NFL Predictions? Forget it. If you don’t have anything nice to say…

Some people will tell you that “Sundays just got better.” I’m no longer one of those people.

To each their own, right? Football is back, and that excites a lot of people. I understand that. People have certain passions, from the common to the extreme to the downright bizarre, and it’s no one’s place to judge. But, alas, we are all entitled to our own opinions.

As I write this, it’s officially September 12, but today/yesterday is a significant and emotional day in history. I remember how disappointed I was at the age of 17 back in 2001 when they canceled a week of the NFL season, unaware of the true impact of a horrible tragedy as a “football fan” (a term to be used very loosely).

Now, 15 years later, I still love sports. But there are times when I hate sports too. The return of the NFL season is trending in that direction.

Maybe I’m just a bitter old guy now, not the naive teenager that lapped up every second of football season. Or maybe I’m the most sensible guy in the world, seeing something that not enough people are seeing.

I don’t want to make this a rant about everything that is wrong with the NFL. There are enough articles, blog posts, tweets, podcasts, etc., to get your fill. More than anything, this is a chance for me to vent a little and perhaps have a catharsis.

I just don’t like the NFL anymore, and think that baseball deserves much more attention than it gets. Then again, maybe that’s why I love baseball so much — because it’s so underappreciated, followed by only the loyal, dedicated, hardcore, educated fans who have the patience to keep tabs on a game that is too “slow and boring,” as opposed to the “non-stop action” that football brings. (Sidebar: check out this Wall Street journal article from 2010 showing that an entire NFL game is actually just over 11 minutes of game action.)

In short, my list of reasons for disliking today’s NFL are simple: Roger Goodell, an overexposed and watered-down product, Thursday Night Football for 15 weeks, severe head injuries causing long-term damage, fantasy football, games in London, one position determining a massive part of the fate of a 53-man roster, the New England Patriots, Deflategate, scripted last-minute drama in seemingly every game, penalty flags, fans complaining about penalty flags, the Pro Bowl, and two weeks of unnecessary Super Bowl coverage, just to name a few.

Remember, I said the list was simple, not short.

Last year, I was able to successfully tune out the first half of the 2015 season, and I was glad to discover I missed absolutely nothing significant or new. Some star players got injured or retired, the Patriots didn’t lose a game (nor did they lose Deflategate), every single game was determined on the last play (even when it was 42-10), and ESPN still carried Monday Night Football. When I returned, I was sorry I did. Mostly because baseball season was over, and I knew it was going to be slim pickings finding a sophisticated sports fix.

It isn’t fair for me to make this about the Patriots, either. It isn’t their fault that things unfolded over time the way they did, with Tom Brady succeeding Drew Bledsoe and a dynasty being birthed from a rule that no one knew about until it was convenient to enforce it. Football as a sport is quite flawed, and so I must invoke the words of the late, great Stuart Scott, who often insisted that we should not “hate the player, but hate game.”

But, as luck would have it, the Patriots are very much at the heart of why football has plummeted. Baseball, not football, is much more conducive for those with analytical minds, but that doesn’t stop football fans from throwing shade at America’s pastime.

I played baseball in high school. For the record, we didn’t have a football team, so instead of hearing it from the football players about what a geeky, easy-to-play sport baseball is, we took the verbal abuse from the lacrosse team instead. But since no one cares about lacrosse after college (if even before or during college), it’s the football fans who get to do the chest-puffing. And it’s those same fans — the ones that buy into the 16-games-a-year fad known as the NFL — that bitch and moan from February until September that they have nothing to watch.

Rather than list all of the reasons why baseball is better than football — again, only one man’s opinion, so why get your feathers ruffled? — I’ll leave you another link worth checking out, as this Bleacher Report post so beautifully illustrates it instead. One thing omitted in the article worth pondering is, how is a sport without a salary cap so much more competitively balanced than a sport with one?

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So, if I wanted football to go back to the “way it was,” I’d have to be — you guessed it — insane. If I don’t want to keep hearing about Tom Brady and the Patriots, Roger Goodell, concussions, and the league playing games in Norway and Denmark, what do I have the power to do?

Absolutely nothing. So it’s time to disconnect, tune it out, and reduce the emotional impact of it all. Certainly, easier said than done.

As Sunday bleeds over into Monday morning and I sit here typing away, I once again lost a small piece of my soul. Once the Cubs-Astros Sunday night baseball game ended, I told myself it was a waste of time to turn on the end of the Patriots-Cardinals game. Instead of listening to myself, I listened to myself, and Albert Einstein is now spinning in his grave.

I can’t tell millions of people everywhere to stop waving Terrible Towels, joining fantasy leagues, devoting sunny Sunday afternoons to sitting on the couch, or blogging about how much they love Aaron Rodgers or J.J. Watt. All I can do is try and stay true to my beliefs. It’s not easy, as proven by my brief Sunday night relapse. It takes will power, which can often be akin to chasing dragons, riding unicorns, and spotting yetis. We don’t know if it actually exists. All we know is…

Sundays just got worse. Oh, and Thursdays too.