Would you boycott the NFL season because of recent issues?

[diabeticman]

My wife and I are talking about this issue now.


She asked me to suggest on this board a boycott of all NFL games until Roger Goodall is removed and all players who have charges of child and domestic violence are removed or suspended as well.


(Now please note my wife and I live in the heart of Steeler territory. She has been raised to enjoy and love the sport. She does watch games and knows what it is happening.)

Right now my wife is about to to start boycotting all football games on and off TV. She will Boycott all charters and corporations that still aline themselves with the NFL while this whole mess is happening.


I respect my wife and understand her views BUT my view is that the 30 other teams should not be punished for the actions of a few douchbags.

PUNISH Roger and the players but not the whole sport.

Side note: my wife just told me Radisson hotels has pulled all connection with the Vikings

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I would not. I am a Packer fan, WI born and raised.

We are a family of shareholders and the team is a part of who I am. I have always been proud of how the team has a history of supporting equal rights and a tendency to get rid of troublemakers. No matter how hard Favre pushed for Moss, that was never going to happen. I support my team; I abhor the behavior.

[Packerowner740]

28. Agree with everything you said

[TBF]

33. Same -

not a shareholder but I was raised with the game (lived within a couple hours of Green Bay).

I have considered boycotting and was relieved to see the Packers were on the low end of having players with arrests (chart floating around - covered anything from DUIs to more serious crime).

I want to see a complete overhaul of the NFL treatment of abuse (child & spouse - they are the same in my eyes) and support for these players and their families. This is a learned behavior - we can educate.

[DonCoquixote]

2. if my team did this, then yes

Though thankfully, the Tampa Bay Bucs are NOT part of this crap. They have made a point NOT to be.

[BlueJazz]

3. "30 other teams should not be punished for the actions of a few douchbags."

I feel the same way.
I'm certainly disgusted by the recent events (OK: Beatings and such) but no...that would be like never setting foot in a store because a few salespeople were cruel and mean.

Never mind...that's a really lousy, stinking example.

[alarimer]

4. Yes, until the NFL stops hiring these pieces of shit

I mean, let's see.

We have murderers (Hernandez), dog beaters (Vick), wife beaters (Rice), now child beaters. Rapists (Roethlisberger). Multiple drunk driving arrests (Irsay). And on and on it goes.

There needs to be a clause in every contract that stipulates if you are charged with an offense, whatever it is, you need to be immediately suspended until you are found guilty or not. If cleared, then you can be reinstated. If found guilty, you are automatically fired. Forever. No Michael Vick returning after a stint in prison. No leniency whatsoever.

I mean, it's what the rest of us have to go through. Our employers can fire us for almost any reason.

I'm so sick of athletes at all levels getting a pass. Someone makes an accusation or you are arrested. Gone. Period. Only reinstatement if it is resolved in your favor.

Athletes are not role models. They should never been held up that way. Too many of them have multiple offenses of various kinds, multiple kids from multiple women (at the same time apparently. AP, like so many others, is a lying, cheating scumbag, among other things) or simply violent criminals who would otherwise have been locked up.

Fuck them all and the system that enables it.

Anybody who watches is an enabler. Period. You are part of the problem. Fuck the fans as well.

[Ed Suspicious]

9. I'm a fan. If working for the NFL were correlated with higher rates of criminality, you

might have a point. As it stands, working for the NFL is no more strongly correlated with violent crimes than people who use electric refrigeration or drive cars is correlated.

[Travis_0004]

26. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Also if somebody has done their time they should be allowed to play again. Isn't that the general feeling on DU that felons should be forgiven at some point.

If I owned a business and if I refused to hire a felon I could get sued under title 7. Should we throw out title 7 and allow businesses to hire as they see fit (in regards to people with a criminal record)

[Ed Suspicious]

5. I would not. Violent crime rates in the NFL are on par with or lower than the general population.

https://stat.duke.edu/~dalene/chance/chanceweb/123.nflviol.pdf

[JonLP24]

12. I always felt that way

Often argued the point when people make the point about NFL is full of "thugs" when there are probably more thugs in more neighborhood than the entire NFL.

Study doesn't surprise me at all.

[Xyzse]

6. Doesn't change a thing for me.

I don't watch sports.

Well, except MMA and boxing.

[Anansi1171]

7. Its overwhelming popularity is its saving grace.

People love this game, and even detractors must admit the sport has its moments and these players can do some incredible things out on the field.

Having said that, American Football is the elephant in the room. Its an amazingly regressive American institution.

Thats all that can be said. Football shall not be f-ed with and woe unto him or her that tries.

You can run a charity racket pimping out black male teenagers to white male republicans FFS, but I'll be damned if the Nittany Lions may not wander back into a bowl game what like three years after the the lid blew off this.

They are beyond the law.

[shenmue]

8. I don't watch ESPN

since that idiot announcer said women provoke beatings.

[fizzgig]

25. did you catch this?

[JonLP24]

10. I couldn't agree just for charges

I support suspensions when due process has taken course or in instances were there is a video or the perp confession (Peterson).

[Johonny]

11. you mean the fact 30% of the people you watch will develop early onset dementia doesn't bother her?

or the fact football players like the general population of young men commit crimes at about the same rate. The sport is horrifically brutal and I can see people turned off by that. The fact people commit crimes err... does she ask every shop keeper, tax accountant, teacher ect their criminal record before she can deal with them in society or is it just football players that need purity in order to get her time and $$. If it helps their actual job might be a death sentence for roughly 30 % of them...

[LeftyMom]

13. My season tickets were paid for ages ago.

I couldn't boycott this season without a time machine, and I'm certainly not forfeiting seats that had a hefty PSL.

I'm really not interested in jettisoning a longstanding family tradition anyhow. Three generations of my family go to every home game.

[tularetom]

14. I may boycott because of their idiotic rules changes

I watched the Bears v. 49ers last night and there were at least 25 penalties called in that game, including one for the use of the "F" word.

If the league doesn't do something to speed up these games they're gonna lose viewers.

As far as the violence perpetrated by players is concerned, if the DA's elect not to prosecute these douchebags, the league should probably keep hands off. It's not their job to be judge jury and executioner. I'm not excusing their behavior, a lot of these guys should be in jail but there is a process for that and we should be putting pressure on the legal system, not a dumbass game.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. We never watch NFL anyway

until the Super Bowl. My husband watches college ball on the weekends, and I play with my photos.

[yeoman6987]

16. Are you a Nielsen family?

If not. Nobody in TV land cares. 100,000 Americans decide what shows we watch and don't watch.........that's it! Anyone else does not matter. I have exained this so many times but everyone still thinks that if the don't watch, it will matter....it won't.

[951-Riverside]

17. Me love football. Football my life. I buy jersey for wife, wife wear. *grunt* *grunt* *grunt* 49ers!

No girl person separate me from game. Game fun. Beer! Me Drink beer! *grunt* *grunt* *grunt*

Me GorDON! *grunt*

*GRUNT* *GRUNT* *GRUNT* *GRUNT*

[Jenoch]

18. It's interesting that Radison

pulled whatever connections it had to the Vikings. My guess is that they were not the preferred hotel used by either the Vikings or their opponents when in town for a game.

[Puzzledtraveller]

19. No

What about other sports, business, institutions? It's only because the visibility of high profile athletes, in particular the NFL that we are responding to events that happen daily, by all kids of people, professionals and numerous fields and industries.

Additionally, I am past tired of being outraged. Absolutely sick of the nearly non-stop rage-a-thon that seems to have swept the nation. So I will be as coarse as I can be, as terse as I can be and tell you that I do not give a fuck.

[customerserviceguy]

20. No way

A couple of bad apples (being removed in the most egregious cases) does not spoil the whole bushel.

As far as punishing Goodell, I'm waiting to see what the investigation reveals. I've worked in a lot of organizations where the boss was utterly clueless about what the lower level workers knew. If it comes out that he probably saw and ignored the Rice video, he's outta there, but I suspect that plausible deniabilty will be the result of that investigation.

[LittleBlue]

21. No more than I'd boycott music over Chris Brown

I'd have to boycott everything because no industry is free of child abuse or domestic violence.

The NFL just gets more attention because the players are high-profile entertainers.

[woolldog]

22. Nope.

No way.

[Suich]

23. No n/t

[davidn3600]

24. So every time someone is arrested for DV and not fired, we should boycott the company they work for?

...until the CEO is fired?

I mean, come on....

[SheilaT]

27. I don't happen to watch any football.

No TV, low interest, and I have the good fortune to live in a state (NM)with NO professional sports major league sports teams, lucky me. We do have very minor league baseball, and of course the universities have teams, and high school is well covered in the local papers.

Here's the thing: for those who do choose to boycott the NFL season, how would you go about doing that? Just not watch on TV? Not use season tickets? Do you think anyone would actually notice? Maybe if some significant percentage of the fans, say at least 25%, stopped watching and going to the games, then the league would notice. But honestly, what's the chance of that happening? Oh, and how in the world would you find out which companies are aligned with the teams? All those who buy advertizing? How about print ads? Will you boycott every company that advertizes in Sports Illustrated?

[lonestarnot]

29. I wouldn't walk across to see that crap. Any of it. I can't stand the fact that sports take up a

big portion of what is called news these days. I click it off immediately or anything to do with sports. Turns my stomach.

[Deuce]

30. No....

[badtoworse]

31. No.

[hobbit709]

32. The only time I watch is when the Clownboys get beat.

[NuclearDem]

34. I don't watch it anyway.

Though if I did watch, I would boycott.