Goodell as Hitler isn't really funny, but taking offense to it is pretty weird. I mean, how long have you people been internetting? Pretty much every internet discussion gets Godwinned at some point, it's just par for the course.
I do think that it's yet another reactionary, stupid move by a clueless, out-of-touch commissioner and a bunch of owners who think that we'll keep watching no matter what, so they care more about protecting themselves from lawsuits than keeping in mind why anyone actually watches football. In other words, they're in pure "don't **** with the golden goose" mode. This won't change until people actually start tuning out, and even then it probably won't change for years after that.
They probably think that we're going to stick around no matter what, and they might be right. But even if that's true, though, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the generation that's coming up now, who will be watching this sanitized version of football while their parents prohibit them from actually playing it.
It's kinda funny, because football became my #1 sport in part because baseball did a ton of crap to alienate young fans while I was growing up (1994 strike, steroid era, playoff games being played while I was asleep, glacial pace of the game getting worse by year, etc.). Football was the main beneficiary of the MLB's failure to appeal to young fans. I think it's fair to wonder if they're making the same mistakes. I'm already coming around to the idea that live hockey games might be more fun than live football games.
