By NICK VILLALOBOS
Columnist
Being the huge sports fan that I am, it would only be right for me to write my opinion on them.
The NFL versus college football has the spotlight today. I believe that college football is way better than the NFL. It is way more competitive each week in all the conferences. The players also are way harder-working too. They play for two things: their school and their future.
I am sure I am stepping on a lot of people’s toes right now, but it is true — the NFL lacks the same passion that college football has. The rivalry game between Auburn and Alabama is an example of a game with a lot of college football passion. These two teams are vicious when they meet each other every season. Their fans are crazy too. Almost every year, you hear about a fan of either team getting injured or sometimes killed after the game. Each school playing in that game is not only playing to take home the win, but to draw blood as well.
When the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers square off against each other in the NFL, their rivalry is just overplayed by cocky, overpaid players and annoying sports broadcasters. I will get to the players in a minute, but point being Alabama versus Auburn is way more historic to me because the rivalry is not between just the players but the whole schools on either side as well.
Now the players get their time to shine. Starting with the NFL players: They are cocky, arrogant and less passionate about what they do and also get paid an arm and a leg to get drunk, beat people up, murder people oh, and play football too. They can drink and drive or do some other crime that would usually land the average person in the slammer for a couple of years. For them though, the punishment is a fine and suspension from play for a couple of weeks. Yes there have been those controversial cases in NCAA as well where players get in trouble and do not get a harsher punishment than what it should have been. A good example would be Johnny Manziel when he played for Texas A&M. He got caught signing some autographs and took money for it, knowing it was against the rules. His punishment was only half a game suspension in the next game. Yes, that is not right either.
But shifting to the NCAA players now, when they get on the field it is a whole different story. They are passionate for not only what they do, but for who they do it for as well. You do not see Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota go out on the field, dominate Stanford like last weekend, then act like he is the best person in college football like cornerback Richard Sherman of the Seahawks did in the Super Bowl last year.
College players are more humble to be where they are, unlike the cocky, arrogant players in the NFL. Now that is not all players in the NFL, because there are those few exceptions like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who surprisingly is not boastful about being where he is in the NFL.
I will just say this: Yes, the NFL does have some good things, mainly just cool catches on the SportsCenter Top 10 segment at the end of every show on Sunday or Monday nights, but even there I choose college football highlights over the NFL’s. Also, yes, the NCAA did switch to the football playoff system like the NFL has had for several years, but to me it was not to copy the NFL. Instead it was to copy the more popular college basketball bracket system. If it was between watching the Super Bowl and watching an SEC, Big 12 or PAC 12 conference rivalry game, then without hesitation I would go with college football.