Comments on: Poll finds NFL more popular than ever

By: cometkazie

cometkazie — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 00:02:37 +0000

stealersfannot says:
Oct 6, 2012 7:47 AM
I’d chalk more than a few of those percentage points up to the power of fantasy football to keep friends and family connected all across the country in a meaningful way.
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Meaningful?

Really?
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mattolikesthevikes says:
Oct 6, 2012 8:39 AM
Not Surprised because football awesome. You don’t see great rivalries in other sports that are as storied as nfl. The game alone is great but the history makes it better.
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Heard of college football and its rivalries, many going back for over one hundred years?

The NFL didn’t gain popularity until the 1960s.

By: EJ

EJ — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 21:02:40 +0000

As a Die-Hard Buffalo Bills Fan since 1988, I believe there is nothing in the sports world even remotely close to the feeling of attending or simply watching an NFL game. Not only do i give Roger Goodell two thumbs up for what he has dealt with since becoming Commissioner, I give him a tip of the hat for coming to Buffalo and speaking with people from the community and New York State to make sure the Buffalo Bills stay in Western NY. Thanks Roger! Go Bills!!!! #BillsMafia

By: bobzilla1001

bobzilla1001 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:15:25 +0000

Never have so many watched something they know so little about…
As a single man, I’ve encounter numerous women who claim to be “huge fans of the Steelers.” One such so-called die-hard — and I’m not making this up — didn’t know the difference between a defense and an offense. Such a minor detail among friends.
Still, she wore her Troy Polamalu replicia jersey faithfully and with pride. She was/is nothing more than a fan of being a fan.
Like the majority of alleged NFL fans, partying and socializing during a game has much more meaning than actually watching and knowing the game.
Sad.
Very sad.

By: nflfollower

nflfollower — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:02:24 +0000

I love football, played it my whole life through college, but the game is changing and evolving. In my opinion its bringing in more fans, while purists long for the prior days. It’s how most things go. Now you hear people at work who know next to nothing about the actual game itself talking about fantasy stats and acting like they know football. Good for the league and for money, but what does it really mean for the game itself?

By: realfann

realfann — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:46:43 +0000

Escapism. Peoples lives suck more than usual so interest in sports goes up. Happens every economic downturn in every country.

Get rid of Roger and it would go even higher.

By: nflovercollegefb

nflovercollegefb — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 18:55:11 +0000

“Parity” is usually associated as a negative term, I prefer “Competitive Balance”, which is what makes the NFL so compelling.

I’m betteing the #2 sport on this poll is College Football, which is good for the sport of football in general but that is a completely different game void of overall competitive balance, decided by polls and over-inflated meaningless scores.

I don’t see the NFL relinquishing its #1 spot for a long time.

By: bovice23

bovice23 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 18:22:31 +0000

The NFL can thank the NBA; stars deciding to only play in major markets and terrible officials that favor certain stars and MLB; a culture that doesn’t allow marketable stars (showing emotion is frowned upon) and Selig’s terrible media rules (no videos allowed on any website but mlb.com) in part to their growth.

By: JSpicoli

JSpicoli — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 18:11:58 +0000

And 1975 called and said “This is not football”

By: JSpicoli

JSpicoli — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 18:09:31 +0000

Pennant race and playoff baseball has 10x the drama at its highest level. We just have a nation of ADHD addled people who need instant gratification and like to somehow project the toughness of the NFL on to themselves.

The parity and the shaky rules make it hard to invest mentally into football once you see it for what it really is. Don’t get me wrong like the game, but numbers o sheeple watching does not determine the sporting value of a sport.

TIA

By: bluefan204

bluefan204 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 17:47:32 +0000

Despite the often questionable decisions on the part of the commish, it’s still the greatest game ever invented. Life wouldn’t be the same without it.

By: bobzilla1001

bobzilla1001 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 17:28:57 +0000

spellingcops:
The NFL is ruled by mediocrity. Nearly every AFC team in last season’s playoffs was severely flawed.
The Super Bowl featured a NINE-and-SEVEN team against the worst defense on the planet.
That’s not good football.

By: claymatthewshairplugs

claymatthewshairplugs — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 17:08:42 +0000

The NFL the king of sports. All the other sports especially college football have the power teams playing a bunch of cupcakes. With the NFL there’s so much parity that a small market team such as GB can win a title and all teams have an equal chance of winning except the Browns. And it’ll only get more popular. And to think people thought all those distractions the past few years would cause popularity to decline but proves that the shield is pretty much untouchable here in America.

By: footballer4ever

footballer4ever — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:43:16 +0000

“Wait a sec 41% of people in this country don’t follow football? Is there really that many Europeans living in America now?”

No, the rest just don’t care for or don’t believe the hype.

By: spellingcops

spellingcops — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:41:48 +0000

raidermark says: Oct 6, 2012 9:06 AM

It’s turning into the NBA. Tons of mediocre players and parity. Each team should be able to put out a competitive product.
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That’s up to ownership and management. Don’t try to blame your team’s failures on the NFL. Just because your team is full of mediocre players doesn’t mean the whole NFL is.

By: baloneyjohn

baloneyjohn — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:56:42 +0000

Fantasy Football, is great and makes watching it worthwhile. Nuts to going to the games, crowds and usury pricing.
Go Red Zone and miss all the getting up, scratching and those moronic announcers that will not shut up.

By: eyeh8goodell

eyeh8goodell — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:55:17 +0000

Define “following football”. There are different levels of following football. Some are die hard and can name every starter on both sides of the ball, most can’t.

By: hedleykow

hedleykow — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:04:41 +0000

Considering the inherent violence of NFL contests combined with the inebriated and rabid mental state of 60 or 70 thousand fans jammed together in a big cereal bowl, Americans should actually be quite proud that week after week NFL games are carried out with nary a hitch.

Good job, everyone!

By: rdrs68

rdrs68 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:47:58 +0000

like to see a poll on NFL greediness.

By: wwwmattcom

wwwmattcom — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:15:51 +0000

Bandwagon fans are inflating numbers.

By: jcusa514

jcusa514 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:01:36 +0000

if you were going to stop following football because of the replacement refs, then you’re not really a fan. go back and put your pink tom brady jersey on

By: theravenlives2

theravenlives2 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:57:57 +0000

The biggest problem with pro-football is the league office and the owners trying to “fix” it. Fellas, it wasn’t broke, so why are you fixing it?

You see the rules change so defense is a joke now. If you breathe on a QB it’s an illegal hit. Anytime a player or coach says something like, “we threw to Calvin because we wanted to get a pass interference call,” then the game is broken. Memo to owners and the league..it’s a contact sport. You give the offense every advantage. What about the defensive side of the ball? If you want to protect QB’s, that’s fine. Pass a rule that says when a defender has a hold of a QB then he is ruled down. Period. If I wanted to watch a game with no contact then I’d watch tennis!

By: vegasvinnie

vegasvinnie — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:50:55 +0000

It’s so popular, even the owners and Roger Goodell can’t screw it up!

By: mcgallop10

mcgallop10 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:39:18 +0000

Real question is what is wrong with the other 41%

By: thesmartest1

thesmartest1 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:22:27 +0000

Between fantasy football and gambling it will be a long time til it fades. What a great game.

By: puba76

puba76 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:18:39 +0000

For all those hailing the hard cap for parity, you are looking a little sports illiterate at the moment. In the MLB playoffs currently both Baltimore and Oakland are still playing, and Tampa Bay is a perennial power. Plus, this is the only sport without ANY salary cap! The hard cap is in place to control costs. Without a cap Washington and Dallas would probably suck uncontrollably as they’d be throwing bad money after worse! The one constant in the NFL is absolute owner greed, and this will sadly be the eventual downfall of the league. I love the NFL, but the greed and egos of the owners is unfortunate. I mean they can’t even let baseball keep their ‘baseball’ caps, no Jerry Jones needs everyone to start calling them ‘football’ caps now!

By: 2difshoe

2difshoe — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:11:14 +0000

Reason the NFL is awesome, it’s men being men on Sunday !
Not like baseball where if there is not enough toilet paper on the roll, the players need to go on the 15 day disabled list.

Football is and always will be the greatest of all sports !

By: rkg000

rkg000 — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:10:15 +0000

NFL is popular, and people like me love watching it. But recent foolishness of owners (on replacement refs) almost had me pull out. We follow NFL because of its “Any Given Sunday” theme. Once the replacement refs started ruining the game, NFL was heading down the hole. Somebody knocked some sense into the ownership in time.

By: raidermark

raidermark — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:06:20 +0000

It’s turning into the NBA. Tons of mediocre players and parity. Each team should be able to put out a competitive product.

By: chi01town

chi01town — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:59:49 +0000

Chicago Bears fan for life.
The NFL is the Best sport in America.. Nothing else is close but get rid of Goodell before he does some real damage

By: mybrunoblog

mybrunoblog — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:41:23 +0000

Yes the NFL is awesome. That said I hate the Thursday night games. My whole life football has been Sundays and Monday night. The Thursday game throws me off and I usually don’t watch unless my team is playing. Only exception is Thanksgiving. Love the night game then…..