More fodder. . .

[Brian wolf]

Defenses are handcuffed more than they have ever been and injuries still happen at an alarming rate because training camps and practices arent physical enough. These players make insane money except for the rookies of course, who are thrown into play immediately. In the next ten years when QBs start having flags attached to their jerseys before everyone else follows suit, younger fans are going to miss seeing them get hit.

I have a large collection of older football games but sometimes I will watch some on Youtube and its encouraging to read comments where even young fans get excited to watch these games and proclaim to how different than they are today.

[Sonny9]

Longer season and Thursday games play into the injuries

[Brian wolf]

Thats right Sonny, not to mention players adjusting to night games on various days ...

[RichardBak]

And yet the league will expand to an 18-game sked, sooner than later. We may not be around to see it, but ultimately it'll be a 20-game regular season (but no exhibition games).

[JohnH19]

Quarterbacks are the most important players and there aren't 32 good ones, obviously. You'd want to protect them, too. It's just good business.

This insistence on bloodlust from longtime fans just baffles me. What, not enough people get decapitated anymore for your liking? Not enough guys unable to walk when they're 55?

Players are bigger, stronger, faster and more lethal than ever. They don't have to risk livelihoods because YOU miss seeing Joe Kapp.

Also, Yardbarker. Puh-leeze.

Also, the defenses get better over time, the ability for them to injure increases over time. If they left the rules the same, half the league would be out on IR at any one time.

Like baseball?

[JWL]

Like baseball?

Guaranteed contracts play into it too. A guy like Anthony Rendon gets a paper cut and he's out two months. If you are him and don't care about baseball too much and your legacy and maybe trying to become a Hall of Famer, then why not sit out a couple months?

[lastcat3]

There is going to come a point where all these rules they are putting in place to keep players from getting injured are going to blow up in their face and fans as a whole will begin to demand that more hitting gets put back into the game again.

I really do think one of the main reasons why the tv ratings have grown so high in recent years has more to do with fantasy football and betting than people being happy with the current state of the game. I think a very large number of people who are watching on Sundays are more concerned about their fantasy teams doing well than any real life team.

[RichardBak]

There is going to come a point where all these rules they are putting in place to keep players from getting injured are going to blow up in their face and fans as a whole will begin to demand that more hitting gets put back into the game again.

I really do think one of the main reasons why the tv ratings have grown so high in recent years has more to do with fantasy football and betting than people being happy with the current state of the game. I think a very large number of people who are watching on Sundays are more concerned about their fantasy teams doing well than any real life team.

Spot on. I've seen this myself---guys who don't know a draw play from a kitchen drawer and never played the game at any level, including on the street, but get all geeked about fantasy stats and shit like that. As far as gambling, my late brother gambled all the time on FB but he never played it and really didn't understand a lot of it. He never rooted for or against a particular team, it was the point spread he was worried about.

[JohnTurney]

There is going to come a point where all these rules they are putting in place to keep players from getting injured are going to blow up in their face and fans as a whole will begin to demand that more hitting gets put back into the game again.

I really do think one of the main reasons why the tv ratings have grown so high in recent years has more to do with fantasy football and betting than people being happy with the current state of the game. I think a very large number of people who are watching on Sundays are more concerned about their fantasy teams doing well than any real life team.

Spot on. I've seen this myself---guys who don't know a draw play from a kitchen drawer and never played the game at any level, including on the street, but get all geeked about fantasy stats and shit like that. As far as gambling, my late brother gambled all the time on FB but he never played it and really didn't understand a lot of it. He never rooted for or against a particular team, it was the point spread he was worried about.

Agree with both, it's the lifeblood of the NFL, the WWII and Boomers dying off. Gen X one of smallest generations ... the Y and Z people are into this big time ... much more than people my age or older..

[RichardBak]

I was just looking at some pix from SABR's analytics conference. I don't think I could spot one presenter or attendee who looked to be older than 30. And to be honest, most of them looked like the kind of guys who always got picked last on the playground, if they played at all. They're into the geekness/numbers/whatever, not the physicality or competition or beauty of the game. Analytics has killed baseball. In fact, my nephew's oldest son just finished his BA in sports analytics (I'm not sure that's exactly what the program's called) and while he's a nice kid, he's never been athletic and has never had any interest in actually playing sports. Yet he hopes to land some kind of job in some front office.