Violence drops NFL to its knee
HONESTLY, what is more difficult to watch: An NFL player on his knee or one laying motionless on a stretcher?
NFL ratings are in the toilet this season, and some will have you believe that double-digit declines in viewership on Thanksgiving, a day explicitly reserved for family, food and football, is because of players kneeling for the national anthem.
The same crowd will point to some fists in the air during “The Star Spangled Banner” as the most significant factor in the steady decline of NFL TV ratings this season, but they ignore the violence of the game as a reason why 1 million fewer fans tuned in to watch Week 11 games this year than they did a year ago.
While offended football fans, on both sides of the anthem debate, have said they are boycotting the NFL this season, either because they are upset Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed for his politics or because they are disgusted by the sight of peaceful protest of police brutality, it’s impossible to ignore the carnage of the game may be pushing some people away, too.
Observers have long felt that the violent nature of football will eventually lead to its demise just like the violence of gladiator fights led to the end of that form of entertainment.
It’s gotten to the point where the national anthem is no longer part of some football telecasts because it has become so polarizing, but the violence of the game cannot be hidden, and it was there for all to see Monday night when the Steelers and Bengals engaged in a game that was more like a street fight that left several players mangled.
President Trump likes to tweet that football fans are turning the channel over politics, but he ignores the fact that maybe some fans are just fed up seeing football players assault each other. Focusing only on anthem protests distracts from mounting evidence that football is hazardous for your health, but the violence and lack of respect between players in Monday night’s game was so clearly evident that even one of the game’s biggest fans could not ignore what he was seeing. ESPN’s Monday Jon Gruden night’s called performance “disgusting and disturbing.”
Well before Boston University doctors found this year that 110 of 111 football brains showed signs of the degenerative brain disease CTE, the worst nightmare for football players was suffering a spine injury on the field. Before concussions were a concern, young football players were forced to watch the video of Marc Buoniconti suffering a neck injury that left him paralyzed. We were taught to never dip your helmet when making a tackle and that video was designed to scare kids straight, to tackle properly.
Monday night, those old fears resurfaced when Pittsburgh linebacker Ryan Shazier lay motionless on the field and memories of Dennis Byrd and Mike Utley and Eric LeGrand and Buoniconti came rushing back. It was sobering, for fans and players alike. But it didn't last for the players. With Shazier off to the hospital, the game got even nastier and the respect between players clearly eroded.
“I don't know what you need to do to get ejected from a football game,” Gruden said after Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster leveled serial slimeball Vontaze Burfict with a nasty crackback block and then stood over and ridiculed him.
“A penalty like that, then a taunting penalty on on top of it, that’s bad football,” Gruden said. “Bad for the game.”
It was just as bad for the game, just as off-putting, when Cincinnati sought revenge. The Bengals are regularly one of the dirtiest teams in the league, with Burfict typically supplying the dirty hits, so it was no surprise when Bengals defensive back George Iloka avenged his teammate and blighted Antonio Brown with a high, cheap hit that earned a flag and a likely fine.
The league has since suspended both Smith-Schuster and Iloka each for one game without pay for violations of safety-related playing rules. Both players have appealed the suspension, according to a report.
“They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue,” is a line from the movie “The Untouchables,” but it can easily pass for the game plan when the Steelers and Bengals meet.