The National Football League has taken over the United States of America.
Currently, the NFL is far and away the most popular thing going in this country. It’s not even close. There are so many aspects of the league and the sport in general that have made it everyone’s favorite sport, whether they like to admit it or not.
Every Sunday, I would estimate that the majority of the people in this country sit down at some point and watch football. If they’re not, then they are at least constantly interested in the outcome of the games and are monitoring the scores closely.
ESPN might have shoved the league and sport down our throat along with other networks, but whoever did it to the people of the good ol’ U.S.A. have made football ours.
Our national pastime may be baseball, but the present-time — not a real word — is football.
While I would much rather go to a professional baseball or basketball game over an NFL game. The football gameday experience away from the stadiums on Sundays is incredible, and there’s one major reason why.
Fantasy football makes everyone care about every game. If you own a fantasy football team, then you’re constantly up-to-date on everything going on in the NFL. You know who is doing well and who is not. People I never thought would be interested in the NFL are more interested than ever.
If I got the chance to go to a regular season game at Lambeau Field, don’t get me wrong, I would go.
But based on past experiences at Lambeau, I know I would be annoyed the whole time because I do not get any cell phone signal there.
So, I wouldn’t know what’s going on with my fantasy team the whole game, and I would be frustrated because of it. I know that’s not the case for many other people who don’t have my phone, but I know there are a lot of people who know where I’m coming from.
I never thought that would be the case with me. I always considered myself to be a baseball or soccer guy. While I still may be more knowledgeable about either one of those sports, I am a football guy first.
You can’t get away from it. On a Sunday or Monday night, that is all people are watching.
On my Twitter timeline, there is nothing but talk about the NFL. Maybe that’s more of a testament to whom I follow, but I would like to think that I follow a diverse selection of people.
When people who have little to no interest in football are tweeting about it or having an opinion on it, that’s when it’s popular.
When it’s football season, the World Series could be taking place, but a big NFL story would take precedence in most people’s minds. If Tim Tebow throws a ball into a garbage can from 25 yards away, then people will talk about it. They actually did on ESPN First Take one morning.
I wish I could watch more baseball and talk about it more, but quite frankly, it is football that’s on everyone’s minds. I have to search for someone to talk about the Brewers with, but if I want to talk football, especially the Bears or Packers, I need not look very far.
The dominance will continue and will increase as the years go on, especially as more and more people get involved with fantasy football. That will lead to more people staying at home instead of going to games, but it will be difficult for another sport to even rival football’s popularity in this fine country.
