NFL: Am I Alone In Feeling This Way?

I couldn’t possibly give two flying squirts if the NFL has a “Work Stoppage.”  I mean, I enjoy watching the Chiefs and all.  But of all my pet sports (MLB, NCAAFB, NCAABB, boxing, etc.), the NFL is, without question, the one I would care the absolute least if it disappeared for a year. 

In a sense, I don’t find the NFL as enjoyable because the competitive balance is so artificial.  It’s got everything all the small market teams in baseball want—revenue sharing, common TV deals, salary caps, etc.  But that makes it feel contrived, to me.

College football, MLB, boxing, whatever….winning in these feels more “real,” because the better teams/competitors are the ones who wanted it worse, or who found a way to invest more in it or try harder.  If you want to have the biggest and best NCAA football stadium and program facilities, you can have them—just go out and find a way to get the money.  If it doesn’t work out, it just means some others did better than you did.  If you want to be the best middleweight fighter in the world, go out and try to make it happen with diet and hard work.  If you want to find a way to compete in baseball, invent new and ingenious ways of doing things (a la “Moneyball).

With the NFL, the difference between the very worst teams and the very best is quite miniscule.  You see 4-12 teams go to Division Champions in one year spans ALL THE TIME (look no further than our own Chiefs this year).   

I don’t know.  I just happen to take more pleasure in victories EARNED, rather than those you got simply because everyone’s been handicapped to make it “fair.”