Guest Columnist
As a boy growing up in North Florida in the late 1950s, I was attracted to sports – anything with a ball. I wasn't as good at it as many of my friends, but my enthusiasm was unbounded. Looking back, I suppose that baseball was my favorite. There is an old saying that baseball is like "apple pie, motherhood and the American flag." For a century or so, baseball was America's game – the national pastime. Then in the 1970s, football and the NFL began to overtake baseball. It was said that Sunday belonged to the church … before the NFL took over.
The pendulum may be swinging back, not necessarily for organized religion (unfortunately) but toward baseball. The National Football League has a lot of problems to deal with that are taking a toll on the game and fan support. First, there is the problem with concussions and related head injuries. Fewer children are playing organized football because of their parent's concern for CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) – the acronym that identifies a concussion.
For sure, other sports have concussion problems, but nothing that approaches the incident rate of football. For example, soccer is concerned about ‘headers' to rebound a high ball that can lead to head injuries. Concussions have always been a concern with boxing. Most of us recall the last twenty years of Muhammed Ali's life as he struggled with Parkinson's Disease, an indirect result of multiple concussions.
Some have said that "basketball is a contact support while football is a collision sport," and the collisions are more violent than ever with the increased size and most especially, the speed of the players (Don't forget that in Einstein's famous energy formula, speed is squared whereas mass is not). The leagues are tinkering with the rules to lessen the opportunity for concussion such as leading with the helmet and eliminating the kickoff. Some teams take the concussion protocol seriously while others do not. Maybe it is having some effect, but probably not enough.
Technology is working on making the helmet safer, which is a delicate balance between protection and its use as a weapon by the defense. In the development of the game about a century ago, (leather) helmets were first required for head protection. Arguably, head injuries were worse before when there was no protection at all for the head. For years, sportswriters used the adage: ‘he had his bell rung' to describe an unconscious player following a head-to-head collision.
Then there is the matter of players ‘taking a knee' during the national anthem as a protest against police brutality. The fans don't like this and the protests are turning them off. Fan support is everything, and when a sport begins to lose that, it is a downward spiral.
The protests began two years ago when Colin Kaepernick was the backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. He began the movement and others joined in sympathetically. Kaepernick has been out of the league since then, some say because of bias on the part of the owners and others who say that his talent level doesn't warrant a place in the league. The answer lies somewhere in between.
Most of you know that I'm a very patriotic fellow and take a dim view of this ‘taking a knee' business. Last season, I was watching a college game between New Mexico and my alma mater, the Air Force Academy. The contrast was palatable. During the playing of the anthem, one side was in disarray, some protesting and others not, while the other side stood collectively at attention and saluted the flag.
I think the 2018 solution is for the players to get off their knee and decide to do something collectively that addresses their concern. I'm not sure what that would be; it's up to them to make that decision. I get that they are upset; they need to turn their concern into positive action.
But you don't see the same type of protest taking place in other sports, and certainly not in baseball. The national anthem and display of the flag is integral to the game and has been since 1869 when the first team (Cincinnati Red Stockings) dressed in the same uniform.
"Mom, apple pie and baseball. Play ball."