Back in the day, when I was growing up, it was honorable to play sports in school and learn life lessons that could only be learned in a team environment. Those in professional sports were people with character and both coaches and players held themselves to a higher standard. No, they were not perfect, but their examples in life and on the field provided role models for us.

I grew up with some magnificent role models. My favorite football team since I was six years old was and is the Green Bay Packers. I started following the team when Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, and other team members with character were playing the game. Never once did I question their patriotism, their love for their country or their love for the game. My parents followed other teams and players: Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach, Tom Landry and others. There were so many in the 1960s and 1970s that were great and we loved to watch them.

Today, there is a small percentage of players that have disgraced themselves, their teams, the game and their fans. The stigma surrounds players who only want to promote personal agendas with no regard for the game. NFL leadership and coaches held captive by these disgraceful players would rather cave and submit to these players than promote American values.

Last year, fans left the NFL and its teams through boycotting games and burning tickets. I am not against boycotting. We need to show Goodell and these players that Americans neither appreciate nor respect them and not support a business (forget the love of the game) that refuses to support America and its values. Forming an alternate league with free agents and others coming out of college would be an amazing way to demonstrate that the NFL is slipping into America’s past, and Americans are ready to move on. It’s glory days are potentially over.

But, without such an alternative to replace the NFL, boycotting could back-fire. I remember when private schools became popular because public schools were turning against traditional American values and stopped teaching subjects that mattered. Homeschooling grew out of that mindset, as well. When parents who were raising their kids with morals and values pulled their kids out of public schools, it left a void in those schools where teachers teach “social” subjects while teaching kids with little interest in learning. Today, we no longer have a strong education system and can no longer compete with other countries.

Boycotting the NFL could have the same result. It will leave the riff-raff to further destroy the game. We must either go all in and take back American football, or we create an alternate league that will result in the NFL churning to a slow death. But doing nothing except not showing up will just remove the good from the game and turn the NFL into a public school – a third-rate organization of players and few fans with no role models.