The New York Times recently published a thought-provoking piece asking if professional football will soon face a downturn in popularity due to its violence much like boxing did in the early 80s. I think that sets up a false premise, but it's a good read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/us/boxing-is-a-brutal-fading-sport-could-football-be-next.html
I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of issues raised here regarding boxing, football, ratings, risks and (lastly and most importantly) head trauma. (I don't know a lot in this life, but I know a lot about what little I know. :-) ) Stick with me here:
This is a fantastic piece that tackles a lot of important issues (watch the videos too), but I think it mixes its facts/messages a bit. It ties a downturn in boxing to the Mancini/Kim fight in 1982 when Kim unfortunately died, and states that boxing's violence turned viewers off. However, it ignores the massive media blitz, ratings increases and pay-per-view records set just a few years later in the late 80s/early 90s during the Mike Tyson era that garnered such attention specifically because of the violence that a Tyson fight promised. Tyson himself was downright deified because he was horribly violent both in and out of the ring, and the public/media loved it. (The glorification of awful people is a subject for another time.) Boxing got a lot of bad publicity (rightfully so) for its inherent danger and medical risks around the time of the Mancini/Kim bout, but what really killed the sport off from the mainstream was corruption, no centralized organization, shady promoters like Don King and so many weight classes and titles that the general pubic couldn't keep up with it. It wasn't because of the sport being too violent for public consumption, though sponsors did start distancing themselves more.
In the early days, boxing was attractive for TV networks because it was simple to understand and cheap to produce. One location (a ring), two guys, some gloves, a ref and you're good to go. As TV expanded, the viewing options for the public also expanded. Boxing didn't adapt well as the competition grew.
Thanks to the disorganization and corruption that wore out the patience of the general fan, boxing became a niche sport, with only select stars drawing mainstream attention, which is why the pay structure is so sharply skewed to a select few. (In this generation, your Mayweathers and Pacquiaos, for instance.)
When Mayweather and Pacquiao finally fought, what was the general consensus from the public? That the fight was boring. In other words, the fight wasn't violent enough to satisfy a majority of the people who paid money for it. Extreme violence has not been boxing's problem when it comes to lack of viewership and attention. If every fight delivered what you see in a "Rocky" movie, people would tune in by the millions.
I'm not a football fan, and I actually don't follow boxing all that much. But the NFL's problems regarding concussions right now I don't think are because of the violence/hits themselves that make the public queasy, as the article states. Clearly that's not the case. Ratings are higher than ever. The NFL's issue is the fact that they clearly knew about these risks many, many years ago and intentionally hid that information from the players and tried to discredit any research that brought concussion dangers to light. There's no way to justify that in my mind that isn't evil.
I don't think either boxing or football should be banned, as long as the people participating in it are fully aware of the medical risks. I'm a fan of the sport of mixed martial arts, and that carries concussion risks as well, though nowhere near as much as boxing statistically. (MMA statistically is rougher orthopedically on knees, shoulders, etc etc but boxing is much more dangerous for head trauma. In boxing, the sole goal is to knock out an opponent, and they have a ten count to get up after getting knocked down. In MMA, submissions/grappling are common, and the fight is supposed to end the second a fighter can't defend himself, with no ten second recovery period to continue fighting. This reduces the amount of head impact significantly when compared to boxing.)
CTE is a terrifying illness that still isn't fully understood. There's no doubt now that excessive violent blows to the head, regardless of the source (boxing, MMA, football, soccer, car accidents, whatever it may be) can cause serious issues such as depression, speech impediment, memory lapses and even forms of dementia. That's scary. Concussions are scary when they happen, especially at an early age. It feels like you've lost part of yourself that you aren't able to get back again. All it takes is one bad hit in the wrong spot at the wrong time to permanently change someone. One. If adults who are rightfully educated about those risks choose to partake in these types of activities, I have no problem with that since I'm a big believer in free will. But this is not really a violence issue as the article implies- it's a lying, manipulating and ethical abuse issue so rich people could get richer for a longer period of time. And that's the part that really is not okay.
Rant over.