Problems with football

Professional football has seen its glory days. It’s downhill from here, and the ongoing controversial act of protesting during the national anthem is only one of the reasons.

More importantly, evidence is showing that repeated hits to the head, even small ones, lead to brain damage. Lawsuits will increase, and liability will mount unless the game is softened more to address this issue, and softening will cause interest to wane.

Also, football is slipping because games on TV have become so commercialized, they are hard to watch. Score a touchdown and commercial, commercial, commercial. Run a few plays, more commercials. And there’s ongoing promos, plugs, mini-commercials, etc., between plays. The commercials get so frequent and long, you start channel-surfing. And you often find something better or lose track of who’s playing on which channel. Revenue from TV has made many players and owners rich, but the games have been hijacked from the fans.

Further, we resent using taxpayer money to build the fancy stadiums. And we know teams will betray their fans if they think they can make more money somewhere else. Look what the Rams did to St. Louis.

If NFL leadership doesn’t make some changes with the fans in mind, professional football will find itself with an aging, dwindling audience, much like with professional baseball. Football can be a great spectator sport, but many NFL games have become little more than infomercials with big problems.

GARY L. GAINES, Cape Girardeau