Football wont go anywhere. It's such a money grab and the ultimate team sport with the best atmosphere of any sport.
Parents are not wanting their kids to play the sport anymore because of the injuries. Baseball is losing players because of the popularity of other spots. Okay, I can hear that. But Football will dry up talent wise in the next 20-30 years, and it will go downhill. On your point about Skiing... it's skiing, you can do that recreationally... to play tackle football... it's different.
I'm talking about competitive skiing though. You can play flag football with your buddies, but it's a completely different event as tackle, right? Well, competitive skiing is just as different from someone going out and skiing down the slopes for fun. Football might waiver in a place like Portland, but I highly doubt places like Texas, Florida, or California will taper off.
Rules to increase safety will trickle down to every level of the game, and college, high school and Pop Warner levels will likely incorporate more rules than the NFL to reflect that younger players are playing and that it isn't professional. There's too much vested interest in college and high school football for the powers that be in each to simply let either one fade into irrelevance due to inaction. They'll adapt to make the sport less dangerous.
Football is the most popular sport is the US for the past 30 years. It's popularity rises while baseball popularity decreases. The two aren't comparable. Not only is football here to stay, it will continue to get more popular . . .
I disagree. I saw what Minstrel wrote, and I see that side of it. But it won't gain in popularity. It'll go one of two ways: 1) It'll over-saturate itself, like it's already becoming, and people will want to move on. 2) Eventually, the talent pool will dry up. You really can't make tackling anyone "safer". The parents will pull their kids out. And whether the bigwigs want it or not, the product will suffer and fans will simply go away and find something else. Think of it like Facebook. It started out as this hip new, everyone has to have it... now it's so saturated, in your face, that people (And it's a growing amount) stray away from it to something else or nothing else. Granted, some of that is for the privacy aspect... but for others they said "That's just too much, It's too much." and left. I see it happening, not because of my hate for the sport, but because we're a society that can only take so much before we need a reprieve. Baseball was HUGE, and it went away, when I'm sure most thought it never would. (And by away, I mean lessened in popularity). I really believe that will happen in football.
thanks for the age posts.. what I've noticed even people who are younger like SanteeSioux, who arent into it, still were somewhat "open minded" about it and tried. I also noticed the old hacks who are so anti Soccer arent posting those ages (I kid cause I love)
