By Joe Angelino

Sun Columnist

I am a huge fan of the game of football, especially at the college and high school level. But when it comes to the professional level of the game I’ve lost interest tuning in on Sunday, much less actually attending a game in Buffalo or New Jersey.

At some point professional football changed from a fan based sport into a money making spectacle of a business. And the spectacle continues to grow. This past week our President expressed his opinion about protesting NFL players not standing during the National Anthem.

No one needs to be reminded we have an unconventional President who sometimes speaks and tweets from the hip. The NFL players and owners could have and should have remembered they are paid to play a game and stuck to it by steering clear of the fray. But the players have a huge stage in front of an even larger audience and that wasn’t going to go unused.

The last thing the NFL needs is another controversy to push fans away, yet that’s exactly what they have done. My interest waned during the period of after touch down excessive celebrations that included hip gyrations, snow angels and the Saint’s Joe Horn hiding a cell phone in the goal post padding. Those choreographed dances were too ‘cringe worthy’ for me and many fans. The simple spike of the football was perfect as an instantaneous celebration after crossing the goal. But each succeeding prima donna had to out-do the previous until it was such a distraction the rule banning them was too little and too late. Of course there are the run of the mill cases of spousal abuse, drunk driving and under reported drug abuse suspensions.