By Mike Foster (Opinion Editor)
For decades, the win-loss record of the resident football team has been the prevailing keynote of academic institutions.
There’s no doubting the influence football has on our day-to-day lives in an entertainment culture.
Kennesaw State University has joined the party, and is now just a few weeks from its first scrimmage open to the public, months from a spring game and less than a year from its first game in history.
Each program has a humble beginning, with the history of the sport tracing all the way back to 1869, when the first alleged organized football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton.
The game has changed since then, but not quite for the better. While many, including myself, would like to think football is forever, lurking in the weeds is the common notion that all good things must come to an end.
Rome fell. Football could too.
Whether that’s soon is to be determined, and whether “soon” is relative plays a factor as well, but the truth of the matter is that KSU might be a little late to the party.
Just in the past few weeks, football’s biggest brother—the NFL—has been under fire. Thanks to domestic violence disputes tagged to stars like Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald, a public association between football players and violent acts has proliferated, and that’s whether the NFL likes it or not.
On the field, things are just as murky. The NFL has received criticism in the past month for softening the game, replacing highlight hits with an over-bearing policy outlining specific guidelines for bringing down quarterbacks and ball carriers, as well as the treatment of receivers. While Ravens players were getting away with left hooks in elevators, linebackers are basically being told to negotiate quarterbacks to the ground (see: any Tweet from Thursday that mentioned Courtney Upshaw).
Officials can throw as many flags as they want, but the factor that needs to be addressed is that as the game continues to spread out in formation, players are running harder and faster in space, making the body of the athlete a much more vulnerable and accessible target.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that former Atlanta Falcon defensive end John Abraham has “taken leave” from the Arizona Cardinals after suffering “memory loss” that he’s had to endure for more than a year. In the NFL’s season opener, Green Bay Packers tailback Eddie Lacy, who’s had concussion issues in the past, wore what is supposed to be a state-of-the art helmet—Riddell’s “Speedflex.” Lacy left the game with a head injury, which was later specified as a concussion.
Yellow flags and gimmicky plastic apparati will continue to suffer the brand of football, rather than saving it. We have truly reached a saturation point to where too many individuals playing football are, in fact, playing it the wrong way (see: any tackle made by Texans defensive back D.J. Swearinger, ever).
Then there’s the issue with college football players getting paid. The recent court victory by Ed O’Bannon over the NCAA could mean future stipends for athletes, but not everywhere. With “Power 5” conferences moving into their own realm of autonomy, the amateurism of college sports will continue to divide itself against the semi-pro identity of major college football. Title IX is about to pop up in sports news leads a lot more, so prepare yourself.
And at the youth level, fewer kids are going out for football. According to USA Football, youth and high school football players have gone from 3.2 million to 2.6 million in the past seven years. As the dangers of the sport continue to show face in media, whether it’s by missile tackles or stories of degenerative disorders involving the brain and nervous system, football is seen riskier more than it is recreational.
For football to survive, the NFL will need to clean up its brand, college football will need to navigate a maze of legalities and parents and their children will have to take notice. In the meantime, this realization of football mortality just makes KSU football that much sweeter, does it not?
