For weeks, the NFL was involved in a controversy as contentious as the Protestant Reformation: a salary dispute with and concomitant lockout of referees...and their replacement by lower-level officials who have already made countless blunders, failed to understand football's elaborate rules, and even counted an interception as a touchdown by the player who never caught the ball.

Their ineptitude has enraged the fans. In Baltimore, they united into a "fuck you" chant that the…

“No child should predecease their parents.  I remember what it’s like (PAUSE).  It brings back (PAUSE)…It brings back memories…that call, out of the blue.”

Joe Biden

Why is football still legal?  It’s a serious question.  Why maintain, nay, lionize a pastime that wrecks bodies and minds? 

A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt, that manliest of…