NFL WEEK 3 2014

After a pretty good week of picks for us, and a pretty bad week of publicity for the NFL, we start week three confident we are on a roll, and not so confident that the NFL is nothing more than a collection of super athletes, who are super spoiled, and most of whom have below average intelligence, morals, mores, and ideas about life, women,children, and family.  

Put another way, just because a player can run faster, hit harder, throw better, shed tackles or blockers, doesn't mean they are enlightened human beings who treat their families appropriately. We identify with what they do on the field (or fantasize about it), and somehow that translates into us believing that they are otherwise wholesome and intelligent human beings capable of rational thoughts and actions. 

Clearly, they are not.  Stop being surprised. The best linebacker in the history of the game- LT- slept with an underage prostitute. Perhaps the best running back of all time OJ- is a murderer and wife beater. The same percentage of our society that gets DUIs equates to the players in the NFL. And like a current Dallas Cowboy, some of them drink and drive and kill their friends. 

This week saw an explosion of comments by players about raising children. Some were thoughtful, some, like WR Calvin Johnson's obiter dictum that "no one tells me on how to raise my kids" leaves us to believe that there probably is not a copy of Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Baby And Child Care" on his bookshelf, if he even has a bookshelf. 

So what to do? We can stop patronizing a league where even the league admits that a third of it's players will later suffer brain damage. Watch an NBA or MLB old-timers event and you see the stars of your childhood older, grayer, a bit stooped. Go see a collection of middle aged NFL players and you see a collection of men with canes, walkers, and the beginnings of dementia. While we could never compete at that level at age 20, we most certainly can do more physically and mentally than most 50 year old ex-football players. We have both our hips, knees, and most of our brain cells. 

So is it wrong to patronize a league that wrecks devastation on its players, and employs players who brutalize women and children? 
Maybe so. It's a personal choice. But we know this, the bloom is off the rose. There's nothing romantic about the most popular sport in the USA. It is what it is. A collection of super-athletes, many of whom  are less than super human beings off the field. 

We fully intended to make our picks, but after reading what we just wrote, we just don't have it in us. 

Hypocrisy admission:  while we gave our luxury box ducats away this week, we will watch some games, eat some good food and drink some beer and root for our fantasy football players.  At least we admit our fallibility. 

We will post the survivor pool when the last picks come in. 

Sorry to be such a downer. 

See You In Court Tomorrow.