The selfie generation and the future of football

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RyanChristiansen
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The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by RyanChristiansen »

I’m getting old. Of that I’m certain. But do future fans really want to watch a league full of self-obsessed athletes who put themselves ahead of the team? Antonio Brown. Jalen Ramsey. Everyone on the Dolphins. Stefon Diggs taking off his helmet after a TD. The Packers defense acting like a college fraternity and posing together for a photo opp after a big play.

I don’t know. These things plus reviewing plays in minutiae like helicopter parents obsessing over their kids. (Did I stretch the analogy too far?) What’s happening to this great game? Someone please offer me hope. At least we have the past, right?
"Five seconds to go... A field goal could win it. Up in the air! Going deep! Tipped! Caught! Touchdown! The Vikings! They win it! Time has run out!" - Vikings 28, Browns 23, December 14, 1980, Metropolitan Stadium
sheajets
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by sheajets »

I dislike it too and it just seems...pointless. Like what's so special about it and why do they need to do a whole choreographed routine every time something happens like a score or turnover. If they did this maybe once in a while it would be fun and special, but every team having a bunch of shticks is just plain boring.

I was fine with the Ickey Shuffle and whatnot. Deion highstepping and dancing. But I don't need to see everyone do it. It happens so often now that I barely pay attention to it anymore. Oh look they're posing for another picture in the endzone. For the 12th time this year. Wow what a moment :roll:
conace21
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by conace21 »

I don't mind the defensive photos and other team celebrations. It's a little more about "we" and a little less about "me."
Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith's celebrations from 20-30 years ago were very much about "me."
ehaight
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by ehaight »

They're kids, well-paid kids mind you, but kids destroying their bodies for our entertainment. If they want to have some fun out there while they're doing it, I'm fine with it. I do find it annoying sometimes, but I've decided that says more about me than it does about them and I'm not going to worry about it anymore.
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RyanChristiansen
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by RyanChristiansen »

ehaight wrote:They're kids, well-paid kids mind you, but kids destroying their bodies for our entertainment. If they want to have some fun out there while they're doing it, I'm fine with it. I do find it annoying sometimes, but I've decided that says more about me than it does about them and I'm not going to worry about it anymore.
That’s the thing: We allow them to be kids. In the 1960s and 1970s we saw football players as men because they behaved like men. (Their counterparts in Nam grew up to be men really fast.) The same is true for all previous generations of football players. I believe young adults act like kids nowadays because our country hasn’t had a war of any consequence for the folks back home for so long now there’s no longer an incentive to behave like a man. Heck, we take out our enemies with video screens and joysticks nowadays. If you go further back and look at the college teams, and if you look at the college newspapers, even college students behaved and dressed like adults. Sure, they had fun, but when it came time to behave like men they did. Of course, nobody calls out this juvenile behavior because of the entertainment value. At some point I think it will get old to the point that it hurts interest in the game. The XFL is just going to make things worse because those ridiculous behaviors will leak over into the NFL.
"Five seconds to go... A field goal could win it. Up in the air! Going deep! Tipped! Caught! Touchdown! The Vikings! They win it! Time has run out!" - Vikings 28, Browns 23, December 14, 1980, Metropolitan Stadium
BD Sullivan
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by BD Sullivan »

Was it Paul Brown who had the line about scoring touchdowns, "Act like you've been there before"?
JuggernautJ
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by JuggernautJ »

BD Sullivan wrote:Was it Paul Brown who had the line about scoring touchdowns, "Act like you've been there before"?
A young (teen-aged) nephew once asked me how I celebrated when I scored a TD.
I sneered and made the motion of tossing him the football underhanded.
"Here ya go, Sir." I said, as if speaking to a ref.
He looked at me like I was crazy.

Of course, that would've been in the few (percentage-wise) games in which we played in an actual league with referees.
Usually, in sand-lot, I just walked over and spotted the ball for the opponent to begin their next offensive series.
sheajets
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by sheajets »

BD Sullivan wrote:Was it Paul Brown who had the line about scoring touchdowns, "Act like you've been there before"?
I think it was Joe Paterno
lastcat3
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by lastcat3 »

RyanChristiansen wrote:
ehaight wrote:They're kids, well-paid kids mind you, but kids destroying their bodies for our entertainment. If they want to have some fun out there while they're doing it, I'm fine with it. I do find it annoying sometimes, but I've decided that says more about me than it does about them and I'm not going to worry about it anymore.
That’s the thing: We allow them to be kids. In the 1960s and 1970s we saw football players as men because they behaved like men. (Their counterparts in Nam grew up to be men really fast.) The same is true for all previous generations of football players. I believe young adults act like kids nowadays because our country hasn’t had a war of any consequence for the folks back home for so long now there’s no longer an incentive to behave like a man. Heck, we take out our enemies with video screens and joysticks nowadays. If you go further back and look at the college teams, and if you look at the college newspapers, even college students behaved and dressed like adults. Sure, they had fun, but when it came time to behave like men they did. Of course, nobody calls out this juvenile behavior because of the entertainment value. At some point I think it will get old to the point that it hurts interest in the game. The XFL is just going to make things worse because those ridiculous behaviors will leak over into the NFL.
If they had social media back in the '60's and '70's and dozens of cameras showing the games you would have seen those guys acting like idiots as well. People havn't changed all that much. We just now have the technology to capture immature moments more than we did back in the day.
JohnH19
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Re: The selfie generation and the future of football

Post by JohnH19 »

lastcat3 wrote: If they had social media back in the '60's and '70's and dozens of cameras showing the games you would have seen those guys acting like idiots as well. People havn't changed all that much. We just now have the technology to capture immature moments more than we did back in the day.
I'm not so sure about that. It was a different generation and people have changed in a lot of ways. Life has never been easier than it's been for the generations beginning with us Baby Boomers. The mostly soft life that we in North America have been living for the past 70 years has certainly changed people gradually.

Pro athletes today make millions and millions of dollars so they do whatever they want to do and don't give a hoot what anybody thinks. Back in the 60s and 70s, even though most players didn't make much more than the common man, they had a healthy respect for their sport. They were honored to be able to make a living playing it and they conducted themselves appropriately, which is to say, they behaved like adults.

Coaches back in the day wouldn't have put up with the over the top nonsense that they do now because they didn't have to fear damaging their relationships with their sensitive, pampered, millionaire babies...uh, I mean, players. The occasional Elmo Wright or Billy "White Shoes" Johnson TD celebration seemed like good clean fun but guys dancing around and strutting after making a simple tackle or a pass reception for a first down is hard to watch and embarrassing. It's a shame and a sign of the times that they don't seem to know and/or care how it makes them look.
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