Steve’s Ramblings: A League That has Left Me Behind

By Steve Dunford

In this past, this used to be one of my favorite days of the year.  This year, I am not watching one down of the Super Bowl.

I watched the fourth quarter of the AFC championship game.  I felt like I was doing something dirty, like I was sneaking to do something like I shouldn’t do as a kid.  I was a good boy overall, but I was all boy at times.

I am not a fly by night NFL fan.  This will be the first one in four decades I am going to miss.  The players kneeling for the National Anthem, turned my stomach.

I was going to watch the Super Bowl, but when the league refused to show an add for AMVETS, is when I made up my mind to not watch “the big game.”

The first Super Bowl I can remember was in 1977.  It was the Denver Broncos vs. the Dallas Cowboys.  I remember the Orange Crush shirts.

The next season, I fell in love with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I had a Bradshaw Jersey that I wanted to wear to school as soon as my mother washed it.  I wanted to wear it to church.  Mom limited me to wearing it one day a week.  She was afraid the women of Thompsonville would talk that I had few clothes.

Those Cowboys became public enemy number one.  I still don’t like them.  They have climbed up or below what ever you want to interpret as my third least favorite team from the Patriots and the Rams.

The Steelers were my AFC team, but my NFC team was the St. Louis Cardinals.  If St. Louis would have built  Bill Bidwell a stadium, they would have never left in my opinion.

After the reality of the Big Red leaving the city of St. Louis decided to build a stadium, in a “Field of Dreams” moment, if they build it they will come.

The Rams came to St. Louis in 1995.  There was some bad football in the early days.  I decided that I was going to like this team win or lose.  It was like drinking castor oil in the early days.

I remember the late Jack Buck who called Super Bowl I for CBS, three years before I was born.  He went on a rant during a rain delay of a Cardinal game.  It was during a time baseball was hurting.

He said “I give the Rams 15 years before they move back to LA.”  His prophecy was right on the money, only five years short.

The “Greatest Show on Turf”  gave me some wonderful memories with winning a Super Bowl in 1999, led by QB Kurt Warner, RB Marshall Faulk and WR Torry Holt.

I endured some bad football, when majority owner Georgia Frontiere’s estate sold to a majority group led by Walmart tycoon Stan Kronke, I thought was a good move.

The league refusing ownership of the to minority owner Rush Limbaugh raised my eyebrows of the political correctness of the NFL.  With Cape Giraudeau being his hometown, the NFL feared he would want to keep the Rams in St. Louis.

Being sore about the Rams moving has not healed with me.  I adopted the Packers.

It was week two of this season, I had an afternoon planned of “remote control aerobics” flipping between football games and the NASCAR race.

The Steelers were going to be shown on CBS.  It was kneeling or locking arms.  I applaud West Point graduate and former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva for standing in the tunnel for saluting the flag.

I cancelled my subscription to Red Zone.  I was going to get the sports package out of my house.  It is worth the five bucks to me watch college basketball, the NFL Network is part of it.

One thing that understand is there have been people angry with me for my stance.  It might be one, but I do not want my cable box monitoring I am watching NBC.  I also refuse to watch any commercial online.

There was a Super Bowl party planned at my apartment.  The only thing I did not know about it.  If someone will knock at my door with chicken wings, I am saying I will eat your wings, but we are not watching the game.

There is another sport that I will give up if they strike.  The current collective bargaining agreement in Major League Baseball expires in 2022.

Agents are calling for players to boycott spring training.  Any player that refuses to play, there is someone in AAA that would love to have your spot on the roster.

Yu Darvish, Lance Lynn, and Jake Arrieta is still on the market.  Honestly, in this trio, are these guys worth $20 million to pitch every five days?

There are guys that are making eight figures to play a game.  With the NFL, it disgusts me when players disrespect the flag and the league refuses to sell a 30 second spot to an organization made up of men and women who fought to give them the right to play football.

I thought what is going on in MLB goes hand in hand.  Cardinal pitcher Adam Wainwright made a statement.  “The first million dollars means you will live more than comfortable the rest of your life.  The rest you can help people in a world that needs it the most.”

This is my view, and I will stick to my guns.   I hope it is not taken as being a crepe hanger.

Every event like the Super Bowl there will be posts on social media, how much football players are paid and how less career people are paid like nurses, policeman, and teachers.

I am not knocking the three professions at all.  They do a lot of work for low pay.

The only ones that will not be richer than Justin Timberlake on the field today will be the owners.  It seems like the same crowd that gripes about sports figures does not care that rock starts, actors and Oprah makes.

I tried to keep this under 300 words.  I apologize for going over the four figure mark.  I just had a lot to say.

The NFL has left me behind.  This old geezer does not understand the lack of patriotism.  If Major League Baseball “wildcats”, using an old coal mine term, I will be done as well.