I don’t particularly like football anymore.
That’s not entirely true, I guess. I still watch it. I still know which teams are good and which players are good, but the latter is more a function of playing fantasy football.
I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t love it, even though I’m not sure I ever really did.
Maybe it’s a symptom of my local team having some tough years. I’m the furthest thing there is from a bandwagon front-runner, but when your favorite team struggles, it’s understandably tougher to get fired up every Sunday. I still watch, but the emotional attachment that was there during my college years (spent in enemy territory with a bunch of kids from other enemy territories) just doesn’t grab me anymore.
I would like to think it’s a noble thing, and that all the concussions and other life-altering injuries are making it tougher for me to care so much about a game that doesn’t care at all about those who play it. But that isn’t it, either; football has never not been dangerous, and I’m smart enough to know that. I don’t need studies and lawsuits and statistics to tell me that covering yourself in what is essentially a layer of plastic won’t prevent you from getting a concussion when another guy puts his layer of plastic right under your chin. My father had concussions when he was younger (not from football), and he was always checking us for signs the second my sister or I would hit our heads on something. I grew up with a healthy respect for (and probably a fear of) the dangers of head injuries, but I still watched football.
It’s not just the pro game, either. I grew up watching Penn State football every Saturday. Joe Paterno was like a third grandfather to a lot of youngsters in Pennsylvania. The way his career ultimately ended certainly would have been a hard thing to overcome, but even before that, my investment in the team had begun to wane. Add in the overwhelming (and overbearing) NCAA sanctions that the program is facing for the next few years, and it’s not easy to be a Penn State fan in 2013. Sure, when tomorrow’s game comes on, I will watch it, but its result will have little to no effect on the rest of my day.
Here we are at opening weekend of the college football season, and a week out from Week 1 of the NFL season, and as I see the games pop up on television and the game recaps appear online, I feel almost nothing. Almost as if, within a few years, I might only follow the NFL via fantasy football. And even that I sometimes feel like I could do without.
It might just be a phase. I remember breaking up with baseball in the mid-to-late-90s, having an affair with hockey for a while before eventually taking baseball back. I still watched the games, but if you asked me in eighth grade what my favorite sport was, I would have said hockey. Now, I can barely stand to watch an NHL game.
I also never used to care for the NBA. But now, as the league enjoys the fruits of an incredible influx of talent over the past decade, I’ve been to a dozen NBA games over the last two seasons and have enjoyed myself nearly every time.
So maybe it’s that. Maybe in a couple years, I’ll be painting my face and tailgating three hours before kick-off of a game I don’t even have a ticket for. Or maybe not.
Baseball is and will always be my favorite. I’d say soccer ranks second right now, and probably basketball third. That leaves football in a fourth-place battle with golf.
In 2013, with the NFL running roughshod over the sporting landscape, I find it impossible to believe that someone would say that. Or, at least, I would, if I wasn’t the one saying it.
A Revolution From My Bed 