Sunday afternoon heroes vanish

April 19, 2009

As I was wallowing on the couch this afternoon, I tried to watch with interest one of my favorite sports spectacles – the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs. After a few minutes of watching what was probably a pretty interesting game featuring one of the sport’s biggest stars, Sydney Crosby, I wandered out of the room and perched myself outside to watch the birds fly among the feeders in our backyard.

Once upon a time, I was a HUGE sports fan, especially cherishing football and hockey, and all the news about them. Lately, I just can’t find the passion for professional sports. Could it be that:

* There are too many games of all kinds broadcast now? On Saturdays, there are literally dozens of college football or basketball games on the tube. On Sundays and every other day of the week during the autumn, it seems there is an endless parade of National Football League games. How does one say “overexposure”?

* The greed, arrogance and criminal records of many professional athletes have removed most of them from the pantheon of heroes. Who wants to listen to some 350-pound knucklehead who never earned his college diploma give discourse to the news media about adjusting to life playing for the Philadelphia Eagles instead of the Buffalo Bills – having just inked a $56 million deal while many Americans are lining up for their $400 a week unemployment check? How does one say “forget about Jason Peters”?

* Being a Buffalo sports fan has just turned the whole adventure into an exercise in futility. Both the city’s professional sports franchises are dull, have a lengthy legacy of losing and are unwilling to make bold moves in order to truly pursue a championship. My attitude is: Why bother to watch?

I think, for me, the combination of all three of those factors has made an afternoon of sitting in front of the television watching beer and Cialis commercials interspersed with a little athletic competition a thing of the past.

All in all, I’d rather just watch the birds.