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Last Call
Switching Off, Switching On
Do we spend too much time watching sports?
Every year after the Super Bowl, I pull the plug on sports. Football is over, baseball has yet to start, and I don’t much care about other sports except boxing, which is not a game and has no season, anyway. I can never resist a plunge into melancholy, not because the games are over but because, whatever joys watching sports might bring, doing so is unavoidably a waste of precious hours. So I return to the vow of hopeless souls everywhere: never again.
That promise always seems plausible, though, no matter how many times it’s broken. Switching off the games I rediscover, away from the consuming involvement they inevitably impose, that sports are like those good-time friends from your youth — the ones whose absence is felt acutely for a day or two, and then not at all. I think this is because sports events, unlike works of art, have expiration dates — namely, the moment the contest ends.
Even the greatest of games is only truly great when it’s happening. Forever afterwards, it is the property of memory, a poor substitute for the original struggle (though an attractive one for cable sports channels, which fill hours of programming with old games and documentaries). If you’re interested in the Super Bowl, you can’t miss the broadcast, because the game will only be played once. Sure, you can watch it on tape, but with its outcome already determined, the entirety of its drama is missing. No amount of fooling yourself (also known as TiVo) can suffice: watching sports relies on suspense and the assumption that the great deeds we hope to witness are occurring as we watch. By contrast, you can miss the broadcast of, say, a Macbeth production and watch it at home on tape the next day-or next week or next year. Macbeth’s drama occurs in a perpetual present; he can kill the king whenever you’re ready. Not so Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger or their brave comrades. For them, it’s now or never, with or without you.
Only watching a game live really counts — which is why, on the occasions when I haven’t done so, I sometimes forget to care about the result. I can think of only one exception to this principle in my lifetime, and it just so happens to be the most exceptional of all sports events: the U.S. hockey team’s upset of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. That game was in fact shown on tape delay, after news of the Americans’ astonishing victory was known. One does not quibble with the broadcast arrangements for a genuine miracle, and besides, you couldn’t help but watch the replay just to make sure that it had really happened.
Generally speaking, though, getting away from the gun-to-the-head immediacy of live sports is liberating. Turned off, sports cannot reach me, because nothing about them has any bearing on anything else. Irrelevance, of course, is fundamental to sports’ appeal. They’re a self-contained universe, one that millions are grateful to step into, even if most of us stay too long. Anyone who lingers has probably noticed how sports have the uncomfortable capacity to remind us that the rest of our lives rarely seem so charged with desperate meaning. That’s one risk, among others, of switching back on, back to the noise of the crowd and the propulsive drama taking place with each pitch or snap of the ball. Our involvement becomes, again, almost involuntary.
This is sports’ great paradox: that they can be so all-involving, and yet leave so little trace of their power after the storm passes. They dominate the present moment, crowding out almost everything else — and lord knows, affecting personal relationships — but they disappear so completely in the aftermath that one can never quite explain what the whole commotion was about. I wonder if this is the unintended, ironic revenge on the audience by the athlete, who is often doomed to a short career and a lifetime of trying to fill in the gaps. He may not be around long, and he may vanish from our consciousness the moment he’s gone, but he takes something of us with him — our irredeemable time.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
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Brian Mc| 3.28.11 @ 6:33AM
And they wonder why I fish so much...just one more cast, for my life depends on it. I think I'll go down to the levee wall and rustle up some walleye, come to think of it. After all, I have the day off and the yard can wait, the grass is barely poking up.
Handy| 3.28.11 @ 4:34PM
Playing sports, even fishing, is highly recommended. Most introspective pe0ple have come to the same conclusions as Mr. Beston and Brian about watching them.
I played a lot of sports in high school and college. Even some semi-pro football which led to me suiting up for an NFL pre-season. (I missed the last cut, but "I coulda been a contender.")
My epiphany came when my TV broke. Previously, Sunday afternoons were spent "vegging out" with the NFL. It had been fun following a couple of teams with my dad and a few friends. But in 1977, I was single and working heavy, heavy hours. It wasn't much fun watching alone. A few weeks without the idiot box, and I didn't buy a new one until the 1984 Olympics, and only because my gf had lousy reception at her place.
I never learned golf, but it is something that you can do if you want to participate until you need a caddy or a cart. You'll last longer in soccer than our football, if you stay in reasonable shape. We have amateur evening hardball leagues still. And there are always the minor/farm teams. Even softball is cool; especially the beer part. Tennis and the other racket sports are available. Ping-Pong or squash anyone? No racket? There is always handball.
I don't play rugby anymore, but I am sometimes a referree. Sailboat racing is still fun, but it has gotten so expensive. Form a syndicate.
The point is, that you can still participate in organized sports throughout most of your lives, if you realize it is much more fun to be a player than just a spectator. If you are spectating, you really aren't out there in the arena.
Good luck, and good exercise everyone.
Handy| 3.28.11 @ 5:40PM
I am really sorry to take up so much space, but there is one sport that is worth watching, precisely because you can also participate. It's horse racing.
You don't have to own a racehorse. Just learn how to handicap, and enjoy the spectacle. Go to your nearest track and get into it. Watch a few movies. Seabiscuit is really the best, but Let it Ride is well worth the rental. Phar Lap, a movie about a Super Ozzie horse is a tear jerker, and says a lot about why they no longer send their horses up here anymore.
Figuring out horse racing is not an easy thing to do. If you are young, you have time to learn. If you are older, you probably can't be taught too many new lessons.
Don't limit yourselves to the big days where the gals wear designer dresses and big hats. Go out to your local track and see if you like it. Take only the money you can afford to lose. But, check it out. Horse racing is fun. Go to the paddock where they are saddled. Walk out to the apron and watch them parade. Make a bet.
Here is where the aerobics come in. When the horse you bet on is in a fierce stretch duel, your heartbeat will exceed 180 beats per minute. Whether he wins or loses, you still got the excitement.
Some spectator sports can be good.
Alan Brooks| 3.28.11 @ 6:03PM
"Do we spend too much time watching sports?"
That's like asking 'do we spend too much time in church?'
Call HUAC and have Beston investigated. Force him to eat a hotdog, drink a brewskie, and smoke a cigarette.
D| 3.28.11 @ 6:54AM
I confess I did watch many hours of Tiger Woods playing golf, until things went downhill for him last year. But I don't regret it, because he was dammed inspiring.
Eddy R.| 3.28.11 @ 10:11AM
Since I'm a girly man, I never watch sports. Instead, I prefer to read or listen to music (classical, opera) or commune with nature.
Sports fanatics strike me as being ridiculous in their wild enthusiasm.
Steve A| 3.28.11 @ 11:03AM
Eddy, It's probably because you have no talent & are unable to appreciate the visual display of excellence, which is what is the appeal of well played sports is. The visual display of excellence.
D| 3.28.11 @ 12:04PM
Yeah, well, I sing opera and play the piano. So you mere listeners are just a bunch of lazy bums.
Steve A| 3.28.11 @ 1:33PM
I would rather watch paint dry than go to an opera. I suppose I am unable to grasp the "talent" there. Give me an amazing piano player all day long. That is talent.
Anthony| 3.28.11 @ 3:00PM
Now D, I know you appreciate those of us who just happen to love the most splendid music on God's green earth, second only to Obozo's call to prayer (NOT), but your point was directed elsewhere. Got it.
So, Italian or German? Puccini or Wagner?
D| 3.28.11 @ 4:22PM
I was just teasing Eddy R because he took a swipe at sports fans. I sing mostly Handel, Schubert, French art songs from various composers, and (of course) church music.
Who Knows?| 3.28.11 @ 7:12AM
There is one reason to be grateful for sports, which transcends any personal stuff—
Games, especially organized ones with teams, allow humans to express their innate competitiveness in ways other than war.
You can FIGHT and still be alive when you lose.
So, sports is a good social invention.
However, on an individual level, I agree about the way one can become addicted to them, and use the “high” one obtains watching games to make life meaningful, much to the detriment of personal relations.
Identification, differentiation and desire rule us Narcissists.
As newbies, we become to some degree or another identified with the teams in our environment, from the smallest school or club, to the city the state, and the country. And there’s all the trouble, THERE: yes, it’s the “there” that bites you!
Of course, identification and differentiation are essentially two sides of the same splitting “coin”---if I “love” Oregon, I must “hate” Washington.
And, where does desire come in?
Every game and season is totally aimed at ---WINNING!
Talk about desire!
For Auburn football fans, to win the national title meant they were number---ONE!
And, post coitus, sports wise, that is, the inevitable comedown always “comes”.
diviz| 3.28.11 @ 10:56AM
I agree, playing sports is great. Watching sports rather dull.
Dee See| 3.28.11 @ 7:21AM
---Go out and play some sports, use your enhanced energy to take back your self-respect,
your culture and your country -----and you won't need to project your manhood onto the image of
others.
Erling| 3.28.11 @ 7:55AM
I cancelled cable in '07 to cease and desist from wasting countless hours in front of the idiot box watching the Phillies, Flyers, C-Span, and Law & Order. My kids love reading (like their old man) and I don't need to filter the latest filth from Hollywood & New York insidiously placed in nearly every sitcom, drama, and reality show.
Slingshot| 3.28.11 @ 12:01PM
Agree. My TV left the house 15 years ago, when my daughter was a little girl. She is now a reader without peer, often running up to her mom and dad with a book to read off some passage or show us some character that has caught her fancy. TV is a killer of brain cells and ambition, not to mention an unwanted salesman in the house and a promotor of obscenity. Kill the snake and get rid of the thing; the liberation is fantastic.
Seek| 3.28.11 @ 1:16PM
Good for "filth." I read voraciously, too, but that doesn't preclude my taking in a new movie or two a week.
Purple Lips| 3.28.11 @ 8:40AM
Baseball hasn't been the same game since 1994; the NFL hasn't been the same since parity took over in the late 1990s; college hoops began its decline with the introduction of the 3 point shot and the time clock. The NBA was already going downhill by the time Magic and Barkley retired.
Today's athletes are better and stronger, but the strench of television revenue ruined almost all major sports.
Steve A| 3.28.11 @ 11:22AM
When success occurrs, you are forced to form an opinion. It is almost impossible to remain neutral. This applies to sports, business, politics etc. The difference (& appeal) of sports is that it is a more visual display of greatness. What I mean is this.
You may be the worlds greatest attorney, surgeon, cab driver, school teacher, cashier etc. but how do you SEE THIS?? With sports, we are drawn to the hole in one, game winning shot, home run with 2 out in the ninth because it is a visual display of greatness. It is a celebration of the human spirit. If you have played any level of athletics including high school, you can appreciate the difficulty of executing the task you are viewing. My opinion is that if you are negative on sports, it is likely that you are resentful because you, yourself sucked & had no talent, desire, drive, ambition, dedication, commitment & willingness to overcome obstacles. You are likely a quitter & have failed in the major objectives in your life, if you even bothered to set any goals. You would prefer to "commune with nature" because there is no pressure. You are soft.
Appleby| 3.28.11 @ 2:00PM
Nothing brings home the inherent flaw in "multicultural society" in quite the way that the World Cup [of Soccer, for you Americans out there] does in Canada. We are the most multicultural country in the universe -- and we have no success whatever in soccer, because everyone here who knows how to play the game, plays for his national team, i.e. the team of the country from whence he or his parents came. Every 4 years there is a lot of whining in Canada about this, not to mention a lot of complaining about the national flags flying on various office desks and from the neighbourhood cars; during World Cup Finals there are no Canadian flags to be seen because we have no visible national team.
Yes, multiculti is a failure and soccer shows us why; nevertheless, every 2 years (Euro Cup fills in the blanks), everybody in Canada has something to talk about that doesn't make them want to kill each other. I would say that is a pretty good reason to preserve sports.
Steve A| 3.28.11 @ 2:54PM
You all should stick to hockey. No threat of going multi-cultural on ice.
Appleby| 3.28.11 @ 4:11PM
Toronto has a Muslim on its team this year. Not that it did them a bit of good, of course. I think there are also some players who can only speak Russian.
GENE HAUBER| 3.28.11 @ 4:03PM
To answer the title of the article:
YES YES YES YES YES ad infinitum.............
Religion used to be called the opiate of the people; now it's SPORTS and I do believe that this nations ignorance of politics that affects us is due to our total immersion, to the point of "drowning", in sports.
Habu| 3.28.11 @ 6:01PM
Too much time watching sports....duh....just look at our horribly obese nation. I may not all be from watching sports but Internet,TV,etc...we're a nation of obese turds.
You watch a four hour football game and you actually see about eight minutes of playing the game ....a waste of a life.
marshcope| 3.28.11 @ 6:50PM
The Bears, bull riding, the Texas Rangers, Chuck Liddell kickboxing, Tony Stewart, Tommy Jones bowling, Bubba and Boo at Pebble Beach,
Two John Florenz surfing-- all the things that make daily living tolerable within limits. A grotesquely liberal lady pundit at my statewide newspaper a few years ago columned about her shock that her son had discovered Sports and it just about put her in bed in grief, because she was wanting him to become a social activist, and not being out there getting sweaty and warlike on a field, instead of picketing in front of an evil home loan agency.
Clint| 3.28.11 @ 7:15PM
Playing a number of organized sports up to & past college, I think we probably can be taught more lessons for life, playing than watching.
Lessons about discipline, practice, team effort, personal effort, not quitting, learning from screw ups, moving past them, playing while hurt, handling winning & losing, team camaraderie, doing your particular job, lifetime friendships, memories,etc.
Some watching can be fun too.
Red Eye dude| 3.28.11 @ 7:31PM
Great teams must include--futbol: Real Madrid; hockey: the Rockford Ice Hogs; varsity hoops: the ISU lady Cyclones; HS hoops: the Maryville
Spoofhounds; rugby: the North
Queenland Cowboys.
PCP Smoker| 3.28.11 @ 8:48PM
You are spot on. Watching sports reruns, such as the ones shown on the Big 10 network or ESPN classic, is about as good as drinking stale beer.
However, boxing reruns --Hearn/Sugar Ray, Duran/Cuevas, Hagler/Hearns, especially that 1st round of the latter, that never gets old.
Dee See| 3.28.11 @ 10:41PM
"I have a friend who's brother does, in fact,
work for the CIA. Of course he never talks
about his work, but he did offer one piece
of advice --'NEVER watch television."
-ALAN WATT
(awake coverage online)
Ditto for 'sports' --and porn.
The two somehow go together in the destruction
of culture and personal self-respect.
'The Big Boys' have known this since Babylon
and Rome.
REALLY
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 11:21PM
is good