Television ratings are up and
merchandise sales are booming,
but longer-term trends don’t look as rosy for football.
According to a new Bloomberg
Politics poll, 50 percent of Americans say they wouldn't want their
son to play the sport and only 17 percent believe it’ll grow in popularity in
the next 20 years.
These are grim numbers for a sport that’s
seeing an onslaught of negative attention, including a parade of
National Football League players accused of abusing their wives or children; a
team name so
offensive that some news organizations refuse to print it; and, perhaps
most troubling to parents, the growing
body of evidence that repeated blows to the head can cause
long-lasting brain damage.
The finding suggest that, over the course of time,
football could go the way of boxing, a marquee
American sport in the early part of the 20th century that declined amid a
similar set of dynamics:
“I just think it has become too dangerous,” said
Vince Vlasuk, 38, a consultant in Strongsville, Ohio, who is pushing his
young boys to play soccer instead.
“I don’t think they have the equipment they
need to protect themselves, particularly at the junior high and high school
level.”
Democrats were slightly more likely to oppose
their children participating in the game than Republicans, 52 percent to
47.
Even though the National Football League has courted women as viewers,
58 percent of female respondents say they don’t want their boys playing
football compared with 41 percent of men.
Another bright spot for the sport among the under-35
set: They are almost twice as likely as older respondents to believe the
sport will grow in popularity over the next twenty years.
And there’s
still the 43 percent of respondents who say they want their kids to play the
game, including Tim Sacre, 58, of Tooele, Utah. The retired miner is raising
two grandchildren.
“It’s a popular sport,” he said. “It’s fun for them.” Safety,
he said, is a “concern," but his young charges participate in another
hair-raising activity. “One races motorcycles too, so football is nothing,” he
said.
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