But Seriously, Folks...

Welcome to the new & improved version of Blueshirt. Notice the fancy header, the subtitle, and the new content on the side. I figured it was time to add a little pizazz to the site. Consider this the first step in an ongoing evolution....

Anyway, now that I've dispensed with the pleasantries, allow me to get to the point. It occurred to me this weekend that following sports really is a big waste of time. (I don't mean to oversimplify - I obviously had my suspicions already or I wouldn't have undertaken this project in the first place.) The problem is that suddenly it troubles me greatly.

The realization really hit home yesterday. If this were an ordinary year in my life, I would have spent the afternoon at Haas Pavilion watching the Bears play (and lose to) the Oregon Ducks. And normally it would have been fun - those two teams always put on a good show in Berkeley and the Bears usually win.

But because I wasn't attending the game, I was able to take advantage of our unseasonably warm winter day and play 9-holes of golf at Tilden Park in the morning. Time is so scarce on the weekend that doing both would have been impossible.

So it really was that simple. I traded two hours of sitting on my duff, indoors, for two hours of walking around beautiful Tilden Park while working on my flawed golf game. No doubt, it was an upgrade all around. (I should add that even if the Bears had won it still would have been an upgrade).

Good for me - I did the right thing. But what about all the fans who actually went to Haas yesterday? And what about the millions of fans all across the country who watched their favorite college basketball game yesterday? Or the hundreds of thousands who watched their favorite NBA games yesterday? And let's not forget the die-hard NHL fans who watched their hockey heroes check each other into the boards last night.

I know that sports are hugely important to our society, and I understand better than most people why that is. But for the first time in my whole life I'm questioning if perhaps it's too important. The amount of time and money that people pour into sports (myself included) suddenly seems somewhat misplaced.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to make this argument, but I don't think it gets much play in the popular press. And how could it? Every major newspaper and television station in the country has a sports department. Who is going to get on their soapbox and tell Americans to stop wasting so much time watching the very content they're selling?

Indeed, sports have become big, big business. And big businesses want to get bigger, not smaller. For years, David Stern was lauded as the best commissioner in professional sports because he successfully marketed the NBA overseas. Everyone knows the fastest way to grow a business is to assimilate new markets, and Stern is the master.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to do with my newfound concerns. Writing about it is a good first step, and quite possibly the last. But is there something more that can or should be done? Do people need to be challenged on this issue? Or do most people just follow sports casually enough that a few hours here & there each week wouldn't really make a difference anyway? And if they didn't follow sports, would they just use the time to do something equally as frivolous? Perhaps even destructive? I certainly don't know.

What I do know is that people like me who love sports don't really think anything else is quite as entertaining so they don't worry about all the implications. They just want to root for their teams and talk about the games. Ah, the good old days....

Cheers,
Chris