The Pros And Cons Of The National Football League

Imagine that everyday you go to work you are tackled, pushed, and body slammed by your coworkers. This is a description of what is happening during every National Football League (NFL) player’s daily routine. Grit and physical aggression have shrunk in importance in others daily lives, yet in the NFL that is the business model. For years the NFL has been the most beloved league in the United States, but as the culture shifts the preferences of people shift as well. This is why the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the league of the future. The NFL embodies the spirit of our nation in the past, not as it is today. Many controversies over injuries, specifically concussions, have hurt football’s image leaving the door open for the NBA.

The highest costs for both of these leagues are the player salaries. The NFL must pay more players because they need more players on each roster. Forbes magazine says, “... NBA teams have much lower operating costs because they only need 22 percent of the players needed in the NFL to produce the product”(Groves). This fact shows that the NBA can afford to spend more money on advertising and expansion because they have a larger profit margin than the NFL. Even if the NBA does not become more popular than the NFL, which is doubtful, they could still make more money as a league. This money can be reinvested into the league to better it as a whole. The NBA can expand to other countries by building new arenas, and then advertising them in the new markets the NBA could move into. It is not just money that can help the NBA become one of the worlds favorite leagues, cultural changes will also have a large impact on the future of both

“Football embodied an America who faced all challenges head on, forcing its will on opponents through skill, guile and brute force”(Groves). This was the essence of the American people during that time because that is what it meant to be a man. Today people are more intellectual and are beginning to be turned off to the grit and force involved in football. Basketball involves strategic play and flashy skills that are more appealing to today’s culture. Since the desire for this kind of sport has increased, the NBA has grown to fit this mold by adding the three point line, and eliminating rough play (Woods). These changes made the game of basketball progress with the times, making it well liked and respected today. Football has kept the same concept and brutal aggression, therefore the culture has bypassed football due to the fact that brute force is no longer a large part of people’s lives. There are also clear statistics that support that basketball is becoming more popular than