The odd thing is that I used to be BIG football fan. When I lived in Texas I knew their names and their games and their aims. I cheered along with all the others and made fattening, salty snacks for my cohorts. I liked when the newscasts in the evening had to spend at least 15% of the newshour on sports. I laughed at the newscasters' jokes which I understood and empathized with their dismay at a loss and shared their ebulliency at a win. I, too, was surprised when my in-laws wondered how this could be news.
Then I grew up or away? I would think about the salaries, the hormones and drugs, the excess in testosterone that led to unfortunate events, and the huge business machine that shoved aside city neighborhoods and interfered with my DVD taping of The Good Wife. I remember when Dan Rather walked off the set of his newscast when yet another overtime game delayed his news broadcast. I thought he was a Prima Donna back then. Now I think he was pretty brave. Yes, many of these dudes are good and honest and philanthropic, but there are now 4 game nights!! FOUR! What if there were four nights of Antique Roadshow type shows that delayed your entire regular viewing schedule on a Monday night as people discussed the value of that antique snuff box and took bets---in your living room? Or four nights of 3-hour-long Duck Dynasty visits. Yes, with the hundreds of cable channels, there probably ARE, but you are trying to distract me from my point...which is...I find these months drag on far more than the winter itself.
"Guess what the score is?" hubby calls from the next room.
"What?" I sigh.
"42 to 0!" he laughs.
"And you are still watching it?" I call back in an amazed voice but I am truly indifferent. It is like listening to the Kardashians having a family discussion.
I return to my historical novel on Ireland. (I am so addicted to that country!) Go ahead and fill your afternoons and evenings watching for hours...just turn down the volume, please. Oh, go ahead and Google "football" if you do not believe me.
I love football, but the game is getting too dangerous as players get bigger and faster, and yes it is being ruined by steroids, and it is being diluted by too many games on TV, college, pro and even high school and pop warner. I think I will always be a fan, but I do agree with you there is too much of everything you dislike about it..
ReplyDeleteI was once a football fan -- long time ago. I don't watch much sport anymore although if my Canadiens are playing (hockey) I will usually have the game on. I am quite devoted to the tradition of my team and always know what they are up to. That and tennis are really my only sports.
ReplyDeleteI'll bring my book and join you in a quiet corner of that same room.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on CBS, The Good Wife, and scheduling.
I am not a sports fan. at all. I like to play, or I did back when people got together to do that sort of thing in the park, used to play volleyball for a year or so every Sunday, but I do not like to watch, especially on TV. I used to like going to baseball games until every game became televised and they took so much longer to play while they waited for the commercials to be over. I would be sitting there yelling to 'just play ball!' and football? I have never had any use for that.
ReplyDeleteI love football, but admit to not understanding all of it. I do hate it, though, when the games over-run and interfere with 60 Minutes, the Good Wife, and The Mentalist. I'd also loike to be in the same room with some of the commentators -- for just five minutes... :)
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I'm a sports fan - both playing and watching - but I understand your pain. There is definitely oversaturation. And I abhor most of the talk shows and other fanboy drooling that somehow qualifies as riveting entertainment for those easily amused.
ReplyDeleteNo football watching in this cottage or for many years.
ReplyDeleteQuiet
oh my it is nice.
Temperature dropping, just turned heat up and moved small chest in front of my chair for the candle I like to burn on these long winter nights - as I read.
Hope I remember it is there and do not trip over it :)
Reading your sharing
memories surfaced on one
who had not one TV playing
but several on different stations.
A nightmare...
The draw of football eludes me entirely. There are other sports I will watch, but i do not get football at all. And I would rather read than watch sports on TV.
ReplyDeleteFootball passed me by. For a short while I watched the Chargers in the early 70's. Now, I too would rather read. G used to watch with a beer in hand. No beer now, and no football. I can't even type that word today. Instead, I'm going shopping for a turtleneck or two. My neck is cold.
ReplyDeleteFootball isn't a factor at all in our home; so I get any news about which teams are on top via the newspaper. Sometimes I watch the Super Bowl, if I know the teams, like one of the coaches or quarterbacks. It is though a great day to go shopping as the stores are nearly vacant.
ReplyDeleteThere's a different code of football played here but the devotion of the masses sounds about the same. I loved to watch my children playing but to my shame have not even seen the team my son coaches play a single game. I really must try to this year, that can be my resolution.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a football fan. I just watch the Super Bowl, for the commercials. I do sometimes watch college football if the Ducks are playing.
ReplyDeleteI manage to watch the Good Wife, Antiques Roadshow AND my football team. Of course I don't watch everybody elses football team. Just my Seahawks.
ReplyDeleteRight now I have the Playoffs on, but while I do other stuff. Everything in moderation.
I do love football. I suspect I always will. However, even I can not just sit and watch game after game after game. I have to be watching my team (or an opponent that we might be playing in an upcoming big game). I have to have someone to cheer for.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't like watching with people (ahem, my hubby) who get SO UPSET over the game. Because, in the end, it is just a freaking game! It is silly. And childish. I get upset over plays and I get excited but to get so damn mad (when we are up by 30 points already anyway) is ridiculous.
There.
I've said my piece. ;)
Football is cuddling in the bleachers sharing a warm blanket with friends. Or playing in the band and knowing something good happened when we are directed to play the school song. Otherwise it is an unknown obsession for me.
ReplyDeleteSweetie and i only follow the home teams, and have little interest in anything else. Our boys are different, they learned from Grandpa to watch a lot more.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have no TV or cable, they have to go to someone else's house to watch all the time!
The monopoly of time and attention that what I think of as commercial sports really annoys me badly. Why does our slimmer and slimmer newspaper still have a big sports section, I wonder. I find it all so dull. Luckily, my husband feels the same about these entertainments, as did his father before him. A man who does not like spectator sports is a treasure!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you've had what I experienced as an overdose of TV sports to which all athletic games can contribute. I believe the virus can be controlled by the TV remote operator whose choices expose everyone else in the room. Power outages can sometimes provide relief.
ReplyDeleteI get my bleacher butt fix by watching my grandkids play sports. I rarely watch TV, though mom & dad watch a lot. Thankfully my room is at the other end of the house...
ReplyDeleteI'm not into sports either. I would rather be reading or investing my thoughts into something new.
ReplyDelete