There's much less of an active opposition to the other professional sports and entertainment industries, including many with all the same attributes you just li

There's much less of an active opposition to the other professional sports and entertainment industries, including many with all the same attributes you just listed. The opposition is primarily to how much more dangerous tackle football is to the athletes than other sports, especially to the brain. Try watching football's close relative rugby (popular in much of the world), or hockey (popular in the northeastern US and Canada among other places), baseball (still popular nationwide even if not as much as football), basketball (ditto), or professional wrestling (more entertainment than actual sport but still athletic). Depending on your particular preferences, those are all pretty fun... And don't tell hockey fans that you think their athletes' body checks and damaged teeth are a baby sport... Some of those sports have significant physical danger too, but based on the evidence available to date, American tackle football is currently the most dangerous major sport played.