NFL - RIP?

On my newspaper travels, yesterday, I came across a blurb about some dude predicting that the NFL (National Football League) will be done in about thirty years time. Not being much of a gridiron football fan I did not bother to read the article. (Basketball is the only team sport I could care less about.)

Then I saw today's Washington Post and I got more curious. This is a quote from that "dude" I mentioned... Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard: “Thirty years from now I don’t think it will be in existence. I could be wrong. It’s just my opinion, but I think with the direction things are going -- where they [NFL rules makers] want to lighten up, and they’re throwing flags and everything else -- there’s going to come a point where fans are going to get fed up with it.”

I'm reminded of an article that was published in New Yorker Magazine a couple of years ago (when I would read articles on a sport I did not like). The theme was player head-concussions in the NFL. There was a quote from a player, or coach, that went something like this: 'The NFL used to be a game of tackles; now it's more a game of collisions.'

As any NHL (National Hockey League) fan will tell you, that league is facing much the same crisis: Players who are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before, and who wear over-sized protective equipment... perfect for nailing and rupturing your much-despised opponent.


The article in question...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2013/01/28/bernard-pollard-nfl-wont-exist-in-30-years/