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The NFL season kicked off Thursday night, I was right here, slaving over a hot blog post when the Nuke called.
"Wow, Dad! Isn't this exciting? Peyton Manning and the Broncos open the season at Mile High!"
"Is that tonight?"
"Seriously Dad, you're joking right?"
The Nuke is a big Denver fan. Who can blame her? She was born there. She spent the first few years of her life in Colorado.
Of course, she also likes Peyton Manning. When he went to Denver, that was a pretty big deal. She was a bit bummed about the Tebow thing. His last year in Denver was pretty exciting. People hadn't been so excited about the Broncos since Elway retired. Seems that old John himself wasn't excited at all about Tim Tebow. That's why they now have Peyton Manning.
And no, I had not forgotten that the Broncos were playing the Ravens Thursday night, It was just a rather "Meh" I was feeling. Though I did watch most of the first half and though I did feel the old sporting blood start to boil, it quickly wore off.
Sports.
The older I get, the more ambivalent I get about sports. Quite some time ago the Missus Herself decided she was no longer going to "give a sh!t about a bunch of millionaires playing a kids game".
May have had something to do with the Broncos getting their heads (and other bodily parts) handed to them in yet another Super Bowl massacre. She had been a rabid Bronco fan up until then. She still likes them, but not in the old way. The days when every Sunday we were on the couch, wearing our Bronco T-Shirts, drinking coffee from our Bronco mugs and screaming at the TV are most definitely over.
It was fun, but I have to admit, as I get older, mustering the enthusiasm for that kind of thing is difficult.
It was easier back when I was also an active participant in the sporting life. Playing softball on the squadron team, umpiring the kids' baseball and softball games, coaching and refereeing at the kids' soccer games. From April to October we stayed pretty busy. And pretty active.
As the kids grew up and moved away, as I got older (and yes, a bit more decrepit) sports became a vicarious thing. One didn't participate, one watched.
The Missus Herself one day, not too long ago, suggested we take up golf. I turned to her with a puzzled look on my face and stated, "I don't really need to take up yet another sport which I will no doubt suck at."
Besides which I used to caddy (well, one summer, maybe twice) and didn't really care for the game at all. Hard to believe coming from an Air Force guy, I know. After all, isn't that all we Air Force types do?
No, at least not this old Master Sergeant.
So yes, the baseball playoffs approach, the Red Sox are very much in it. The football season has begun, the Patriots play today, the smell of autumn is in the air and I'm...
Just not feelin' it.
Not yet.
Maybe later.
Meh.
I'm TOTALLY "Meh" on the NFL... never have been a fan. OTOH, I've been known to spend every Saturday in the Fall and early winter on the couch, from approximately 1000 hrs MST until the last second of "College Football Final" around 2300 hrs, moving only to get refills or when nature calls.
ReplyDeleteBut college ball is my second love. Hockey season begins in 24 days (well, 23 if you count the games before the Beloved Wings play on 10/02)... and THAT'S when life begins to be truly worth living. ;-)
Sports wise, I ain't feelin' anything these days.
Delete(Though I'm pissed I missed Michigan yesterday. Simply forgot.)
I get your "meh."
ReplyDeleteEven that there's no exclamation point.
I know what my problem is.
The season starts too early and lasts too long... both pros and college.
About the only thing I enjoyed about yesterday's games is that the best pro football team in LA was beaten by Wazoo.
Heh, on the "best pro football team" remark.
DeleteStill a big fan of all things football, but nothing like I used to be.
ReplyDeleteLike you as I get older my enthusiasm wanes a bit. I've watched maybe 5 baseball games this year, and none from start to finish.
I'm right there with ya Joe.
DeleteAgree, I'm to the point I'll watch college football and baseball, and that's about it! I 'do' play AT golf... :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll watch the Army-Navy game and one or two Michigan games during the season. That's about it.
DeleteCan't remember the last Pro Football Game I've watched, not even the Super Bowl. Not interested in watching criminal thugs whose only talent is running and catching a ball and are paid an obscene amount of money for it whilst somehow being cast as a role model for America's youth. I ask myself, how is this different that Gladiators in the Roman Coliseum? Pro Basketball is no different. Watching Golf is only slightly better than watching paint dry and I truly SUCK at playing it. Anything less than 100 is a moral victory for me. My boss, a scratch golfer, used to ask me to play on Thursday afternoons and he'd always want to bet. Finally got him to stop when I suggested he give me six switchees a nine. He asked what's a switchee? I reply, I tee off and hit it into the water, you're lying three.
ReplyDeleteGotten in to woodworking to keep me doing something. My best talent there is making sawdust, but I've still got all ten, and I can't hear my phone when the router and saw are going, so it's something.
That's my biggest problem with the game right now. Especially after this whole Aaron Hernandez fiasco in NE. No way are these people role models. I think the next sportscaster I hear call one of them a "hero" I'm going to lose my lunch.
DeleteGolf heh. I didn't give that a shot. Why hit that little round ball? I'm not even mad at it.
Hey, I can generate sawdust with the best of them. But in reality, the blog is how I keep my sanity.
Not sure how that is working out!
When asked to testify, I'll swear you seem sane to me.
DeleteHeh.
DeleteDon't watch it on TV for the same reason I don't watch TV; too many commercials. Broncos? Post Army, worked security when they played in the AAA Baseball Bears park and the rickety Denver Universtiy Pioneer Stadium. Never became a fan. Somewhat a Seahawk fan as I was in Seattle when they formed. My employer had season tickets. Have a huge extended family who are fanatic Bronco fans. Enjoy giving them grief.
ReplyDeleteOMG yes. I forgot about the damn commercials. Those drive me to distraction.
DeleteI definitely understand the ambivalence. As I, too, approach the (I'm trying to keep a straight face) golden years, I find less and less to like about professional sports. I still LOVE playing games myself, as any of my softball writings would attest, but watching the pros has become less of an obsession. College football is a preference, as opposed to the NFL. I would sometimes take a women's college softball game over one from MLB. Hockey is still relatively untainted with most of the foolishness and chest-pounding of the NFL, NBA, and others, so I've come to enjoy it more and more. I'm still a Celtics fan because they are a special case with me. I grew up being the only kid in my neighborhood who liked them, and such bonding is terribly difficult to overcome. If they ever deal Rondo, that may be the breaking point; I don't know. Anyway, I understand completely where you're coming from.
ReplyDeleteI get that with Rondo. I'm still seething that the Pats let Welker go. Especially watching him with the Broncos.
DeleteAnd yes, the chest pounding tribal nonsense makes me want to hurl. And that's just the fans.
It's a game people!
(Golden years, I like that. I too would not be able to use that and keep a straight face.)