Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Football,  fair or not, is getting a bad rap. Will the sport disappear like Rome’s gladiator games?

I have been a football fan most of my life.

I began officiating high school football in 1979 and still wear stripes and carry a whistle as a referee and crew chief today. As a sports reporter, football season was my favorite time of the year. Despite being one of a handful of women sportscasters in the country in the 1980s, my forward-thinking news director at what was then KTSP-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, anointed me the beat reporter for the NFL’s Cardinals, which meant I got to travel on the team charter, sit in the press box during game time, attend weekday practices, and immerse myself in the world of professional football. Along the way, I covered the college game, as well. Football was glorious.

Now, I wonder if, sometime in the near…