Wednesday. Booooo!!!!!

It's Wednesday, so expecting any great swathe of news is optimistic at best. Looking ahead at the week that will be, I'll be previewing this weekends games on Friday and Saturday, covering the one o'clock (Eastern) kick offs on Friday and the rest of the games on Saturday. Tomorrow I will..... think of some fantastically insightful article to write. Today however I have nothing to offer except a brain fart of the first degree. There is some hope thanks to ProFootballTalk.com. Two articles catch the eye: "Raheem Morris wants NFL to change blackout policy" -- And I agree. I've harped on this before. I find it stunning that a company like the NFL would be retarded enough to believe that keeping their product off air will somehow magically generate tickets. People don't like being punished into doing things. They don't like having their freedom of choice removed. Given the option of "watch football at the stadium or don't watch it at all" most people will stick two fingers up and tune in to something else. The blackout policy needs to go, hopefully with Roger Goodell following soon after. 'Roger Staubach thinks rules changes make NFL "a wussy game"' -- And I agree. Yes, concussions are bad. But concussions are what I would describe as an "occupational hazard". Fireman understand that they risk getting burnt to death, or at least seriously injured/maimed. Soldiers understand that they may get blown up, shot, or lose a limb in the blink of an eye. As a Bouncer (ahem, 'Door Supervisor') I used to go to work on the understanding that if someone didn't like me asking them to leave, they might just choose to smash a bottle or glass on the table and attempt to stuff what's left of it into my throat. Or they might come back later and stab me. Or they might follow me to my car/home and jump me, attempting to steal my property. Sometimes people just shouted bad words and made me cry (chortle). The point is that at any time I could have stopped and said "This s**t is laughed off, I'll stick to the day job," (and ultimately had to, to avoid losing said day job). Any one of those NFL Players can stop, whenever they want. Ex-49ers RB Glen Coffee decided God was calling him to a different path & off he went. Just like a boxer stepping into the ring, you have to be aware that your night on the football field could end with you lying on the floor wondering what the hell just happened. Players take that risk and get paid handsomely for it. Reasonable steps to protect players are fine. Helmets, pads, etc. But a line has to be drawn. At some point someone has to say "this is as safe as we're gonna make it. If you don't want to get hurt, don't play football." And it has to happen soon. If you make football into a non/little contact sport, people will fall away in droves. We know this because; a) flag football is not a nationally televised sport watched by over 100 million people, and b) neither is Arena Football. Have a great day everyone.