Why the NHL, NBA, and MLB take a back seat to the NFL

Between league strikes, steroid abuse, and lack of fan support, there is one thing certain in this day and age—NFL Football reigns supreme in the sports world.

I am part of the worldwide revolt too.

When I was a kid, I remember riding my bike to the nearest store to buy a 40-pack of baseball cards—you know, the kind with the 10-year old stale gum in it.

I had bookfulls of my favorite players: Ricky Henderson, Jose Canseco, Ryne Sandberg, and for some odd reason, Tony Fernandez. I actually liked the sport.

Baseball slowly died out as an interest, but throughout high school I lived and breathed the NBA. I loved Dominique Wilkins. I followed teams such as the Magic, Knicks, Hawks, and Suns.

In my eyes, the NFL still rules.

What started for me about three years ago, I now see in everyone else I talk to.

No one gives a rip about any sport other than the NFL.

I will bounce to hockey when the season ends, but to watch it all year long—who really cares?

That's the major problem with other professional sports. Teams play too many games.

If you're a baseball fan, and you lose a few, who cares? You still have a multitude of games to make it up.

Basketball and hockey are the same. No one lives and dies with each game when there are 82 to be played.

People watch an NFL game and know, especially after what has happened this season with the standings, that one game can make or break your favorite team's season.

We give ourselves to every game we watch. Each win makes us feel like we just won the lottery, while it seems that we should take a sick day after each loss.

Baseball is a seriously tainted sport right now. There are new records being broken each year by players who have gained about 70 pounds of muscle in a two-year span. It causes major controversy.

True fans of the game hate that the long-standing records of the greats from the past are being shattered by players like Barry Bonds.

Then there are players like Jose Canseco and others who love to try and take everyone else down with them in their latest biographies. All it does is kill the game that much more.

I live in Pennsylvania, and couldn't believe how there was no hype for the World Series. I was waiting to hear it from every Phillies fan I knew, but even they don't care enough about the sport.

As for the NBA, I went from watching any televised game in the past to barely being able to sit down for more than 15 minutes at a time.

Where have all the pure players gone?

There are no more Jordans, Ewings, Drexlers, Magic Johnsons, or Barkleys. It was players like Chris Mullen, John Stockton, and Reggie Miller that made the games watchable.

Now, a good percentage of the league is either a thug off the street or palms the ball like Allen Iverson.

It also gets tougher to follow when the NBA draft is being held, and two in every three picks are players from Germany or Yugoslavia whose names are downright unpronounceable.

How often do you see kids driving to the hoop against their friends saying, "Kelenna Azubuike for the layup!"

And watching games, these guys are really among the best in the league.

Thankfully there are a few players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant who resemble the past, but for the most part, the majority of the world doesn't care.

The NHL has never been a strong candidate as far as the leading sports go, and their stock has dropped drastically since the 2004-2005 lockout.

As far as the NFL goes, there is no other sport like it. Name me one other sports where there is an actual countdown to the start of free agency?

An actual countdown!

There are football pools that are created for free agency, the NFL draft, realignment, coaches, and what color outfits the players wear on Wednesdays.

This is America's Game!

It's above and beyond the most watched sports on television. Of course, there isn't an American sporting event bigger than the Super Bowl. It's been a yearly Nielsen ratings leader for a while now.

Do you really know anyone who has an NBA Finals party at their house?

How about a World Series party?

Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday in the American public's eyes.

And for now, it will remain that way—most likely for a very long time, unless there is a strike along the way. But I would still seriously doubt that would do too much to kill football.

Now that the 2008 season is over after this weekend, these are the two words that are uttered from a consensus of fans, myself included:

This sucks.