It is almost time to begin watching the "Superbowl", a premiere sporting event of the United States.
What is this special event and why is it important? It is the annual competition between two American football teams which have played a season of previous games and each ended as the winner of their respective league competitions. No such game existed until 1967, when after several years of two separate leagues, a game was staged between the NFL and AFC. Why were there separate leagues? Because the owners of the NFL teams to prevent competition were initially unwilling to expand their league to include other cities. And so a separate group of teams were formed by new owners seeking the economic rewards of owning a team. The birth of the superbowl is the acceptance that new teams would be allowed to compete with the old, and the attempt to control the size of the league and its reward, rejected. As with most things in the United State, it is about money.
Whose money? The owners of the teams collect revenues by selling the right to watch the games from ever more expensive and tricked out stadiums from fans, though most of these fans are extremely wealthy, not everyday folks. But in this season, with covid, the fan revenue is not significant (though in other seasons it has fallen from 20 to15% of total), and the greater revenue from television presentation is the most important. Televising sports is about selling products, mostly fast foods, automobiles, and a few other inessential products. So the players and coaches receive salary (contracts) paid by the teams (as employees), which come from the fan + TV revenue income paid to each team. The teams also must pay for various other expenses, including stadium rental use, and the rest goes to the owners. Every team is ridiculously profitable, and every one seeks to be an owner. So despite enormous payouts to premium players, owning a team is still very rewarding to owners. Part of this is the result of not having to build or own the stadiums, which are usually the property of the local cities, paid for through tax assessment of the residents of the cities, whether they can afford to attend the games in stadiums or not. So the answer to "whose money" is simply US. The fans pay for the performance of the games through sponsoring the stadiums, buying the products of advertisers, and direct payment for season tickets. At one time, little of this went to the players but with strikes and collective bargaining, the players have been able to negotiate an increased component of the total revenue, now 48.8%.
Some complain that the players have become too wealthy, too rewarded, for playing 17-20 games in each Fall season. This ignores the reality that every NFL player began training in sports as a teenager, made major decisions about training and body development to physically qualify, ignoring dedication to time for other facets of education. Each went through a competitive college drafting process (not called that), and risked one to four years of college play endangering key physical body injuries that might end any chance of a professional career before it started. Most of these players are not skilled enough despite this training and preparation for professional competition and have wasted and injured themselves to prepare for lives they will never have. Estimated 1.8% will become NFL players. "The average NFL career lasts 3.3 years, according to the NFL Players' Association; 78 percent of players go broke within three years of retirement and 15.7 percent file for bankruptcy within 12 years of leaving the league, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research." (ESPN evaluation) The desperate outcome of this dedication does not account for the injuries that leave many mentally and physically incapacitated. The few highly paid, economically advantaged star players are the absolute minority.
We viewers have paid our way to watch, usually on TV, a group of men highly selected by personal training and physical capacity battle each other for one hour extended with various time outs and advertising time, to state for one year that they are the "best" team, and each collect a special "ring". The goal of this will be to financially benefit the owners, perhaps advertisers, and to a limited extent a few players, the rest of whom will be consumed in the process within a few years.
IS THIS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF HUMAN LIFE? DOES THIS REPRESENT A VALID USE OF SPORTING ACTIVITY, ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO EUROPEAN SOCCER, AMERICAN BASEBALL AND BASKETBALL, AND CANADIAN HOCKEY--- ALL SPORTS WITH BETTER RECORD OF SUPPORT OF PLAYERS, AND LESS EXPLOITATION?
The "Superbowl" is a competition created by the economic competition between two "leagues" eventually merged to one, but continuing to pretend that some major event is occurring for the benefit of revenues, and viewership. When will it be time to look seriously at this destructive program?
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