scary asf).
Now that i think of it, football is probably singled out in my mind due to its fans doing some batshit crazy stuff oftentimes. Like dude, chill out, it’s just a bunch of people kicking a ball. Save your molotov for your friendly local politicians.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
To me, the soccer equivalent of your free solo example would be to go watch a highlight compilation of Lionel Messi and have your mind blown. American football, maybe Michael Vick for sheer spectacle. But full appreciation does probably require some hands-on time with the relevant sport, too, to even comprehend why it’s incomprehensible.
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Not them but I do actually have a special dislike for football over most other sports, the ratio of stuff happening:boring nothing is really bad when watching and when playing
capybeby@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Fair fair. Do you feel the same way about baseball?
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Professional absolutely, and as a watching sport for sure
But local games I can actually enjoy playing because theres way less pause between the action in BB than FB. Can get through an entire game of BB with friends or a group in a decent amount of time, though I do wish there was more to do for those on the batting side when they’re not fielded
capybeby@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Yeah I find watching baseball (professional or otherwise) in person to be wayyyy more fun than on the tv. That being said the recent addition of the pitch clock does make things go much faster even on the tv imo