For most of us this week winter has finally come. It seemed the perfect weekend for our first artic plunge as it was Wild Card Weekend in the National Football League, and I could hunker down with three days of football. As a Kansas City Chiefs fan, I was excited to watch them take on the Miami Dolphins and hoped the Chiefs’ receivers could catch the ball in the cold. Yet, to my surprise and frustration while watching the Cleveland Browns-Houston Texans game, I saw an advertisement for the next game, only streaming on Peacock. I don’t have Peacock. I thought about subscribing for just this game, but I already have more streaming services than I need, and I refuse to be forced to subscribe to yet another. The advertisements for Peacock all said the same thing: It’s the first time a playoff game will be streamed and so sign up and be part of history. Streaming a playoff game is historic, but the NFL should note it’s probably not the history they are hoping for.Today in sports there are the big four that dominate: baseball, basketball, hockey and the biggest of all, football. Yet, if we traveled back 100 years, the sports scene was much different with the big three being horse racing, boxing and the one constant baseball. In the 1920s and ‘30s everyone had their favorite horse, and the most significant sports star was the heavyweight boxing champ. Every kid dreamed of being the heavyweight champion and the sporting events were the biggest thing on the radio. This changed over time and for many reasons.While baseball still has a considerable following it has fallen behind basketball and football in popularity. Most consider this due to TV. Baseball is perfect for radio but is thought of as too slow to keep modern audiences glued to a TV the way the fast-paced sports like football do.For horse racing, most historians see four major causes. First, horse racing used to be the only legal form of gambling, but then the rise of casinos captured the attention of gamblers.Secondly, the move to the suburbs in the 1950s took people away from the tracks mostly built in urban areas. Thirdly, horses did not race as much. If a horse won a leg of the Triple Crown, they were sent to stud. Its hard to develop relationships with favorite horses if they only ...
