Is Football Just Too Hard?

Yesterday on Barstool Radio I asked what percentage of football games are good and I’ve been thinking about it since. I think the number is shockingly low? To be clear by “good” I don’t mean it finished a one score game. I mean both sides played well and entertaining, both coaches performed competently, and the refs did not significantly affect the game with unnecessary or missed calls. Everyone did their job, basically. 

Now, to be fair, I don’t watch as much football as I once did. Years and years ago I wrote a blog that the Patriots ruined football and, while I did it at the time to needle other fans, the further I get away from it the truer it becomes. The sport I see now is borderline unrecognizable. Again, at the time I’d watch non-Pats football and wonder why do other fans tune in for this slop and now that we’re all non-Pats fans by that standard, I think about it more and more. Sunday I watched the second half of the London game, went and did some shopping, got home for the second half of 9ers/Browns, watched RedZone for the 4 o’clocks because for some reason the Pats weren’t on CBS, then watched a movie and caught the second half of the Giants. That’s a lot of football, and I’m not sure I was impressed for a second of it.

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Now, I know what you’re thinking. First, diehard football fans are gonna call me gay. That’s ok and entirely expected. I went to Catholic school and told the monks I didn’t believe in God so I’ve dealt with being called gay by weirdly dedicated adult men. Plus, I’ve been most excited to tune in for the Taylor Swift games so who knows, maybe you’re right. 

Second, you’re thinking “hey John, maybe you just don’t like football.” A very fair response! But I do like football! I used to LOVE football when it was good. Plus, these criticisms would stand even if I didn’t like the sport. I like good competition. I don’t necessarily care for basketball all that much but I still tune in for a few NBA games a year and, even with that small sample size, there are a few times I turn off the TV thinking, “Fuck, that was a good game.”

Finally, folks will probably argue it’s the gambling. Yet another fair response. Rico popped on Radio yesterday and offered that up. To which I’d say, well that’s not football? It’s a different thing? You could get that same excitement flipping quarters for three and a half hours and betting on heads or tails. No one would argue that blackjack is the most entertaining game ever invented, it’s the gambling part that’s good.

So my conclusion is that the sport of football is just too hard now. It’s almost impossible to do football. We used to say there are only 32 good quarterbacks in the world and now there are 5. Coaches have at least one significant blunder per game. Flags fly around the field basically every play because it’s impossible to do anything that football demands while playing football. Everyone, from the QBs to the coaches to the refs is tasked with doing something impossible. So it is basically just a pretty bad product that no one can succeed at and only exists for viewers to get mad about how poorly the people did their jobs. It’s reality TV.