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Sorry folks, NBA cooler than NFL

Column

Avery Bundgaard

ESCANABA — With the NBA season officially under way this is the best time of the year in sports.

The NFL is in full swing with the MLB playoffs creating some intrigue and now all the excitement of the NBA season adds to an action packed time in sports.

Football is still the most popular sport in the United States with its hard-hitting gladiator style of play, but basketball isn’t far behind.

With controversy surrounding the NFL the last few years, the NBA has been slowly catching up in popularity. Most people watch sports to escape reality and with everybody talking about the anthem protests combined with CTE lawsuits and investigations into off-the-field conduct has fans fed up with the NFL.

The NFL has been around since 1921 and even though there has been issues before there hasn’t been as much controversy as there has been recently.

Lets begin with the relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA. The NFL first took heat in 2014 when a video was released of Ravens’ running back Ray Rice punching his girlfriend in an elevator. It was determined that the NFL had seen the video prior to the release and didn’t hand down a harsh enough punishment.

That was just the tip of the ice berg as the NFL has been known to mishandle investigations most notably against Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2016 over Deflategate and Ezekiel Elliott in 2017 over alleged domestic violence. In both cases the NFL was accused of not doing a thorough investigation and as a result have found themselves in drawn out legal battles.

The NBA hasn’t had that kind of drama and the NBA and the players’ union have a mutual respect for each other and it makes the NBA more enjoyable to watch and follow knowing that all you get is the sport.

The next problem with the NFL is the constant issue with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which is a brain disorder caused by concussions. Multiple former players have come forward with symptoms of CTE and have sued the NFL for not educating them about the disease and not protecting them from it.

Basketball is the type of game where you don’t see a lot of head injuries and is a generally safe sport to play. I’m not saying the injuries don’t happen in basketball but you don’t see serious head injuries that impact a person later on in life.

And now I’ll move on to one of the most controversial issues the NFL this season.

Last season San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the national anthem that sparked a revolution in the NFL that saw multiple players on multiple teams do the same.

It all started as a protest of social injustice in our country, but many people see it as disrespectful to our flag and military members.

This more than anything has fans turning away from the game.

NBA players have not had demonstrations during the national anthem but instead have spoken out about inequality to try to make a difference. I’m not calling one better than the other, but I’ve noticed that people take more kindly to how the NBA has handled it.

The NFL viewership ratings are down 7.5 percent from last year mainly for this reason among the other issues that I mentioned. This past NBA Finals was the most watched Finals since 1998 proving that the NBA is heading in the right direction.

Stepping away from the off-the-field issues the NFL also suffers from injuries to its star players far too often. The Packers seem to have half of their roster injured including their most important player in quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Along with Rodgers injuries to star players like J.J. Watt, Odell Beckham Jr. and Andrew Luck just to name a few have damaged the NFL’s image. People watch football to watch special players play the game and when you see more of these stars injured people are going to lose interest.

If you look at the NBA you do see players suffer serious injures, but not even close to the number of the NFL.

The NBA has picked up popularity recently with generational type talents such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant who are among the greatest players in league history. You also have exceptional talent in young players like Stephan Curry, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo who most think has the most potential to become the NBA’s best player in a few years.

With players like this the NBA can hold up on its own and is steadily growing in popularity. I’ll be hesitant to say that the NBA has overtaken the NFL as the biggest sport in America but it sure is heading in the right direction as the NFL continues to self-implode.

Sports fans want a product that makes them feel good about themselves and the NBA is doing a much better job of that than the NFL at this time.

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