There are layers to hatred. There is base level disdain. A passive but pure form of disliking an entity. However, I find vitriol to be the peak of my hatred. I would describe my vitriol as “uncontrollable dislike and need for expression of said dislike”. While I may have disdain for Ohio State, I exude vitriol for the NFL.

            I have felt this build up for years and I want to do the best that I can to express how I feel about the league. It is a tinge of sadness, with a dash of rage, but mostly it is just disappointment. There is stuff to be excited about in the NFL. We are witnessing a level of talent in the NFL that is unparalleled. For Christ’s sake, Saquon jumped over someone backwards this year. The content makes itself. It IS entertaining, it IS fun, and it IS something I want to watch and enjoy. Then the NFL gets involved. They make rules, rulings, and launch investigations. “Changes” and “adjustments” that we as the fans are not asking for, nor do we need them from an analytical POV. The NFL could be better and does not want to be. It is beyond complacent, it is resigned. It sets the pins up automatically like a bowling lane. It does not care what happens to the pins, nor if the bumpers are up or down for bowlers (teams in the metaphor). The NFL just needs you to bowl, 17* times a year and you get a check. The machine will continue to move along and give as little back as it possibly can.

            The NFL is beyond the worst league in American team sports. Not in terms of TV Ratings, or whatever dick measuring competition the leagues want to use. No, by any intangible or non-corporate measurement, the NFL is the worst league to be a part of. It has a terrible league structure and insists on making it worse. “The Shield” continually sets the bar for what other leagues can get away with and how they can do it. Of course, teams moving cities would never be an issue either because NFL owners are loyal decent people. There would never be any concern for the players either after they are done playing in the league because (again) the owners are SO incredible and look after all of their employees. Oh, how could I forget about the world class management that you will get to work with? The sharpest minds in the world gather to decide the future of your favorite athlete’s wallet, and whether or not your team will ever be good again.

            Other leagues experience issues like this, sure. The NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB have all had teams move cities for example. All of those leagues have seen downright terrible trades too. No other league does shit shows quite like the NFL though. From the quietest trade deadline in the world to the constant covering up and excusing of domestic violence, the NFL really knows how to be a special kind of bad. A kind of bad, that needs to be continually talked about. A kind of bad that is damning of all the souls that sit in the commissioner’s desk.

            I want this series to be a breakdown of things that I have described above. Anything from the Titans trading AJ Brown, to Deshaun Watson signing with the Browns for $300 million (guaran-fuckin-teed) amidst a civil rape suit, to any of the other things that will inevitably come up in the future. I will be here. As the kids say, if the NFL has no haters, I must be dead.