We'll admit to a certain love-hate relationship with Grantland. On the one hand, at times the site has really good long pieces. At others, it tries to compete with sites like Slate and Salon. Highly ambitious, but not at all easy.
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This article on the decline of New York basketball is an example of the former. It has enough room to grow and become something that's really interesting.
Who knows why it's happening? Multiple theories are proposed and it's likely all of them have a bit of the truth and it's also likely true that some of them work particularly well with particular kids.
There's no denying, for instance, the hold that technology has on kids today. Older people use YouTube for fairly specific things and get in and get out quickly. Younger people are making it a much more key part of their lives.
We heard a piece on the radio recently about on-line gaming tournaments which, very much under the radar, are drawing massive audiences.
If you didn't grow up with that, it's hard to believe that people seek out a chance to watch people play video games.
Nothing is guaranteed. Baseball is still here, but the nation's past time? Not really.
Many parents, including President Obama, would be very reluctant to let their children play football, a reality only reinforced by recent revelations about concussions. In that sense, barring technological changes to protect the brain or a very different approach to the game, football will never be healthier than it is today.