Supporting NFL Football?

[robert]

I was listening to the radio a few days ago and the host was reading off random facts just for fun/entertainment.

One of the things he mentioned was that it takes 3000 cows to produce all the leather footballs needed for an entire NFL football season.

Kinda makes you think twice or thrice about supporting the NFL.

It is unfortunate that so many sports (especially at the professional level) "require" leather or other animal products in their footwear or other equipment such as baseball gloves, basketballs and footballs.



When I was in high school many years ago our Physical Education teacher/head football coach went out of his way to order all non-leather footballs and basketballs for use on the sports teams and P.E. classes. He did that specifically because of the issues I brought up back then when I was a super-activist in school.


-Thin Thin Flat Him

[veganmadre]

I've never been intrigued by football and now that I have that vulgar statistic, I'm put off more. Echk.

Wonder what the statistic is for college football as my brother plays college ball....

[veggymeggy]

I love football....and BASEBALL (hehe as Robert and co. well know) but (again, as I was discussing with Robert earlier)...the leather aspect had never even occurred to me....I wonder if a petition drive were started if there could ever be enough force to change to non-leather balls?

[CollegeB]

I have my doubts about the NFL changing because of petitions. You would certainly have to deal with all the super macho morons saying whats wrong wtih dead cows they taste great, you know all that kind of garbage. People hate changes they dont want to make.

[Corey]

The idea of supporting the NFL does make me uneasy when it comes to the mention of that statistic. I personally also feel uncomfortable with the fact that I figure skate and high-grade skating boots are only produced in leather. I feel really bad about owning a pair and pretty hypocritical given my activism in regards to other aspects of veganism, but I'm not about to stop skating because of it. I don't think football is inherently evil because they use leather footballs. It could just be that no one in power has ever questioned the tradition of making footballs out of leather. So maybe it's up to us to contact them, asking for alternative materials to be tried as a replacement to leather products. Now that I think about it, I might try contacting some skating brands to inquire about non-leather skates. I'm sure that'll be interesting ...

[robert]

Hey Corey,

Yeah, I don't mean to say that the sport is evil, I just wanted to share tha pretty amazing stat with everyone and just put that idea out there. To question where the equipment comes from for the sports that are out there.

Glad to have you back

Good luck with the skating company.

-Robert

[willpeavy]

I don't dismiss the sport just because they use leather balls. I mean I don't like leather balls, and I wish they would use something else. But imagine if we got a vegan player in the NFL. I would hope he would spend his time promoting plant-based eating and just skip the leather balls issue since about a million times as many cows are killed for McDonald's hamburgers than for footballs

[V VII Hero]

I have never been a fan of football, as I have watched it cause too many life-threatening injuries.

[robert]

I don't dismiss the sport either, just want to bring up the subject. I just wanted to bring up the fact that there are some alternatives for certain sports equipment at certain levels.......like at my high school, when the coach ordered all non-leather footballs and basketballs. When I played soccer I would get non-leather shoes, same with basketball.

Just something to think about....non-leather weight lifting gloves, and all the other options for the various sports we play.

www.veganessentials.com and some other large vegan websites will have a lot of this equipment or links to where you can find it.

-Robert

[willpeavy]

True man that's awesome that you were able to get your coach to switch over to non-leather equipment. YOu've got persuasion power!