Should America get a new sport? Invent a new sport, or do we need less sports in our lives?
My personal feeling is I’ve been so consumed with the Virus that in a way it has taken a lot of my energy to the point that I do not need sports as much as I thought. I was excited when the KBO debuted on ESPN: I watched a few innings, I was good.
I watched a couple UFC fights this weekend, I was good.
I’m looking forward to see what NASCAR gives us. I have a feeling I’ll be down for few dozen laps, and I’ll be good.
As a 4/4 Philly sports fan, check back with me when and if the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers play again.
The author certainly is a smug jackass. I hope he didn’t hurt himself straining his neck looking down at the unwashed.
Obviously, this isn’t a 9/11. We don’t have a week without sports and then they’re back.
I don’t have access to the Post without a subscription, but it does come off that way based on the premise of what we ‘‘need’’.
I’m managing OK without daily baseball scores and real news, but there’s a void that isn’t filled by gardening, Appreciating Great Art and Literature and obsessing about politics.
My life would be much better if Baseball was back. Especially in the time of Corona I could use a break every evening to watch the Dodgers play.
That being said all sports isn’t equal so I’m jot watching UFC as a replacement or golf or nascar all of which bore me (not UFC, i just don’t have cable or the urge to pay per view or watch old fights). I have ESPN+ as part of the Disney/hulu bundle and it is worthless. I was hoping to watch some KBO and they didn’t have any of the games for streaming.
Once fall rolls around I don’t know if I’ll watch more or less football I’ve been drifting away for years but its a nice mindlessly entertaining 3 hours. I miss college football but its owned by ESPN and the conference networks and I don’t miss it enough to drop that kind of cash.
Euro 2020 was supposed to start June 12. If God or a random wizard were to will the virus away, the explosion of passion and joy of tens of thousands of people celebrating football would be almost orgasmic. We need sport. Some of us anyway.
The column is incoherent. What’s the thesis? Norm here says we need fewer sports. He doesn’t actually ever clearly say WHY, though, and the column is more a Dave Barry style chain-of-conscoiusness, look-boss-here’s-your-1100-words type deal than a coherent argument.
Here’s something I think, something actually that just sprang into my head seven or eight years ago but the truth of which becomes more obvious to me all the time: Every second you spend criticizing other people’s choices of entertainment is a stupid fucking waste of time. Criticizing people’s favourite music? You’re a moron, wasting your time. You sarcastically rip some guy for loving Fast and Furious movies? You’re wasting your time. Sneer at pro wrestling fans? Waste of time. Think so-and-so should be reading the books you like instead of romance novels? Mind your own business, shithead. Shut up, shut up, shut up. I did that sort of thing once. I never will again, and I feel like an asshole for ever having done it.
Criticizing what other people do for diversion is dumb. It’s for immature teenagers with more opinions than smarts. “Durrr people shouldn’t watch sports” is one of the very dumbest versions of this. Let people have their fun.
Like, seriously, anyone who criticizes the fact I want baseball and basketball back can eat the peanuts out of my shit. I am a good person. I work hard and have contributed to society my whole life. I served my country in the armed forces. I take care of my kid and pay my taxes and obey the law. I ask for no thanks for any of that. I just want a paycheck and my rights as a citizen. I enjoy watching and listening to baseball and basketball games. It doesn’t hurt anyone and I don’t see how that is any less worthy a pursuit than any number of others.
No, we really need the diversion of sports right now. Something to take our mind away.
And that opening line: "A while ago — the exact year escapes me — I determined that someway, somewhere, in some manner or some fashion, most of us in America had somehow lost our minds" - indeed takes the cake for smuggest, smarmiest, better-than-the-99-percent-of-people article lead-in.
Apropos of nothing and a product of nothing but my own fevered imagination, I think the next great global sport hasn’t been invented yet. But it will be soon.
Having voiced that irrelevant opinion, I’m really looking forward to six hours of Bundesliga futbol Saturday.
This is right on. Enjoy your stuff, don’t worry about what other like.
People who rant about sports seem to believe that life is a zero sum game, that every second and dollar spent on sports could’ve gone to curing cancer or helping the homeless or writing a great novel. I think it’s because of seeing stuff like high schools building multimillion dollar stadiums at the expense of their textbook budget
Of course, by that logic, a whole range of human endeavor becomes harmful to civilization at large, including stuff that the authors probably enjoy themselves.
I’d watch Calvinball if it was televised.
I’d watch Calvinball if it was televised.
And what if one finds criticizing other people’s choice of entertainment to be entertaining?
I don’t know about all schools, but I do know that our school, the football team was self funded. Pretty much the only school money that went towards it was to pay the coaches to be teachers. I’m pretty sure that even the pay for them to be coaches came from ticket sales and alumni donations.
Had it been a tradeoff of textbooks for a new practice field, then I would be against that as well.
Tell me about it. I just can’t wait to see the look on your faces when we kick your ass straight outta PA. 
Yeah, it’s not like if all ‘waste of time’ leisure activities disappeared, we’d all rush home from a brutal day at work, don our PPE and head to the basement chem lab and work the rest of the night finding a cure for cancer.
It’s weird that I’ll often read a group of words that looks like English and can’t figure it out, then I’ll realize it’s video game talk.
I think that the complete saturation of sport previously definitely devalued any individual event. Which isn’t surprising.
This has proved that we can exist with less sport so maybe a bit of a correction will not be bad thing.
Sports should return. I could use some distractions right now.
I know more than a few people who have video games as a central pillar in their “self identity.” For some reason they take an antagonistic attitude towards traditional sports. It makes no sense to me as the two things are largely unrelated but I have seen this several times now.