Football has become unwatchable.

[Ferrets are Cool]

Five minutes of football and 10 minutes of commercials.
I may be exaggerating a small bit, but not much. And, I'm on a streaming service so it's not like I can just change channels for a few minutes while the interminable ads are running.

[Mr.Bill]

1. I'm old and remember players like

Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown. Go look at some Youtube videos of football in those days. It makes what they are doing on the field today look like the ballet.

[Hotler]

3. May I suggest some Bo Jackson highlights. Then checkout his Basball highlights.

maybe the greatest athlete ever.

[tom_kelly]

4. +1

[Mr.Bill]

5. I'm a Raider fan

so I remember him quite well. Fantastic athlete. But it was a while ago.

[rubbersole]

8. He played a AA baseball game in Orlando...

...when he played with the Birmingham Barons (IIRC). He played right field and caught a fly ball and threw out a tagging runner going home from third base. What was so remarkable about that was there wasn't any arc to the perfect strike he threw and got the runner by two strides. I've never seen anything close to that. The Orlando Twins fans applauded.

[we can do it]

27. +1000

[Yavin4]

30. YouTube has videos of entire games from the 1970s.

Amazing how quiet the broadcast was. No sideline reporter. No screen filled with updates. No graphics. Just the game itself. It was almost zen.

[walkingman]

2. Agreed - From my experience, because the broadcast is delayed they can put as many ads

as they like and they like a lot of them. Even though they put ads during a live broadcast, not near as many.

[3catwoman3]

6. My older son is like a walking encyclopedia...

…of sports statistics.

He is the one who told me that during a 3 hour football game, the ball is in play for only 11 minutes.

[werdna]

7. Most stadiums are now wall-to-wall advertising as well. n/t

[LenaBaby61]

9. Football has become unwatchable.

No more needs to be said.

Same for college football as well, but in a different way: These college football teams are all moving and changing conferences so fast that it's causing whiplash, and disgust. EVERYTHING happening in most sports is all for the money 🤑 to run ads for money during ads 🤑 and for these greedy colleges and corporations to make money off of fans 🤑

[dalton99a]

21. +1. USC and Indiana are now in the same conference

And Arizona and West Virginia are in the same conference

[Different Drummer]

24. Conference realignment has never made sense.

I suppose it was inevitable with the respective demises of the Southwest and Big East Conferences.

[herding cats]

10. Streaming went from idyllic, to our new annoyance so quickly. 😂

They hold us hostage to the advertising now in ways we used to be able to either skip or just not see. Now we don't even have choices but to sit though the commercials.

I hate it FWIW. I watch less and less these days.

[usonian]

11. Expect ads on uniforms soon.

"Purdy fakes a handoff and hits NEW IMPROVED TIDE DETERGENT downfield."

[roamer65]

12. Yeah with CGI, I expect end zones to be for rent soon.

[dalton99a]

33. +1

[LisaM]

13. Not being able to change channels is a huge problem with streaming.

And it's not just for commercials - if my game is well in hand and there's a close game finishing up, I am going to switch back and forth. Sometimes I am checking in on three or four games. I can't believe this doesn't bother more people.

I dislike the streaming model for many reasons but for sports, it's a hassle.

[retread]

15. Youtube TV has multiview. You can select a game to fill the entire screen

then hit the back button to return to all 4 games. I'm sure I drove people in the same room nuts switching back and forth.

Once I got used to it I liked it better than blindly switching channels. No need to switch when a commercial was running or there was a lull.
https://support.google.com/youtubetv/answer/13418774?hl=en

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. That sounds intriguing. I will look into it.

Thanks

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. Yeah, it is a big hassle. I love my streaming platform, but for sports, it sucks big time.

[LenaBaby61]

36. REALLY THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[GoodRaisin]

14. I pretty much said the same thing earlier tonight when

my son texted me to ask if I was watching LSU-FSU game. My reply was “yes, in between commercials”.

I guess the players are well rested during the time outs these days.

[Shermann]

18. When you are at the game, they put the game on pause

Cheerleaders run out on to the field to fill the time.

It's possible these intervals have gotten longer, it would be straightforward to check.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. Sports announcers have become shills for online betting sites.

It's sad to think of the money lost by people who can't afford loss.

If I want to lose money, I'll go to a casino. Then, as in the words of the great sage, "it's my own damn fault".

[Shermann]

20. Also you get free drinks

[malthaussen]

22. Haven't watched it for decades.

For old farts like me, seeing the football videos of the '60s and '70s on YT, as suggested above, is good enough despite the fact that they're of inferior quality. But I know all those guys and remember the seasons. For the younger set, there probably isn't quite the same thrill to watching Larry Wilson make an interception.

-- Mal

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. I am an old fart and watching todays game (when they are actually playing and not

showing commercials) is far, far superior to the "win at any cost, even if you have to break someone's neck to do it" mentality. The game is more exciting, pro and college, and knowing that they at least have a smidgen of care for safety is wonderful.
Btw, I turn 68 in 8 days.

[Different Drummer]

26. First of all, happy birthday in advance.

Second, your point about the current concern for safety is well taken. I'm sure you remember, as I do, Jack "They Call Me Assassin" Tatum of the Raiders paralyzing Darryl Stingley, who had been a wide receiver for the Patriots.

[Ferrets are Cool]

29. Thank you muchly...I remember it vividly. And he never apologized afaik.

Just watching North Dallas Forty is cringe-worthy now. They treated those men worse than cattle.

[LenaBaby61]

38. From what I understand ...

John Madden said that Tatum never did apologize to Stingley for that unnecessary, crippling hit, and after that hit and Singley becoming a quadriplegic, Madden said it made him retire from coaching IF I remember correctly. My God, the ref's never threw a flag or penalized the Raiders or anything. But then again, Tatum went to theOhio State University and Woody Hayes was his coach--the same crazy, assaulting fool who punched a cameraman, and punched a player standing on the sideline who intercepted the ball vs Ohio State. Hayes was a violent bully and thug and he also used to allegedly abuse his own players. I see where Tatum got that mentality of 'cripple his ass' came from literally. Too bad Tatum didn't play now, because some of these young cats playing now would have lit him up like a roman candle. Hayes was the Bobby Knight of the football set. Same thug, same bully who got away with murder always like Hayes did.

[Ferrets are Cool]

41. I believe every word you wrote.

[Different Drummer]

25. And many of the younger ser probably doesn't know...

there ever were NFL teams in St. Louis.

[justaprogressive]

28. Al Pacino in "Any Given Sunday"

Tony D'Amato:

"It's TV, it changed everything, changed the way we think forever. I mean the first time they stopped the game to cut away to some fucking commercial that was the end of it. Because it was our concentration that mattered, not theirs, not some fruitcake selling cereal."

[Sogo]

31. The mute button is your friend....

nt.

[Ferrets are Cool]

34. I am too OCD to sit for 7 minutes doing nothing

One can only peruse their phone for so long before that also becomes boring.

[Sogo]

37. Perhaps some reading material nearby?

[Celerity]

32. watch real football, no adverts during either half, nor, if needed, during extra time and/or pens

[Ferrets are Cool]

35. I honestly wish I could get into real football. I've tried.

I just can't, but you are correct.

[Celerity]

39. I grew in west London living and breathing football. It is a cultural thing for most of the rest of

world.

I never have liked American football, nor rugby. I am just not into the violence.

Also, American football is brutal machine that allows so few players to make a living (despite millions delusionally thinking they will), and their (the very few who make it to the NFL) bodies are so spent, for the majority after just a few years.

The only 'American' sport I actually enjoyed (I am not a basketball fangirl either) whilst I was living in the US was baseball. I truly liked going to Dodger games. Ironically, one of the Dodgers' owners (Boehly), is now in the process of ripping my lifelong football team (Chelsea) to shreds atm.

I SO hope we can soon get back to being a top 3 to 7 club in the world club again (we were for 18 years or so, ever since 2004). That all ended last season with a horrid 12th place finish in the EPL and now no European footie at all this season. Last season was our worst season in around 30 years, and we are off to a shite start this one, despite spending a billion quid (around 1.3 or so billion USD) just in transfers since Boehly took over (an amount never remotely seen before in football history).

[Ferrets are Cool]

40. ...

"Also, American football is brutal machine that allows so few players to make a living (despite millions delusionally thinking they will), and their (the very few who make it to the NFL) bodies are so spent, for the majority after just a few years."

Very true.

[LisaM]

42. I watch EPL. I enjoy both sports.

When the World Cup was in the US way back in 1994, I kind of discovered how intense it could be, watching Ireland play in an Irish bar in Seattle, packed with Irish people. Later, when I had friends who were into the EPL (Liverpool and Man U), I realized I needed a team or I would never get into it as much as they did. I just waited until a team grabbed my fancy and now I am a proud Tottenham Hotspur supporter. This was before they got Harry Kane, so I have been through that drama and the coaching carousel, but we seem to have righted the ship.