Sports is everywhere you go. In television ads, in commercial ads and in particular for these next few weeks, it might as well be on every single television channel you try to put on. Starting today the sporting world has four incredible sports feats all happening at the same time. We have the NBA and NHL finals, the US Open tees off today and of course, the holy grail of them all, the World Cup gets crackin today as well.
So what does all this mean? Well for starters it means that people like me will pretty much be incommunicado for a little while. It means that even if you do try to communicate with people like me, the response will most likely be sent back in some sort of sports reference.
"Hey, what are you doing in 4 days?"
"Uhhh, well, Michael Bradley wears the number four and I like him as a player so I could probably free up some time for Michael Bradley's sake."
"That reasoning doesn't even make sense."
And it's true it doesn't, but it is how we think when sports are so prevalent in our lives. Why is that though? Why are we so obsessed with professional athletes? Ever since we were little kids on the playground we have been like this. Playing basketball on the fisher price hoops and taking the persona of your favorite player at the time.
"I get to be MJ!!"
Next thing you know you are in the jungle gym having your friend Freddie pretend stitch up your eye so you can play in the second half.
It is scary how much we know about sports too. Current events? Eh who needs them, I'm curious as to who is going to win the Nascar race at Dover this weekend. Name all 44 U.S. presidents? Nahhhh, name the top 10 left handed point guards with 5 or more letters in their first name? Game on. It's stupid, it really is, but it makes sports that much more enjoyable.
It is so bad that you even start measuring time based on sports. Somebody could tell you a tv show named Johnathan Creek has been going on for the last 17 years and your initial thought is, woahh that is Tim Duncan's entire career. You mean to tell me that this was going on back when Avery Johnson was running the point? It continued through the Robert Horry time? Michael Finley came and went and the Spurs swept the Cavs and all this was still happening? They lost in the Finals to the Heat came back and are a midst another series against them and the show is still going on?!?! That's a long time for a magic show in general, let alone a magic show nobody has even heard of.
I remember my Mom always used to say to me, "If you knew half as much about school work as you do sports, you would be a genius." It is probably true, but it just is not as interesting. Sports almost acts as an escape for us. We vicariously live through these athletes and share the same exuberance with a win and anguish with a loss as they do.
It makes us terrible people as well. Johnny Damon was one of the most beloved Red Sox players ever, the caveman, they called him. Then he made his way to the "Evil Empire" (that's right, we gave a team a nickname that we gave to the Soviet Union in 1983 because that's how much we dislike them) and became the most hated man in Boston. He could easily be the nicest man and the world, but if a Red Sox fan saw him in the streets of Boston after that, I wouldn't be surprised if he threw something at him or just berated him with a plethora of 4 letter insults.
It isn't until our teams lose a big game or don't make the playoffs that we finally settle back down to earth. You always here stories of people missing dates, forgetting important dates, missing meetings, being negligent towards a friend and all these other things all for the sake of one game, and why? You don't want to miss out. You don't want to be the person walking to a restaurant in Key West when Auburn is returning a missed field goal 99 yards all because somebody told you "Nothing is going to happen with one second left, we are late, let's go."
Once the dust settles though, you look back at that moment where you may have blown something or somebody off just to watch those thirty seconds only to have your team lose. You realize how stupid you were. It was just a game. That's what we always hear people say, and it is true it is just a game, but for some reason it means so much more than that.
There is no rhyme or reason to it and it cannot be explained. Sports will always be just a game, but to a large portion of people it will always be a passion that can't be avoided. I love sports and always will. I will argue a point with friends of mine endlessly. My friends and I have admitted on numerous occasions that we will continue to argue a point, even if we have already been proven wrong.
Basically, we are all just stupid fans who are blinded by our own allegiances and beliefs to let anything anybody does or says change our passion in anyway and I love it. So bring on the World Cup, bring on game four of the NBA finals and five of the NHL Stanley Cup finals and give me a list of tee times because I am ready to take it all on regardless of what people think.
......I may or may not have put every world cup game in my calendar on my phone and I may or may not have set double reminders for the games I really want to see. We are all America Outlaws though, I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!
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