(06-16-2013 12:42 PM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:59 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:55 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:40 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  Completely agree. Although I'm not sure it's any worse than people who use the TV as a babysitter. At least on a computer they're exercising hand eye coordination and problelm solving skills. The lack of social interaction, due to video gaming, is the true hole in these kids personalities, IMO.

Isn't that the truth. I once caught my teenage son texting with his friend that was sitting in the same room. He explained that it was easier then talking. I too am concerned about the younger generations intra-personal skills.
CJ

LOL, you've got to admit that is funny. I've seen similiar examples though, with a nephew.

How true. My 27 year old son, who is a great kid, stayed here one night and the next morning texted his mom from his bedroom to see what we were having from breakfast... You only have to hit eight keys to talk.

I had my niece do the same thing once, so I sent her a text to tell her we were having food for breakfast...

Older people have been complaining about the younger generations since at least Plato. Football has a shorter typical career length than basketball, baseball or soccer, so great athletes may choose the sport that is less brutal on their bodies. RG-III is 23 and his knee is a wreck. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper will probably be playing into their mid 30s if they want to... Griffin-III may in comparison have a very short career, unfortunately.

(06-16-2013 07:32 PM)billyjack Wrote:  Older people have been complaining about the younger generations since at least Plato. Football has a shorter typical career length than basketball, baseball or soccer, so great athletes may choose the sport that is less brutal on their bodies. RG-III is 23 and his knee is a wreck. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper will probably be playing into their mid 30s if they want to... Griffin-III may in comparison have a very short career, unfortunately.

Which has been the same story since Christ was a rookie, and yet football persists as the country's favorite sport. I don't see your logic being an explanation for why football will decrease in popularity.

IF football ever decreases in popularity, it won't be from a lack of quality players to play the game. It will be from burnout of the fanbases, and the direction that the business of football is taking, and how it is pricing itself out of their fanbases' price range. And even that is a small chance of happening.

Sorry, you're wrong.

I think football's biggest enemies are the pending head injury lawsuits against the NFL. This will probably move down the ranks to college and h.s. ball, and when that happens, look for high schools to start dropping it, and with no recruiting pipeline, the college product will be greatly diminished (and if the NFL is found liable for head injuries, then colleges will be, too).

I also predict a basketball comeback, and the wise conference will start marketing its product now in order to be prepared for the next era of college sports.

(06-16-2013 08:14 PM)Cardinals Wrote:  I think football's biggest enemies are the pending head injury lawsuits against the NFL. This will probably move down the ranks to college and h.s. ball, and when that happens, look for high schools to start dropping it, and with no recruiting pipeline, the college product will be greatly diminished (and if the NFL is found liable for head injuries, then colleges will be, too).

I also predict a basketball comeback, and the wise conference will start marketing its product now in order to be prepared for the next era of college sports.

I kind of agree, give it about 20 years when all the current NFL players start suing for post concussion syndromes....

(06-16-2013 08:17 PM)Jet915 Wrote:  

(06-16-2013 08:14 PM)Cardinals Wrote:  I think football's biggest enemies are the pending head injury lawsuits against the NFL. This will probably move down the ranks to college and h.s. ball, and when that happens, look for high schools to start dropping it, and with no recruiting pipeline, the college product will be greatly diminished (and if the NFL is found liable for head injuries, then colleges will be, too).

I also predict a basketball comeback, and the wise conference will start marketing its product now in order to be prepared for the next era of college sports.

I kind of agree, give it about 20 years when all the current NFL players start suing for post concussion syndromes....

Many current NFL Players have said the same...that one of the reasons why I don't see a 13 Game College Schedule...and it one of the reasons in the end you will not see IMO an 18 Game NFL Schedule.

(06-15-2013 03:05 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I can see this happening. The younger generations are getting softer and softer. If today's 18-24 year olds would have had to fight WWII, we would be speaking German or Japanese. Young men today are wimps. It is a result of the emasculation of American Male. If you are an American Male under the age of 40, chances are you have been pussified and you don't even know it. No discipline anymore, no respect for authority. When Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, rather when Mothers insisted Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, kids got fat and lazy.

How could/can they? The nuclear family of two parents and child/children is becoming rarer and add on that the parental unit(s) have to work more jobs and has limited/almost no time to raise their children and you can see why young people lack discipline. This coming from someone that would have benefited greatly from having a father figure directly in my home growing up.

I have more but I'll leave that for a thread in The Lounge.

Quote:We have raised a Nation of fat, lazy, undisciplined free loaders. I can see football ending because of it. I give Howard Schnellenberger credit. He saw it coming nearly 30 years ago. At a football coaches clinic in July 1986, Coach Schnellenberger was asked what he thought of soccer. Coach said "Soccer is a communist plot to turn all American males into homosexuals". Those of us in attendance waited for him to laugh, he didn't.
CJ

Errr, you lost me there, though the first sentence makes sense.

(06-15-2013 03:59 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:55 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  Isn't that the truth. I once caught my teenage son texting with his friend that was sitting in the same room. He explained that it was easier then talking. I too am concerned about the younger generations intra-personal skills.
CJ

LOL, you've got to admit that is funny. I've seen similiar examples though, with a nephew.

At 0:55...

(06-16-2013 08:14 PM)Cardinals Wrote:  I think football's biggest enemies are the pending head injury lawsuits against the NFL. This will probably move down the ranks to college and h.s. ball, and when that happens, look for high schools to start dropping it, and with no recruiting pipeline, the college product will be greatly diminished (and if the NFL is found liable for head injuries, then colleges will be, too).

I also predict a basketball comeback, and the wise conference will start marketing its product now in order to be prepared for the next era of college sports.

If high schools drop football, then people will start their own "YMCA" leagues for teens similar to pee-wee football. There will still be access to good football playing kids even if schools drop it.

(06-16-2013 08:14 PM)Cardinals Wrote:  I think football's biggest enemies are the pending head injury lawsuits against the NFL. This will probably move down the ranks to college and h.s. ball, and when that happens, look for high schools to start dropping it, and with no recruiting pipeline, the college product will be greatly diminished (and if the NFL is found liable for head injuries, then colleges will be, too).

I also predict a basketball comeback, and the wise conference will start marketing its product now in order to be prepared for the next era of college sports.

I don't see the NFL lawsuits as the biggest threat to HS and college football. The threat is that, over time, as the concussion danger sinks in with everyone, parents will steer their sons away from football before they get to high school. It might take 20 years for that to impact the quality of top-level college football, but if that does happen, and college football starts to get a much lower percentage of the best 18-22 year old athletes, then fan interest will eventually gravitate to the sports that do get the elite athletes in that age group.

Has racing ended? Has boxing ended? Has the UFC ended? We are big people here. If you choose to play a dangerous sport you sign a release and move on... or just don't play. Dah.

(06-16-2013 11:34 PM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  Has racing ended? Has boxing ended? Has the UFC ended? We are big people here. If you choose to play a dangerous sport you sign a release and move on... or just don't play. Dah.

Boxing is a good example. The U.S. talent pool in boxing is thinner than it was 40 years ago, and the sport is much less popular with the sports-fan public than it was in the heyday of Ali, Frazier, and Foreman.

If that happens in football, then college football will become less popular. The top-level CFB programs need about 85 x 65 = 5,525 scholarship athletes. Football would feel the impact of a diminished talent pool because the top levels of the sport need so many more athletes than boxing.

(06-16-2013 11:45 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(06-16-2013 11:34 PM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  Has racing ended? Has boxing ended? Has the UFC ended? We are big people here. If you choose to play a dangerous sport you sign a release and move on... or just don't play. Dah.

Boxing is a good example. The U.S. talent pool in boxing is thinner than it was 40 years ago, and the sport is much less popular with the sports-fan public than it was in the heyday of Ali, Frazier, and Foreman.

If that happens in football, then college football will become less popular. The top-level CFB programs need about 85 x 65 = 5,525 scholarship athletes. Football would feel the impact of a diminished talent pool because the top levels of the sport need so many more athletes than boxing.

As long as the starting salary in the NFL is just shy of $400,000, the kids will keep coming. There is a free degree involved here too... they will play football.

(06-15-2013 03:05 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I can see this happening. The younger generations are getting softer and softer. If today's 18-24 year olds would have had to fight WWII, we would be speaking German or Japanese. Young men today are wimps. It is a result of the emasculation of American Male. If you are an American Male under the age of 40, chances are you have been pussified and you don't even know it. No discipline anymore, no respect for authority. When Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, rather when Mothers insisted Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, kids got fat and lazy.

We have raised a Nation of fat, lazy, undisciplined free loaders. I can see football ending because of it.
CJ

Every single generation since the dawn of civilization has said the exact same thing. Consider that 30% of 18-year-old American males were rejected from the army during World War Two for a lack of physical fitness, and they were pretty much taking everyone. I highly recommend reading "The Soft American," an SI article from 1960 written by President Kennedy.


I'm 30 and in my experience, my generation is every bit as hardworking as the older ones. Baby boomers accuse us of having a "lack of commitment to our job," but this is a misperception: The job market turns over faster now, as skills become more obsolete, and companies no longer have a commitment to workers. Why should workers commit to a company that can't commit to them? Why should we invest 100% of our effort in acquiring arcane skills that will be obsolete in 5-10 years?

Also, consider that we are expected to do WAY more of our own work than past generations. There are no secretaries, and personal items like insurance and investing for retirement are way more complicated than they used to be. We have to invest more in a wider and more durable skillset than previous generations, and we have to be committed to ourselves to avoid being screwed over because there is no "company man" looking out for us.

This generation also has many strengths over previous generations:
1) working with people of a different gender, race, or religion isn't even remotely an issue.
2) We are less materialistic than previous generations. This is why you see countless articles about younger people not buying luxury cars and dropping cable.
3) There is more of a desire to contribute to the public good rather than the private good. Although this may be a "stage of life" thing, my parents tell me that hippies and their allies were only 10-20% of their generation, and I see this trait in 70-80% of gen Y and millenials.
4) We are more flexible in our careers. Although this is out of necessity, as noted above, so this really shouldn't count as a "strength."

(06-15-2013 03:55 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:40 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  Completely agree. Although I'm not sure it's any worse than people who use the TV as a babysitter. At least on a computer they're exercising hand eye coordination and problelm solving skills. The lack of social interaction, due to video gaming, is the true hole in these kids personalities, IMO.

Isn't that the truth. I once caught my teenage son texting with his friend that was sitting in the same room. He explained that it was easier then talking. I too am concerned about the younger generations intra-personal skills.
CJ

This is a legit concern. I think the lowering of communication skills is also part of what is polarizing the political spectrum: lower levels of reading comprehension are making people less able to see the other point of view.

While this may be a worthy debate, none of the opinions on this board will matter. Football will remain the #1 sport in America for at least the duration of our lifetimes. In fact, within the next 5 years the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the London Jaguars. Also, I'm not sure what Lem Barney's track record with prognostication is, but some posters on here have apparently appointed him Nostradamus.

And I hate to dissapoint all of the roundball fans, but if football ever does become less popular, it will likely be replaced with something revolting like soccer.

(06-14-2013 05:37 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  I want this 10 seconds of my life back......

Spot on!

(06-14-2013 05:22 PM)Dasville Wrote:  http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...0-20-years

Quote: It's the greatest game for yesteryear's gladiators. But I can see in the next 10 to maybe 20 years, society will alleviate football altogether.” -- Lem Barney

just about the time the media rights deals are done.

Das wrong, yaw!

(06-15-2013 03:05 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I can see this happening. The younger generations are getting softer and softer. If today's 18-24 year olds would have had to fight WWII, we would be speaking German or Japanese. Young men today are wimps. It is a result of the emasculation of American Male. If you are an American Male under the age of 40, chances are you have been pussified and you don't even know it. No discipline anymore, no respect for authority. When Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, rather when Mothers insisted Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, kids got fat and lazy.

We have raised a Nation of fat, lazy, undisciplined free loaders. I can see football ending because of it. I give Howard Schnellenberger credit. He saw it coming nearly 30 years ago. At a football coaches clinic in July 1986, Coach Schnellenberger was asked what he thought of soccer. Coach said "Soccer is a communist plot to turn all American males into homosexuals". Those of us in attendance waited for him to laugh, he didn't.
CJ

No, we still have drill sgts, they would kick their collective asses into grunts.

(06-15-2013 01:43 PM)Chappy Wrote:  Ridiculous. Fisticuffs and Equestrian Racing will always be the two most popular sports in America.

Pretty sure Bass fishing will win out!

(06-15-2013 03:25 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:05 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I can see this happening. The younger generations are getting softer and softer. If today's 18-24 year olds would have had to fight WWII, we would be speaking German or Japanese. Young men today are wimps. It is a result of the emasculation of American Male. If you are an American Male under the age of 40, chances are you have been pussified and you don't even know it. No discipline anymore, no respect for authority. When Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, rather when Mothers insisted Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, kids got fat and lazy.

We have raised a Nation of fat, lazy, undisciplined free loaders. I can see football ending because of it. I give Howard Schnellenberger credit. He saw it coming nearly 30 years ago. At a football coaches clinic in July 1986, Coach Schnellenberger was asked what he thought of soccer. Coach said "Soccer is a communist plot to turn all American males into homosexuals". Those of us in attendance waited for him to laugh, he didn't.
CJ

I think the young men serving in our armed services have done a damn fine job in Afghanistan and Iraq, regardless of their civilian counterparts. Let's show these young men some respect. And I'm over 40 before you try to pile me into that group. I served in combat as well, so I take exception to the WWII generation (Our greatest generation IMO) being the only generation defending this country adequately.

My son turns 30 in December, he has served 4 tours in Iraq. His units the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (called the Brave Rifles and men of Blood and Steel) and 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment (The Silver Lions):




kicked some serious ass in Iraq. They were every bit as good as WWII soldiers and every one of them volunteered to serve, when there was not a draft. They are among the best that we have ever fielded!

(06-17-2013 11:19 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:25 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  

(06-15-2013 03:05 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I can see this happening. The younger generations are getting softer and softer. If today's 18-24 year olds would have had to fight WWII, we would be speaking German or Japanese. Young men today are wimps. It is a result of the emasculation of American Male. If you are an American Male under the age of 40, chances are you have been pussified and you don't even know it. No discipline anymore, no respect for authority. When Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, rather when Mothers insisted Fathers stopped putting foot to a$$, kids got fat and lazy.

We have raised a Nation of fat, lazy, undisciplined free loaders. I can see football ending because of it. I give Howard Schnellenberger credit. He saw it coming nearly 30 years ago. At a football coaches clinic in July 1986, Coach Schnellenberger was asked what he thought of soccer. Coach said "Soccer is a communist plot to turn all American males into homosexuals". Those of us in attendance waited for him to laugh, he didn't.
CJ

I think the young men serving in our armed services have done a damn fine job in Afghanistan and Iraq, regardless of their civilian counterparts. Let's show these young men some respect. And I'm over 40 before you try to pile me into that group. I served in combat as well, so I take exception to the WWII generation (Our greatest generation IMO) being the only generation defending this country adequately.

My son turns 30 in December, he has served 4 tours in Iraq. His units the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment




kicked some serious ass in Iraq. They were every bit as good as WWII soldiers and every one of them volunteered to serve, when there was not a draft. They are among the best that we have ever fielded!

I can tell how proud you are. I also know how much you've worried. People don't usually focus on that aspect, but strong family support help our troops focus on their task, and focus themselves and their comrades on getting home safely. Our men/women are doing a fantastic job over there, and most serve more than one tour.

*snaps to attention*
/salute