Let's think about this for a bit and then discuss...if this were 1979, would many Zoners be ripping Roger for losing to the Steelers? He should've thrown a better pass to Jackie Smith, Landry was a genius in the early 70s, but now, the league has caught up to him...etc. what else would we be complaining about?
It could be far worse than it is now if you think back to the 70s, 80s, and 90s, before the Internet became mainstream. Back then, behind-the-scenes activities went unchecked, with little talk of culture or accountability, and in many ways, what happened then was probably worse than what happens now. Today, it’s not just the Internet, everyone has a cell phone with a camera, and social media connects us in real time. People are constantly under a microscope, followed by media and content creators, with teams tracking players to dig up anything worth reporting, down to the smallest, most trivial details.
That’s the society we live in today.
Social media today would tear apart the on-field play, from dropped passes to ugly, low-scoring games where teams just couldn’t score. Remember all that talk back in 2017 about Prescott not throwing enough touchdowns? Back then, there were maybe five TV channels, and even with the start of cable, only about 30 channels, usually just one dedicated sports channel, plus the occasional sports special on a major network. Everything revolved around the newspaper, you’d read it alone, then maybe talk about it at the bar or barbershop.
The way people criticize players now, I can only imagine how they’d go after the athletes, coaches, and teams of the past, especially with the partying, drinking, drugs, and the whole steroid era.
With today’s tools, background checks, reverse number lookups, you can find where people live, where they shop, who their partners are, and sometimes even both wives and girlfriends. Lol.
There was a thing called privacy back then, there is no longer any kind of privacy for major sports athletes.
