Thursday, December 28, 2006

chasing after the wind


I watch Ohio State win the national championship...and it's awesome, for a few hours...and then life goes on. It's not even that fun when you go into work the next day to talk to the guy that was rooting for Miami. He just complains about the officiating and starts talking about next year.

Pittsburgh wins the Super Bowl (again) and the next day people are telling me that I'm living in the past "that was last year" "Huh? wasn't that just yesterday?"

I get so wrapped up in some games that I can't watch them around other people. It drives me nuts when some guy tells me my team sucks, but he has no idea how many guys are on an offensive line.

It's great watching your team win a big game...but that's about it. Just a fun time. It's like watching a good movie. Interesting...compelling at times...there's conflict....resolution....a cameo by K-Fed...and you move on.

Sports are a dog chasing his tail. Fun for awhile...but that's about as far as it goes. It doesn't tend to change much on this planet. You win a big game, sell some jerseys....and life goes on.

I still love them though...
Posted by ylmurph
at 10:34 AM

8 comments:

  1. I absolutely, positively disagree. The games themselves...fun and entertaining...I get into them, and then I try my best to move on. But what sports can do for people off the field...that is much deeper. Go watch this and tell me sports don't matter:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzyhnkT_jY

    I watch stories like this all the time. Chris Connelly from ESPN does an amazing job with them. Sports always gets a bad rap, but they have helped me build more relationships than anything else in my life, especially with my father.

    You hate sports because a lot of poor people play them.
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  2. I absolutely, positively disagree.

    This could have happened in a lunchroom, library, spelling bee, class party....
    that we wrap so much up in sports, that ultimately don't matter that much, is just silly.

    I'm just saying that ultimately anything can be a positive force in someone's life...but if you looked at an instance of one kid being berated by his father, or one kid getting dropped from the team...you'd never use those isolated incidents as proof that sports are bad (and you'd have to add an ESPN Ocho to compile all of the heartbreaking stories of those two things happening)

    Sports can be a tool for good...and usually we get way too wrapped up in the silliness, that ultimately leaves us empty
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  3. want to come to Columbus, and watch OSU win in a home town house?
    ReplyDelete
  4. I think sports do have a large impact on the US at least, and probably the world too, but I know for sure the US. Look at it like this. I played a lot of sports in high school and still play sports now. From those experiences my character has been largely impacted. It happens all the time to lots of kids. I'll conceed that a positive impact on communities and individuals is reflected by every program, but in many cases there is a huge impact. sports, especially high school sports bring comunities together. Go to a Colrain football game sometime and watch how many groups of 20 or more people are all at the game together hanging out building relationships that largely wouldn't exist otherwise. Sports gives people something to rally together around. Sports are like a barrel fire on a cold day. There was a story on ESPN earlier this year about a football team that got assembled in some city in Alaska. it's like the northern most program in the US. They had all these statistics about better grades, less drug use, and of students with a vision for their lives because of the character building effects of playing a competitive sport. They showed one of the games and it was clear that everyone in the town was at the game, supporting the youth of their community. Proffessional sports have some other benefits.

    Look up some of the things players like LT and Ray Lewis are doing outside of football. They are changing the world in a big way. Yes maybe there is another way that these thigns would happen without sports, but the reality is that sports are there, and they are making an impact bigger than who won or lost the 1966 national football championship.

    Maybe the biggest world impact sport is soccer. The next time you don't think sports are important, check out how much of the world comes to a halt on the day of the world cup final. The majority of civilized contries close everything.

    Another good example is the Olympics. Having the Olympics every two years stops wars, and has in the past been a signifigant factor in the resolution of world conflicts.

    The bottum line here is that you have become callous to the everyday impact of competition. Sports are one of the intangible factors in a society that hold it together. Without them what would we do with all those extra hours a year?
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  5. Sports are bigger than Church. Let's cut to the chase and have sports events on Sunday mornings.
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  6. Um, ever hear of professional football?
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  7. I know, let's just have a football game and during halftime, a conference appointed minister can come out and give a "message". Communion can be served on each level between the third and forth quarter.

    Imagine it, we get God and football married and now the John 3:16 guy will have a legitimate reason to write off those season tickets on his tax form.

    Brilliant!
    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm with Bragg

    I'm not saying that I particularly agree with him on this point...I just want the world to know

    I'm with Bragg!
    ReplyDelete

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