Could the NFL be losing its grip on the fans?

Sports as we know them are at a tipping point.

I'm not talking just about the NBA. I'm not even talking about LeBron James.

How close to the last straw was the argument made last week by witless superstars Ray Allen of Boston and Dwyane Wade of Miami that NBA players need to be "enticed" with additional money in order to play for their country in the Olympics?

Wade started backing up almost as soon as he said it, possibly because not even James -- the former Cavalier for whom Wade serves as a virtual chaperone in post-game interviews -- was self-absorbed enough to say that. Wade might even give Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen a run for the golden dunce cap.

The whole incident was shocking because the honor of representing one's country, while seemingly self-evident, largely escaped both Allen and Wade. But it was also a tipping point because, in the cockeyed, twisted world of the NBA, with its apologist commissioner and its television lackeys, Allen and Wade seemed to be two of the good guys.

I believe any distance either player has managed to create between himself and the remarks was a result of public backlash, not of honest re-consideration. I think both said exactly what they meant. I'm not sure if I'd rather lose without them than win with them. But if I had a say in Team USA's make-up, I'd consider it strongly.

Major League Baseball won't be whole to me until a new commissioner comes along to set a realistic records policy for the steroids era, which made worthless the one thing baseball had over all other sports. That was the sanctity of its biggest numbers.

Current commissioner Bud Selig isn't going to do it. It would be an admission that much of his stewardship of the game was built on the biggest lie in sports since East Germany.

That leaves the NFL.

Could Cleveland become the next Cincinnati in terms of vanishing fan support?

Maybe it will never happen because Cleveland is a football town and Cincinnati is a baseball town. But both franchises have been victimized by years, yea, decades, of poor management.

The Bengals were blacked out locally in six of their eight home games in 2011, despite having a young team that put up a 9-7 record and made the playoffs. They also actually found a quarterback in the draft in Andy Dalton, and in the second round (35th overall) at that!

Bengals fans weren't buying it for a lot of reasons, including past player misbehavior and dissatisfaction with owner Mike Brown's fiscal policies.

In 2010, seven of Oakland's eight home games were blacked out in a season in which the Raiders went 8-8. The Browns would be strutting their stuff after such a season.

When does that tide lap the lakeshore?

After a feckless off-season of trying out, wooing and eyeing wistfully several college quarterbacks, then saying believe what we say about Colt McCoy, not what we do as far as trying to find his possible replacements?

After the realization that the Browns might as well not have hired Mike Holmgren if he's not going to be a magnet for glamour free agents?

The NFL season as a whole is in danger of becoming over-exposed, over-long, over-wrought and over-done, and I'm not even talking about the over-kill of the NFL Draft. The coming season opens on a Wednesday, includes Thursday night games for 13 weeks, and also plays on Saturdays, Sundays and of course Mondays. At some point, more becomes too much.

There is also the integrity of the game, which is currently wobbly.

The New England Patriots a few years ago might have won a Super Bowl through a systematic policy of illegal spying.

A major, inherent tension in the NFL might never be resolved. That is the one between the violence and the players' courage in the face of it, which popularized the game in the first place, and the intent of Commissioner Roger Goodell, under pressure from lawsuits by former players with serious disabilities, to clean it up.

The New Orleans Saints' bounty system and the video of their disgraced former defensive coordinator Greg Williams' vile pre-game speech only made public what has been common practice with some teams for years.

Few people, least of all those running and selling the NFL, wanted to face the dangers of concussions and the repugnance of bounty systems until forced to confront them.

Now will fans love a sanitized game as much?

Is it reasonable even in the NFL to expect continued sellouts in a bad economy, given the price of tickets, parking and concessions. Not to mention the competitive disparity here.

Even when the NFL seems to be riding high, has it begun to slip?

If it tips, will any sport ever grip us as tightly as it once did?

(source Cleveland Plain Dealer)