I've lost my taste for spectator sports

[bigtree]

...I'm going to confess that I haven't watched baseball since the Senators were the home team, and basketball lost me when Jordan retired (*tell your age without giving up the #).

But I've always been crazy about football. Nothing like burning one in the parking lot, snugging into your seat with countless others in bulky outerwear, and cheering on the Terps in a home game.

I'm a home team fan with pro football, too, so it's been an adjustment boycotting games over what I think is one of the most self destructive displays of ignorance I'll ever witness, both the players risking infecting each other, and now the fans joining in.

When I was a teenager, I quit eating meat for a few months. After a while, it was almost impossible to pull apart chicken and eat it, or even a burger - and even stuck to it during the time when Dad would take us by McDonald's every Saturday night after skating, or a dance or something. I just couldn't.

I'm still off of football this year. So much denial, and so much risk. I just can't, but, I don't miss it anymore. In fact, it sort of sickens me to think about it.

[canetoad]

1. Yup. The decline

In audience participation pretty well sunk the Roman Empire.

[jimfields33]

6. Unfortunately conservatives are boycotting it too

because of the kneeling so it makes it look like numbers are down due to that.

[bigtree]

8. lol

...it was a RE fans who lit Rome up, even though Nero fiddled while it burned.

[Tetrachloride]

2. I am of 2 minds

My pro sports watching dropped like the plague after high school.

On the other hand, due to writing hobbies, i watch more sports this year than the previous 20 combined.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. I would've thought all the concussions and brain damage would've put you off before covid (n/t)

[we can do it]

4. Jordan🤮

[bigtree]

7. if you weren't there

...you could make like it didn't happen.

It was a most exciting comeback, then Jordan’s father James was murdered a month after the 1993 NBA Finals - Jordan had just won his third-straight NBA title.

[we can do it]

17. Betting ok for him, not others🤮

[bigtree]

18. yep, that was wrong

...not revealed during that momentous time, though.

Like I said, if you weren't there...

[Klaralven]

5. Watching games between players I don't recognize has little interest.

I only really followed pro football -- don't like baseball or basketball.

But there seems to have been a lot of change in rosters in the last couple years that I haven't followed. So games tend to be between bunches of unknowns.

[BannonsLiver]

9. Meh, I couldn't be more ready for football.

Bring it on. Maybe all those years of Maryland football is the problem. I’d be put off if I had to watch that as well.

[bigtree]

10. that's what I'm seeing/ hearing

...'meh, bring it on.'

Covid's got swagger for football, too.

Link to tweet

America's never going to end our pandemic

[BannonsLiver]

12. I'm not going to the games

And I rarely leave the house. The games will be going on regardless of whether I watch them. Me turning off the TV is not going to alter that trajectory.

But again, I get it. If my primary football viewing activity revolved around Maryland football, I’d probably be put off too.

Anyway, Bucs-Cowboys tonight. I’ll be in my Covid bunker enjoying it.

[bigtree]

13. it's a matter of principle for me

...and seeing the crowds is more like watching the willful decline of civilization, than anything.

There's nothing more satisfying than a home game on a bright fall afternoon on a Sunday. Home teams win and lose, but for colllege, at least, the game is almost everything to me.

[Hugin]

11. I threw up in my mouth a little during an ad pushing TX and FL based teams.

But, it got better when in a moment of incredibly uncharacteristic sarcasm (usually my domain) my SO said, "Oh, look they're back to promoting deathination travel."

I learned hysterical laughter with bile in the back of your throat is a bit unpleasant and off-putting.

[Paladin]

14. As long as I'm not a spectator, I think spectator sports are fine.

I stopped attending games of any sort years ago, long before Covid turned up. Hey, the TV's large, the chair is comfy, and there's lots of cold beer close by. Beats the hell out of traveling to Dallas and putting money in Jerry Jones' pocket...

[bigtree]

16. if they ever get their house in order

...I'd likely come back to it.

Thing is, we're all waiting for someone else to do something about the tragedy of the crowds, when most of the problem is individual acquiescence to it all.

It's that way with most things I advocate against. I'm often fortunate to keep myself out of the way of abuses, neglect, or malfeasance that I stand in opposition to.


Mapping college football crowds and COVID (interactive)
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/29608840/mapping-college-football-crowds-covid-risk

[Aristus]

15. I lost my taste for it a long time ago.

As CJ Cregg said in The West Wing: "Does it bother anyone that after almost every play, someone needs medical attention?"