It may be an unpopular opinion, but the NFL is a greedy, narcissistic bully who needs to be punched in the mouth. Seriously. I love football as much as the next person, but this nonsense of the league pushing itself into the spotlight 365 days a year needs to stop. Take a breather, for crying out loud. Anyone ever hear the phrase, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”?

Don’t get me wrong. I love my football Sundays in the fall. Always have. I’m not a religious person, so, frankly, I am fine with football taking over Sundays. If the universal spirit that ties and binds all things wants to try and take the day back, well, that’s a fight that doesn’t involve me.

But Sundays weren’t enough, apparently. Especially during the holidays. Don’t like having to sit around the Thanksgiving table with family? Don’t even have a family? Don’t worry. The NFL has you covered. You can now spend your holiday with the Detroit Lions and as time goes on, we’ll set you up with more reasons to sit in front of your TV all day.

Then the NFL needed some prime-time attention, so they took over Monday nights as well. After all, who doesn’t need to wind down with three hours of football after that long, grueling first day back at work, right? Then, late in the season and during the playoffs they started to creep into Saturdays. The NCAA gave them the tiniest of windows between the regular college football season and the Bowl games and the NFL took it without hesitation.

Then it was Thursday nights, another prime-time money-grab. If people were staying home to watch Friends, Seinfeld and Cheers on Thursdays, why wouldn’t they watch football too? Schedule adjustments were made, bye weeks were included and the NFL now had a hold on three (sometimes four) of the seven days of the week. Maybe if football were still just a once-a-week sport, I could understand the league looking for more real estate, but the NFL has been taking and taking for decades now and they aren’t going to stop until they own it all.

The NFL Draft is in April, so if you need a mid-month break from all that baseball you were being treated to, the NFL rides to the rescue again. What? You need a break in May too? OK, we’ll talk about OTAs like players running around without pads actually means something. June too? Time to cover the optional mini-camps like it’s crunch-time for the playoffs and once MLB takes its mid-season break in July, NFL Training Camp is in full-swing because two months of preseason coverage has most of us riveted [insert sarcastic eye roll here].

But it doesn’t end there.

Remember when Christmas Day used to belong to the NBA? Not anymore. After years of watching families gather around to unwrap presents, eat a big holiday dinner and settle in to some premium hoops, the NFL shoved its way in. They didn’t even use COVID as an excuse for needing the day to play a make-up game. They scheduled Saints/Vikings on Christmas Day months in advance and you’d be a fool to think they won’t do it again. In fact, they’ll probably add two more games and run it like a Thanksgiving Day slate.

Or how about this NFL free agency nonsense we just witnessed? The “legal tampering period”? It’s actually been going on since 2013, but this year really stood out like a turd in a punch bowl. For those not aware, the NFL sets its free agency period to start on St. Patrick’s Day, obviously with the intent to grab headlines during another holiday, but now has this “legal tampering period” that starts days before. Why not just pick a mid-March Monday every year for the start of free agency? Oh, that’s right. This also happens to be the exact same time the NCAA has its Selection Sunday for the annual March Madness college basketball tournament. So, on Monday, when everyone is supposed to be salivating over the brackets and debating tournament seedings and snubs, we’re inundated with an array of pre-free agency signings of second-string defensive linemen, back-up offensive tackles and the occasional tight end. Are you kidding me?

Listen up, people. Take notice now. Your sports are in danger of being pushed down to the bottom of the barrel with regard to attention, which, in turn, leads to money losses. MLB is losing ground by the second. Christmas Day isn’t the only thing the NBA stands to lose and the NHL is already the Rodney Dangerfield of sports. And as for collegiate-level sports, well, with the cost of an education these days, these institutions are going to start dying out as well while their sports programs get absorbed by the minor league systems out there.

It’s time to stand up to the bully and fight for your sport.