From Sports Business Journal by way of www.sportsgrindent.com
Now that Superbowl has ended with Aaron Rodgers simultaneously dispatching the ghost of Brett Favre and defending the honor of 17 year old girls everywhere by defeating Ben “No Means Yes” Roethlisberger its time to look ahead to next season.
Or more specifically the lack of a next season.
Originally I wanted there to be a lockout and no NFL next year. A world where the NHL and NBA season would not be overshadowed by the majority’s unrelenting thirst for NFL coverage.
Where their playoffs wouldn’t play second fiddle to the two day glorified conference call that is the NFL draft.
But I have changed my mind after realizing a previously unforeseen consequence.
These NFL will find some other sport to latch onto and undo all the work that has been done to make the NBA and NHL cultish and underappreciated.
In other words: Perfect for hipsters.
A devotion to Steve Nash and love of retro stars like Dikembe Mutumbo is much more defensible in hipster circles than wearing a Cheese Head and hating Da Bears. Hoopsters are only partially being ironic. They secretly love the NBA, or at least used to, which is why you see most of those jerseys originating from the NBA’s early 90’s peak.
But I bet that hoopster wearing a 76ers Mutumbo jersey nabs looks at the standings and watches the occasional game in between episodes of “Its Always Sunny”.
Being a fan of the NHL is like being a fan of some great underground band. When I see someone else wearing an NHL shirt I feel a little bit of kinship and know we both know the joys of a well done penalty kill.
With no NFL, the NHL and NBA will be overrun by bored NFL fans, who, by and large, take their game too seriously and take the fun out of football.
I want the fun and irreverence stay in the NHL and NBA.
I don’t want to turn on TNT next year and see Charles Barkley second guessing a coach’s substitutions instead of debating if Sara Palin is hotter than Tina Fey.
I don’t want to hear a serious discussion about the moral implications of Ovechkin’s enthusiastic celebrations or anything like that.
In short, I want there to be an NFL season, not because I like it, but because I don’t, and I want to keep its negative aspects from bleeding into the sports I do love.
