Found Argument: NFL.

"Thank God for College football season.  What would we do with out it, because the NFL sucks" - Josh

Tonight I was sitting at a bar with a couple of my friends and the sportscaster on TV started talking about the opening games of the college football season.  My friend Josh really cares about sports.  I do not.  Josh made the above statement and then went on to talk for about ten minutes about how the NFL is a "bunch of thugs" and if you want to see real athleticism and true competition you have to ignore the NFL and go with college football.  In general, Josh believe that professional sports are full of "showboats and [expletive] primadonnas" and that you have to look to the younger athletes to see anyone who is not so corrupt by money and greed that they haven't lost the real love of the game.  Since Josh is a true sports fan - he loves to watch, play, and follow the stats of almost every type of sport, he is most concerned with the athletic and competetive aspects of football viewing.

I think that Josh's argument is valid but that it ignores a whole other part of the discussion about why people might chose to watch the NFL instead of college teams.  If everybody watched football on tv because they love the game, they love watching skilled players play with passion, and they value competition and sportsmanship, it would be okay for him to conclude that the "NFL sucks."  But not everyone is like Josh and he does not take into account that people watch professional sports teams for lots of reasons.  Many people didn't go to college and therefore don't have any obvious ties to college or university teams.  Also, many people watch professional sports teams because of emotional ties from childhood, because an influential family member was a fan, or because they look up to a member of the team after hearing them speak.  Furthermore, a lot of people become fans of  both professional and college teams for social reasons - they go to games or watch games because it's a way to hang out with friends and be part of something bigger than themselves...or because they want to drink.  So in conclusion, while I agree with Josh that college football is probably the route to go if you really care about football in and of itself, I think that it's an overstatement to say that the "NFL sucks" and has no entertainment value.