Now that the replacement refs are gone, I feel I need to comment on the ridiculous nature of the whole ordeal. First of all, let me just state that I have never been a big fan of football. I watch the superbowl once a year (or I at least attend a superbowl party) and that is pretty much about it. I don't keep track of who is doing what, what team is winning, what players are even out there; its just not my cup of tea. So with that said, I think it is pretty fair to say that all my comments here are from an outsider looking in. From my understanding of the whole issue, garnered mostly from listening to the radio in the morning and seeing the latest on Facebook and what not, a big part of the ordeal was over money and how much the regular refs were getting paid. The top earning officials make over $100,000 a year for a part time job. It all came down to the fact that they wanted more money and the NFL didn't want to pay them more money. On top of that, the refs apparently wanted to receive a pension for their work reffing football games. Pensions? For part time work? If only the rest of the country could be so lucky to get pensions for working a part time job. To be perfectly honest, this whole mess between making more for reffing a game and receiving a pension for a part time job when most of the refs have well paying full time jobs is just ridiculous. This issue just goes to show how out of touch with reality this culture of football really is. When there are thousands of people without work and struggling to make ends meet, the refs don't want to work their part time job because they are not making enough and not getting a pension (or whatever the stupid issues really are, I don't care). What it all boils down to is greed and another stupid union getting in the way. Football, as we have seen over the past few weeks, is obviously far more important than any war or upcoming presidential election. After all, when you have the replacement refs getting more press time than Obama or Romney, you know something is wrong with this country.
What bothers me even more about this whole ordeal is the anger exhibited over the replacement refs. As I mentioned above, I don't watch any regular football games, the only one I watch is the superbowl. However, I feel like I have watched a few games over the past few weeks just by the comments I have heard and seen about the replacement refs. I have heard about some of the botched calls, the stolen game, the blah, blah, blah. I remember when I used to play sports when I was younger and we had to deal with a bad ref. I had a big temper back then and used to start yelling and cussing when bad calls were made. I know things are different now, but back then, the coach used to tell me to get past the refs and play the game. Granted, you make money to play football in the NFL, but it is still a game. Regardless of whether you win or lose (obviously teams like to win), you still get paid at the end of the day unless you perform horribly over the course of the season (and then you still get paid because your under contract). Let me say that one more time, football is a game, it is not life despite what some people may think. Perhaps if everyone took a little time to remember that, there would be a little less stress and anxiety when a team that should have won, loses or vice versa. Yet all this hyper reaction to replacement refs and this super fan fanaticism doesn't really surprise me. When I see football fans devote an enormous amount of their time to watching football, playing fantasy football, and immersing themselves into a team that just wants their money, it kind of makes me sick. All we are doing are creating a false crew of icons for younger children to look up to. The more young kids see their parents talk about and admire these football players, the more their children will follow their lead and get immersed into the whole football culture. If you want to be realistic about it, the chances of any one person actually playing for the NFL are slim to none and yet it attracts so many fans its ridiculous.
OK, so I know I went off a little and I know that football is merely a diversion for many people from real life, but I still think that whole culture is a little ridiculous. There are so many more worthwhile activities that one could potentially participate in, yet two to three maybe four times a week (I honestly don't know how many football games are played in a week), people gather themselves in front of a big black rectangle and sit entranced for three hours as two teams throw a football and run up and down the field in short spurts. If you think about the actually game and all the rules involved, it is one of the slowest moving games there is. I feel that I have said enough on this topic, probably angered too many die-hard fans, and wasted enough of my IQ actually thinking about football. But before I go, I just want to reiterate my biggest issue I had with the whole replacement ref scandal. That issue is that it took precedence over every other meaningful issue that we are dealing with. It took the headlines from the economy, the upcoming election (which is a farce), and turmoil around the world. I know, we can't necessarily do anything about the big issues, but we could at least educate ourselves as to what is going on around the world and in our own country rather than stare and cheer at a TV showing meat heads crashing into each other at full tilt. On second thought, there is a way we could improve the football game so that I would actually watch. Here is my thought. We build higher walls around the field, perhaps 12 feet tall, and place one starved lion on the field with the football players and see what happens. They would have to play the game as normal except with a lion trying to eat them. Now that would be entertainment.
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