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We've rightly laughed every time a "league" comes up to "challenge" the NFL. Usually the economics ensure that this will be our response.
Here's a thought experiment (with a real-life edge). First the real-life part:
Economically the NFL is as strong as ever. Just look at us worried about how the Pats will do Sunday, right? If the teams are strong the league is strong. There are no Goodell jerseys on sale. Ray Rice jerseys are probably doing okay, and he's not even playing... because some troglodytes are no doubt equating "Goodell joins in his shame" with "Rice should be able to knock out his wife."
But the public opinion hit against the league, combined with the facts of concussion, might be setting an upper limit on future growth. So the real-life part is, do we see the opposite challenge to the NFL soon (to the one the XFL posed), some kind of super-clean "values" football league? I don't predict it would succeed by any means. I could just see enough people saying "Screw it... my tight end's a murderer, that team had an "obstructor" superstar middle linebacker and a wife-beater running back... we had a receiver cut in half by a safety they called "the assassin..." Guys are shooting themselves in the heart so people can study their concussed brains.... I want something else. And no way my kid is getting mixed up in this."
So here's the thought experiment part. Let's say you could haul your whole franchise over to the "clean" football league. Maybe you'd have to re-name the team.
First part of the deal: Kraft for example owns the Boston Minutemen. You can't port over anybody on an NFL contract (so you don't have any of these Solomonic decisions about who can play from the present players.) But you have a college draft.
You get rid of the rules that are just engineered to favor scoring but you enforce as much "heads up football" as possible, and you make protective helmets a huge emphasis (or if it's found they'll do better without helmets, in terms of concussions, play without helmets.) That might be the better product anyway, like Rugby or Aussie Rules football - you can SEE the blood! Wheee! But if there are fewer serious injuries as a result? Good tradeoff.
In terms of controlling family/off-field issues I don't know the "better" policy they can have. The only thing you can say is Goodell tried to pretend he was "cleaning up" the NFL but at present seems like an enormous hypocrite.
You'd have to assume that the same would be true of any new league unless it were even more Orwellian than the NFL world turned out to be.
You could make it some kind of cult thing where celibacy is enforced for players I guess.
But at least what you would be able to do is start over. So all the 90% of players who have always kept their noses clean play out their days in the dwindling NFL. Meanwhile, the new league soaks up the draft picks. Emphasis on little saints. Lifetime ban if you're shown to cause a career ending injury. Blah blah blah.
And if you have enough of a "record" coming out of school, or you have a lifetime ban, and the new league won't put up with you... well, there would always be the NFL, I guess.
Hell, at some tipping point the whole NFL becomes the old myth of the Raiders. You could play the Super Bowl against the new league, and have a full-on professional wrestling good-vs.-evil struggle.
Never mind, it's just too early for this. Obviously there'd be a hypocrisy-based scandal in the new league even if the economics eventually worked somehow.
Okay back to worrying about the Minnesota game. Feh.
Here's a thought experiment (with a real-life edge). First the real-life part:
Economically the NFL is as strong as ever. Just look at us worried about how the Pats will do Sunday, right? If the teams are strong the league is strong. There are no Goodell jerseys on sale. Ray Rice jerseys are probably doing okay, and he's not even playing... because some troglodytes are no doubt equating "Goodell joins in his shame" with "Rice should be able to knock out his wife."
But the public opinion hit against the league, combined with the facts of concussion, might be setting an upper limit on future growth. So the real-life part is, do we see the opposite challenge to the NFL soon (to the one the XFL posed), some kind of super-clean "values" football league? I don't predict it would succeed by any means. I could just see enough people saying "Screw it... my tight end's a murderer, that team had an "obstructor" superstar middle linebacker and a wife-beater running back... we had a receiver cut in half by a safety they called "the assassin..." Guys are shooting themselves in the heart so people can study their concussed brains.... I want something else. And no way my kid is getting mixed up in this."
So here's the thought experiment part. Let's say you could haul your whole franchise over to the "clean" football league. Maybe you'd have to re-name the team.
First part of the deal: Kraft for example owns the Boston Minutemen. You can't port over anybody on an NFL contract (so you don't have any of these Solomonic decisions about who can play from the present players.) But you have a college draft.
You get rid of the rules that are just engineered to favor scoring but you enforce as much "heads up football" as possible, and you make protective helmets a huge emphasis (or if it's found they'll do better without helmets, in terms of concussions, play without helmets.) That might be the better product anyway, like Rugby or Aussie Rules football - you can SEE the blood! Wheee! But if there are fewer serious injuries as a result? Good tradeoff.
In terms of controlling family/off-field issues I don't know the "better" policy they can have. The only thing you can say is Goodell tried to pretend he was "cleaning up" the NFL but at present seems like an enormous hypocrite.
You'd have to assume that the same would be true of any new league unless it were even more Orwellian than the NFL world turned out to be.
You could make it some kind of cult thing where celibacy is enforced for players I guess.
But at least what you would be able to do is start over. So all the 90% of players who have always kept their noses clean play out their days in the dwindling NFL. Meanwhile, the new league soaks up the draft picks. Emphasis on little saints. Lifetime ban if you're shown to cause a career ending injury. Blah blah blah.
And if you have enough of a "record" coming out of school, or you have a lifetime ban, and the new league won't put up with you... well, there would always be the NFL, I guess.
Hell, at some tipping point the whole NFL becomes the old myth of the Raiders. You could play the Super Bowl against the new league, and have a full-on professional wrestling good-vs.-evil struggle.
Never mind, it's just too early for this. Obviously there'd be a hypocrisy-based scandal in the new league even if the economics eventually worked somehow.
Okay back to worrying about the Minnesota game. Feh.
