As I’m writing this, I am vaguely aware that the Super Bowl is being played in Florida… But I have to confess that I am suffering from a complete lack of interest. I tuned in for the halftime show mainly because I’ve always harbored a quiet appreciation for Springsteen, but other that I’ve been back in the office sorting through a stack of mail and (gasp) starting to organize my tax information for the accountant. So basically for this super Sunday, I’ve gone to PetSmart and the supermarket, picked up and disposed of a weeks’ worth of mail, made some very tasty spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, and been working on a few odds and ends on the computer to round out the evening. That the “biggest game of the year” is on seems to have been barely a blip on my radar. Everyone else seems to be making a deal out of it… But I’m just not there. Is there some kind of switch that people throw to get motivated about this sort of thing?
Tag Archives: sports
The need for speed…
Before drifting off to dreamland last night, I was flipping through the channels and landed on one of the NBC stations showing the Olympics. Not what I’d normally watch, but all I was really looking for was some background noise, so no worries… Until I heard the color commentary refer to the sport I was listening to as “race walking.” Even in my addled state of near-sleep, I was conscious enough to realize that made as much sense to me as “speed sleeping” or “ass sitting.” So, I just had to see this Olympic sport in all its late-night televised glory.
Sure enough, it lived up to its billing. The contestants were walking rapidly around the track… out of the building and around the block… for 20 kilometers. All I can say to that is WTF? Is there some kind of massive movement afoot to launch speed walking as a major sporting event or was this just the ChiCom’s plot to leave us utterly confused and defenseless? I’m not saying I could do what they were doing as I’m fairly sure my knees don’t bend that way, but still, is race walking really what we need in a sporting event that’s going to be beamed around the world?
I don’t know…
I stumbled into a five sided conversation about baseball this morning and realized very early into it that the best thing I could do was keep my mouth shut, nod at appropriate intervals, and try to escape without being cornered for an actual opinion. I know that sports are what men talk about when they are in a group, but outside of the basic rules, I don’t know a damned thing about them. I don’t know who’s leading the National League or what teams are likely to be in the playoffs.
What’s more, I don’t really care about knowing these things, either. I’ve tried to pay attention, mainly because I like to have something to add to polite conversations, but God, do I find it all so dull. I can talk at length on topics from Ancient Greece, to politics, to pop culture but when it comes to sports, I’m a babe in the wood. It’s not so much that I don’t like sports as much as I just don’t care about them.
Yeah, I just admitted it on the internet. Hopefully they don’t come pull my credentials as a guy.
JEFFREYTHARP.COM 