First, let me preface this by saying I am a sports fan — an enormous sports enthusiast.
I have been an avid Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Phillies fan since my father took me to my first games as a child. However, society has reached its decadent zenith regarding professional sports this weekend with the NFL playoffs when the league put a game on the streaming site Peacock and audiences had to pay a fee to watch it. It also holds true given professional sports leagues’ biases in promoting radical left-wing political ideology through its mega-platform.
A few years ago, it was the flag-kneeling by NFL players. Then, it was the left-wing indoctrination “End Racism” signs painted in end zones. Now, it’s the new coach of the New England Patriots who sees “color” and “racism,” except when that color and racism occur against white people, of course, through agitations such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. And they do all this while still trying to nickel and dime fans nationwide by asking them to pay for their product on streaming services.
And even worse, millions of people agreed to pay for it. They complied with the billion-dollar sports league’s asking price. The Peacock-streamed game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins was the most streamed event in the country’s history. So much for the crippling prices and financial difficulties of living in the Biden economy!
People had to pay a fee to watch the game and sign up for Peacock TV. The game reached a total of 27.6 million viewers, the Washington Examiner reported. It cost $6 to sign up. Admittedly, it’s not a significant amount, but for something that used to be free, now costing anything with the revenues going to a sports league worth billions, it just shouldn’t sit right with people. The NFL extorted its fanbase to make even more money, and fans willingly went along.
A year ago, people were complaining about groceries costing more money, and yet, on Saturday, many of those very same people paid to watch a playoff football game. Entertainment rules the people in the country, and sports leagues know how to milk Americans for as much money as possible to maximize profits. And even as an avid sports fan, I find it morally reprehensible. It’s enough to turn one off from watching professional sports. How many billions of dollars do these sports leagues need to make from people who claim to be struggling and living paycheck to paycheck?
The playoff game is the most recent example of an instant-gratification addiction to sports. It was first noticeable during the NFL flag-kneeling controversies a few years ago. It was then I first realized that these athletes know they have a large portion of this country’s voters addicted to their product and can do or say anything without consequences.
This idea was reinforced when, during the pandemic, Major League Baseball pitcher Blake Snell commented that if he had to suffer a reduction of the millions he made in salary because of a shortened season, he would consider sitting out the season.
“Y’all gotta understand, man, for me to go — for me to take a pay cut is not happening because the risk is through the roof,” Snell said at the time. “No, I gotta get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, OK?”
Snell was scheduled to make $7 million for the year. He claimed that he would sit out because it was insulting to get paid less because of the pandemic. He said he was “risking his life” and shouldn’t lose money because of the worldwide pandemic from which everyone was suffering. Disappointingly, fellow millionaire and Philadelphia Phillies player Bryce Harper echoed Snell’s greed. And yet, like a dog returning to his vomit, I willingly tuned back in. So, I am just as bad as everyone else. However, I have been asking myself this question more often than ever before: When is enough, enough?
And now, here we are in 2024, and millions of people just let the NFL normalize charging more money to watch its product. Something that should be considered nothing more than leisure and entertainment arguably has a vicelike grip on the functioning survival of a large population segment. It is a troubling sign indeed.
I am all for watching professional sports. It’s an entertaining break from the rigors of daily life (unless you live in Philadelphia and have to watch your team collapse in recent seasons). However, entertainment is all that it is. Sports leagues and athletes should realize the privileges of people spending their hard-earned money on their products. Instead, they keep taking their money and expect them to genuflect to their every whim to increase league revenues.