I have a confession to make. I’ve been meaning to get this
out for a while, but I’ve been afraid of what others would think. My family
already knows, but I haven’t had the nerve to tell the blog world.
I love football. I hate the NFL.
I’ve read everything this fall: bloggers who love football
and hate people who don’t, bloggers who hate girls that ‘pretend’ to like
football, etc, etc. I’m even “participating” (loose quotes) in a fantasy
football league this year in order to get more into this league that everyone
seems to love, but it hasn’t worked. If possible, I might hate the NFL even
more now.
For all of you people-who-don’t-like-football ‘haters’, just
stop now, because I really DO LOVE football. It doesn’t run strong in my
family, as I have solid memories of my mom and dad watching Cowboys games on
Sunday afternoon. If he wasn’t dozing off, my dad was ‘giggling’ at the TV for
all of the fumbles and missteps the Cowboys (home team) would make. My mom, on
the other hand, probably cared way more than the only man in our family and to
this day still gets irritated watching football with my dad.
Another confession within a confession: I was in band. Yep,
die-hard band nerd right here. My family is musical and I started band in 6th
grade and stuck with it through my sophomore year of college. It was an amazing
way to grow up and I don’t regret it at all! I had some of the best memories in
band. It was there that we were forced to attend every high school football
game and it was then that I tried to impress the boys by knowing how the game
worked. First, I played innocent my freshman year and had a cute boy spend most
of the game with me explaining the rules. As those four years went on, my love
for the game would grow and I became one of THOSE fans. I LOVED football season.
There was a slight lull when I went to college at Stephen F.
Austin in East Texas and the football was about as good as a bad high school
team. That being said, the fans weren’t quite into it either, and I lost a
little piece of my heart. As I wrote about here, I made the switch to Texas
Tech and jumped right in with the Big 12 fan base. I LOVED our team and was at
almost every game cheering them on. I managed to be on the front row multiple
times and the games were the highlight of my week.
Even now, I can easily be found catching a game on TV of teams
I don’t care for but I choose to watch it. I catch as many Tech games as I can,
of course, and am sometimes more into it than the guys. I follow the standings,
have the ESPN app, and LIVE for football season.
I hate the NFL. I have no interest in watching grown men
play a game that, for the most part, doesn’t matter to them because in most
cases, they still get a HEFTY paycheck. Granted, I had a great time at my first
Cowboys game last weekend because I like sports and I like getting out and
experiencing new things. My disdain for this particular league, though, was on
a steady decline after driving to the stadium and passing parking lots that
charged $60 for parking. There were TONS of people there and we had to wrestle
our way into the stadium. Plus, the Dallas Cowboys AT&T stadium has a new
rule that you basically can’t bring any sort of bag into the stadium. So, armed
with only my cell phone and ID, I waited in line to be wanded down with a metal
detector (is this Detroit?). We had GREAT seats and the stadium is beautiful,
but there were the normal vendors charging something like $72 per beer or hot
dog, like you see at most sports venues. Then, the whole thing was a HUGE
production. They had fire–blasters (for lack of a better name) halfway across
the field that nearly singed my hair every time a player came on the field. The
next 3 hours were spent watching grown men saunter around with absolutely no
urgency and make halfway attempts at completing a pass or getting a down. Did I
mention while making MILLIONS (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars? For
instance, anyone know who Travis Frederick is? I didn’t either, but I googled
him (he is the center for the Dallas Cowboys – correct me if I’m wrong) and he
is making $405,000 this year. That’s almost half a million dollars for playing
16 games a year. Guess who else makes $400k a year: Barack Obama. Yep, our President
who has arguably the most stressful job in the world (despite your political
party), makes less than a Dallas Cowboys center.
I guess if I wrap up my overall feeling of the game on
Sunday, it just boggles my mind that there is SO much money in this game and
it’s extremely obvious. People were crazed and I stuck out like a sore thumb
without a Cowboys shirt or jersey. Then the BIG EVENT begins, the actual game,
and it’s slow, void of passion, void of urgency. I understand that the fans are
passionate, but I didn’t feel it at all from the players. Overall, I think that
is what sets college football apart from the NFL. Not only are the fans
die-hard, the team is too.
That’s why I hate the NFL.
