I have a prediction

[error]

I'm just waiting for the government to get involved and ruin everyone's fun.

You don't think the government is involved in football?   

If people are enjoying it, you can be sure the government is involved, was involved or will be involved.

In the case of football, how do you think the stadium was built?

[Kat Kanning]

Can you start your own professional football league?

[Dreepa]

Can you start your own professional football league?

Probably.

At least 2 have been started within the past 20 years.

The USFL
and the recent
XFL.

[error]

Can you start your own professional football league?

Sure. "Professional" only means the players get paid. A while back there was this XFL or whatever, it ran for a couple of years and then dropped off the radar. I suspect it wasn't making money.

[Caleb]

Sure. "Professional" only means the players get paid. A while back there was this XFL or whatever, it ran for a couple of years and then dropped off the radar. I suspect it wasn't making money.

The USFL was making money. But it got shut down by the federal government after the NFL took it to court.

[error]

Sure. "Professional" only means the players get paid. A while back there was this XFL or whatever, it ran for a couple of years and then dropped off the radar. I suspect it wasn't making money.

The USFL was making money. But it got shut down by the federal government after the NFL took it to court.

Told you the government was screwing things up somewhere.

[David]

The Arena Football League.  Kurt Warner formally of the St. Lewis rams played for one of the AFL teams before taking the rams to the superbowl.  Columbus has a team, the Destroyers. 
They play in would you guess, arenas.  The field is only 50 yards.  The number of players on the field is smaller, I think 7.  It is a much faster paced game than the nfl.  Very offensive dominated.     Unfortunately I love watching a good defense play. 

[Spencer]

It has been 101 years since Teddy Roosevelt threatened to outlaw football in order to extort a change in football's rules (the following comes from a pro-TR website):

President Roosevelt saves the game. . .

Strange as it may seem, high school football, college football, and even the Super Bowl might not exist today if President Theodore Roosevelt had not taken a hand in preserving the game. As originally played on college campuses, the game was extremely rough, including slugging, gang tackling and unsportsmanlike behavior. Quite a number of players died (18 in just the year 1905 alone, with 20 times fewer players than there are today). Interest in becoming a football player was declining!

But Roosevelt saw merit in the game. It built bodies and could build character, a sense of team and never giving up. Ten of the Rough Riders, the soldiers who fought with him in Cuba, gave their occupations as football players when they enlisted in 1898.

So in 1905, President Roosevelt summoned representatives of the Big Three (Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the universities who first played the game and who also set the rules of play) to the White House. In his best table-thumping style, Theodore Roosevelt convinced them that the rules needed to be changed to eliminate the foul play and brutality.

As a result, the American Football Rules Committee was formed and, in 1906, plays designed to open up the game and make it less dangerousd to play were introduced. Some of the changes made included:

• the introduction of the forward pass,
• the distance to be gained for a first down increased from five to ten yards,
• all mass formations and gang tackling were banned.

Football became less dangerous to play, injuries and deaths decreased, and it became more fun to watch.

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/kidscorner/football.htm

In 1904, US President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to outlaw football after 19 college football players were killed or paralyzed from brain or spinal cord injuries. (Statistic from Maroon et al., Neurosurgery, 47:659-672, 2000.)

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/concuss.html

[Russell Kanning]

I'm just waiting for the government to get involved and ruin everyone's fun.

ever heard of ID and over 21?

[Russell Kanning]

I have some luck at seeing into the future. Let's try out my newest prediction:
In a sports bar;
In a sea of New England Patriots fans, one lonely man is dressed in blue and white with a hoofprint on his hat.
Some call him the redheaded stranger.

There were other dolts fans at the Railroad tavern in Keene. But the place was full of "patriots".

[Russell Kanning]

all new leagues have to be owned by the NFL or have their permission to exist

[error]

I'm just waiting for the government to get involved and ruin everyone's fun.

ever heard of ID and over 21?

Well, yes, but I wasn't aware you had to have an ID and be over 21 to watch football.

[Russell Kanning]

in a sportsbar

but I have still not been asked for ID

[error]

Speaking of screwing up football, the security for the Super Bowl is utterly insane. They've got enough manpower down there to fight a small WAR, but there are no specific threats of an attack on the Super Bowl...

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2007/01/31/super-bowl-prepares-for-terrorist-threat/

And they've banned my favorite part, tailgating!

[Bruehound]

Go Bears!


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