I find it to be a toss-up as to which is more boring to watch. Golf or Soccer.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure it takes skill to play golf and it must be quite enjoyable to spend a morning with friends out on the links. I am positive that Soccer is fun to play and makes for good exercise, but why would you want to spend an afternoon watching either one on TV or in person?
The few times I have made an effort I have found myself falling asleep in the case of golf or suffering an acute attack of attention deficit disorder while watching soccer. To each his own I suppose.
Similarly I can’t get engaged into other sports like baseball or basketball or hockey. I find these to be either to slow (in the case of baseball) or tedious (in the case of basketball or hockey). Football (american rules that is) was what I found interesting to watch.
Progress made by each team is easy to gauge thanks to the handy lines on the field and the scoreboard. Strategies, sometimes quite elaborate, are implemented, refined, and redefined as the game progresses. You can feel tension in the air as the clock begins to wind down to the last minutes.
Now these other sports do have strategies. Or at least they claim to. Baseball has hitting line ups and changes in pitchers. Soccer has a less well-defined long term tactic of trying to find weaknesses in the other teams defenses. A very long term process considering the inaccuracy of passing a ball by kicking.
I also don’t like all football. I tuned out professional football a long time ago. The focus of the professional games has become much too mercenary for my taste. Money has ruined it for me.
I much prefer the college version. I find a real passion for the sport there. The student customs, the team colors, the mascots. Just to think that all these people are bound together by these things on a saturday afternoon.
In particular of course I prefer Texas Aggie football. Not just for simple school pride but it’s more than that and difficult to put into words. The old saying is true “looking out it’s difficult to explain, looking in its difficult to understand”. More so than many schools, A&M feels like an extended family. Hard to imagine for such a large state school but it does. The camaraderie that exists between alumni is genuine.
I remember as a freshman coming home on winter break. I was at a supermarket wearing a sweater with the school logo. An elderly gentleman (90 years old at least) hobbled up and extended his hand to me. He excitedly pointed to my sweater and then to the Aggie ring on his knuckle. He could not speak as he most likely had a stroke some time in the past but he mumbled something that sounded like “Howdy” the traditional Aggie greeting.
Two complete strangers bound together by one common experience. 40,000 Aggies bound together on a Saturday afternoon.
Does it matter in the big scheme of things if my school beats your school in some athletic event? Of course not, it’s a game after all. What matters is that feeling of unity that we have, even if it’s just for an afternoon. “Knowing” that we belong to something greater. Our collective will focused on that field. Something I just don’t feel in the professional version of the sport.
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