TRAUMA TELEVISION: NFL vs SVU

 

Trauma television: scenes where you look away.

The NFL is a hard watch at the beginning of the season because we forget how violent it is.

Then we get up to spreed.

When injuries happen it’s, “Well that’s football.”

I started watching NFL football back when the AFL was the new league to the established NFL.

It felt like the varsity and the junior varsity before the leagues merged after Joe Namath took the Jets all the way to the top and every kid wanted to wear white low-tops on the field.

Those were the days of trauma television that celebrated the biggest hit on other players.

The crowd goes, “OOOO, AHHH” and the networks cut to a commercial while the player gets scraped off the turf.

Our own Neil Lomax took a hit from Lawrence Taylor that wasn’t as gruesome as Joe Theismann, but it ‘discombobulated’ him.

That’s how a crippling play was described back then.

He had a hip replacement soon after arthritis forced him to retire before his time.

 

When he isn’t fishing for salmon or trying to put a string of pars together during the off-season, Lomax devotes much of his time to working with youth

“It’s always a shock to them that the average length of an NFL career is 4 and a half years.

They think everybody plays for 14, 15 years like a Roger Staubach or O.J. Simpson, then gets a tryout with the ABC Monday night TV crew. That’s what they think.

Everybody gets a million dollars a year, we never get taxed and we never have any problems. The girls love you. Everybody gives you free TVs and houses and everything you want.

That’s just the way it’s illuminated through our society.”

 

Big guys making big money know what they’re doing?

They’ll never get hurt, never get CTE, and everything will be fine, just fine.

They’ll win the big game, marry the cheerleader, or movie star, and be set for life.

But not everyone is Bob Waterfield.

 

NFL vs SVU

The NFL shows young men getting beat to hell for entertainment.

Some walked away just in time, some stayed too long, while others did it with balance.

We love them for their greatness, then forget about them when next season starts with fresh blood.

 

Longevity comes up with Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

 

As of November 21, 2024, the series has aired 559 episodes.

On March 21, 2024, the series was renewed for a twenty-sixth season, which premiered on October 3, 2024.

It’s the longest-running primetime drama series in history, surpassing both Gunsmoke and Law & Order in 2019.

It’s also the longest-running series in the Law & Order franchise.

 

SVU is trauma TV for the win.

The worse the crime event, the better.

With so many shows getting canceled after one season, or rejected before it even gets that far, SVU sets the tone.

How much trauma can be packed into twenty-six seasons?

All of it? Not enough? Just right?

 

What The NFL And SVU Have In Common

“In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.”

 

Me: How many times have you heard this: “In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous.”

Wife: Many, many, many times.

 

She’s a fan.

 

Wife: How many times have you heard this: Out of the fog and darkness over the frozen tundra came the four horsemen.

Me: Never.

Wife: How about: It looks like the Cowboys season is over before it really got started.

Me: Every year. Do you know what I want to hear?

Wife: Oregon Ducks ranked #1 most of the year finally bring the national championship home to Eugene on their third try.

Me: (in tears) Yes.

 

When trauma television tells a story close to home, we tune in.

It’s a story we don’t tire of, apparently.