In the race for sports supremacy, the NBA is proving themselves to be making better pace. Cartoon by Suncana Pavlic
The NFL is currently the most popular sport in America, but it might not be long before the NBA takes this title.
The NFL is an American leviathan of an industry. The organization makes billions of dollars annually, and dominates our media and public consciousness. The Super Bowl brings in over 100 million viewers every year, and even the commercials have achieved a status of notoriety, a demonstration of the seemingly indomitable influence that the sport has over American culture.
This dominance, however, has a notable and quickly rising challenger — a challenger that will soon overtake the NFL as America’s most popular sport.
The NBA is the nation’s second most popular sport, and it is quickly accumulating attention. It recently had its second most-watched season ever, and the association is in a golden age of unprecedented talent and starpower.
The NBA as a league is more progressive than the NFL. The NFL has recently dealt with the controversy of protests, in particular, the actions of former team quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protests received national attention, consequently leading to Kaepernick’s unspoken blacklisting from the league. The NBA and its commissioner Adam Silver are much more supportive of player activism, sending an open letter to its players stating the intent to work with the players on these issues.
The NBA is also more progressive with mental health, with players such as Kevin Love and Demar Derozan opening up on their battles with depression and anxiety.
The NFL has dealt with a different health issue that has received increasingly negative publicity: the emergence of research on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disorder that is caused by repeated blunt contact to the head and can lead to depression, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, suicidal thoughts and a plethora of other horrifying symptoms.
A study done in 2017 by Boston University examined 111 bodies of former NFL players who had donated their bodies to science. 110 of the subjects were found to have CTE.
The NBA does have injuries, but unlike the NFL, it is not a contact sport, meaning there aren’t anywhere near as many incidents of head trauma.
Another cause of concern for the NFL is their declining ratings. According to Sports Illustrated, the NFL’s flagship show, Sunday Night Football, has suffered a 4 million viewer drop from 2015 to 2017, hitting an 18 million viewer average last year. That figure still dwarfs the NBA’s average game viewership, but there are only 16 games in an NFL season, placing a greater importance on each game in comparison to the NBA’s regular season.
A recent Gallup Poll found that 37 percent of American sports fans chose football as their favorite sport, which is down from 43 percent in 2007. Basketball is only at 11 percent, again dwarfed by the NFL’s domineering presence. However, the NBA is on an upward trend, increasing 3 percent since 2007.
It may not happen within the next five or even 10 years, but the NBA will eventually become America’s pastime, just like baseball once was before the NFL.
