Saturday, January 01, 2005

 

What if everyone played at home on Sunday?

As I look out at the deserted streets this New Year's day, I keep thinking how nice it is to see everyone at home for a change. I know many are watching sports today and I can't help but imagine what if everyone stayed home on Sunday and there were no sports?

Imagine all the giant stadiums empty, all the TV's turned off and sports bars closed all across the land. No tailgate parties to go to or beer bashes to throw and not a potato chip or beer can in sight. I don't ever expect it to happen, but just imagine.

What could we do if we were not off watching the game? How would we spend our time and money if there is no NFL, NBA or hockey game to see on one of the 100 or so cable channels dedicated to this one topic? What would we talk about? How would we know who to befriend and who to call enemy? Wouldn't there be rioting in the streets with the millions of bored fanatics suffering from sports withdrawl?

For starters we could spend some time with our families. Many sports fanatics do little of this. I don't know how many times kids at Sunday gatherings have said something to me about how they don't enjoy the day because no one plays with them or their father is never around on the weekends.

I had a 8 year old boy tell me once at a church function that he wished I was his daddy because I played with him and didn't watch football instead. A few weeks later I was at a party at my sister's when her best friend's 10 year old daughter told me: "I wish my daddy were here to play with us like you do, but he is at his friends house for football. Course, if he were here he would just watch football and drink beer like usual."

How sad. And this is a guy that everyone looks up to and seems like a successful father and husband. He is everything you are supposed to be with a good job and a nice house and a fancy car with his cool sports team license plate and antenna flag. He wears expensive sunglasses, tailored clothes and whips out imported cigars. He has two beautiful children and a wonderful wife. But if you look deeper and start to notice, he is never around except for football parties and sports always come before anything in his life, including his children.

This guy will always tell you about what happened to his favorite team, but you never hear him talk of the accomplishments his children have made during the week. I'm not even sure he would notice if they got an A unless John Madden showed up to announce their report card on ESPN.

I don't think most fanatics realize how much they miss when they spend all of the afternoon on one of only two days they have to spend with their kids, families and loved ones. While the quarterback is making that big touchdown pass, you missed your kid doing something far more spectacular.

Perhaps we could meet our neighbors; Imagine that! People going out into their front yards to entertain themselves and perhaps actually speaking to those who live around them while building lasting relationships? I know this is a totally foreign concept to many, but bear with me here. Wouldn't it be fun to have a block party at least one Sunday instead of a beer guzzling TV fiesta of non stop professional and college games?

Or maybe we could go to church. I'm not super religious but most sports fans tell me they favor the good old fashioned family values and are God fearing folk. But if their favorite teams game interferes with the local churches schedule, well the NFL usually wins out over God. After all, God will be there next week but I might miss the important pass of a lifetime if I don't watch the game!

Maybe we could clean up the country. Seems to me tens of millions of people with nothing to do for 4 hours could clean up their whole town and rid every square inch of our cities of trash and graffiti. Heck, we might even stop some crime since the criminals wouldn't have the streets all to themselves. Where would the drug pushers go if everyone was outside playing football instead of watching it on TV?

What Ideas can you think of?



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