For the second straight year, our family has boycotted the stupor(super)bowl. We refuse to participate in this xenophobic slugfest for many reasons and feel that our time is better spent reading, exercising, writing or wallowing.
My first attempt at boycotting football goes back to the Monday night game where Joe Theisman's leg was snapped like a twig while trying to avoid a sack at the hands of Lawrence Taylor. LT didn't do anything provocative or draw a penalty. Joe Theisman's horrible, career ending injury was the result of an earnest pursuit by LT to help his team win.
Anyway, eventually I went back to watching football and soon I got to see Bo Jackson end his career with a clean hit. Bo's leg was pushed out of its socket at the hip during a legal tackle by Cincinnati's Kevin Walker.
I quit watching regular season and playoff football for good until 2005 and then started watching the superbowl as a guest at various parties. Last year, I started refusing the invites because I feel that the superbowl has become a hideous manifestation of violence, worker hatred and overindulgence.
I wrote a diary last year urging others to join in my boycott and some of the commenters urged me to view soccer last summer during the FIFA world cup. I did this and it helped me get through the fall season and right on through the superbowl without watching football.
I find football to be against my moral beliefs because it hurts people. Now some might say, well nobody has to play football, the players are there because they want to be. Ok, but couldn't you say the same thing about any job? What about coal miners? They could quit anytime but most of them don't because they have bills to pay. We have many regulations requiring coal operators to provide safe conditions for the people to work there. What about football? As far as I can tell, football operators are completely exempt and their injury rate is 100%.
And why do we give the NFL anti trust exemptions, buy their owners new stadiums and allow them to keep their books a secret? Because when we are watching football, we aren't thinking about how bad we are being screwed by the ruling class.
How different is our path from Rome's under Nero?