Back in the day, baseball was considered America’s pastime. Some 40 or 50 years ago, the powers that be decided that football had become the new America’s pastime. At that time, I chose to disagree with the powers that be. I continue to disagree.
Football — the National Football League, to be more accurate — has changed. No longer is it a place where on any given Sunday, people could escape the doldrums of everyday life and enter a world free of care. We could watch our heroes and zeros with as much love or disdain that our bodies could muster. Now, the pastime of football has become an obsession.
No longer are we satisfied with watching a game, followed by a short post-game interview. We now must endure a seemingly endless pre-game show, the game itself, then a seemingly endless post-game show, followed by a full week of “What can we expect next Sunday?”
All this ranting leads me to a question for all football fanatics: Who is the Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky of the NFL? Based on talent alone, I say Jim Brown. Based upon integrity/character, it would be a coin toss between Gayle Sayers and Barry Sanders.
— John Hemmelgarn
Anchorage
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