Da Bears

Kevin dear, does your other personality have a different name?  In fact, which is the one who just posted?  

Kevin the sometimes writer of humorous stuff, or Kevin the stick in the mud?

Luv ya still, Kev.

Kevin, sports is not my life but I enjoy it.  There were points in my life that I spent many hours a day working to improve my sports abilities, including running about 3000 miles per year in high school and while playing college baseball as a Boiler.  I'm not surprised that you don't understand.

Oh, I understand. Some people choose to improve their minds. Others choose to improve their physical skills. Nothing wrong with either one. I was referring to the worship of a sports team and identification with it as "ours" or "us." Seems silly to me. They're a bunch of very well paid entertainers. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was sure someone would call me names because of my opposition to blind fan love of a sports team. I think professional sports is kind of silly and we pay too much attention to it.

The Vegas Raiders thing is a case in point. They're building a hideously expensive stadium with NO PARKING for some ghastly amount of money. The stadium will be used for TEN DAYS out of the year. It will turn the already terrible Sunday afternoon traffic into an absolute goddamn nightmare.

And for what? To "legitimize" Las Vegas as a pro sports town? In the meantime, Las Vegas schools are among the worst in the country, teachers are striking because of low pay, and class sizes are 20-30% above normal. Why not take that bazillion squillion dollars that's going to the (mostly useless) stadium and build some more schools and pay the teachers as much as, say, a break-in blackjack dealer makes? Revolutionary idea, huh?

Kevin, I've thought more about your comments regarding what you call one's "worship" of sports teams.

Many people enjoy comradery, while some do not.  I was in Vegas last week with 14 fraternity “brothers” who I met while attending Purdue over forty years ago.  I organize this trip and have been doing so since 1984.  We enjoy the comradery.

I attended a July Chicago area pub crawl with 65 friends along the commuter rail tracks.  I've known half of these folks since the 1960's and 1970's, their spouses since the 1980's, and I've known their adult kids since birth.  We enjoy the comradery.

I was with my three brothers in Asheville, NC in July for our 32^nd annual brother’s five-night golf trip.  We enjoyed the comradery.

In February, I was with my two adult boys and two of my adult nephews for a week in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  We enjoyed our comradery.

I also enjoy the comradery that comes with rooting for "my" sports team.  Today I'll be at my friend Russ's house with twelve others, watching and rooting for "our" Colts team.  I'll wear my Colts shirt and enjoy the comradery.  I’m bringing homemade meatloaf…………….and vodka tonics.  Also, this racist will be picking up his black friend, Dom, while in route to Russ’s house.

I do not idolize athletes and coaches and certainly never go out of my way to meet them.  Last Summer, for example, I had an opportunity to cocktail with Bears legend Mike Ditka after playing golf at my friend’s (and Ditka's) Chicago area club.  While I'm a Bears fan after growing up in the NW Chicago suburbs, I have no great need to meet Ditka.  We sat across the bar from Ditka instead.  While golfing that day, I enjoyed the comradery of three friends who I ran high school cross country with in the 1970’s.

I'm guessing that you don't enjoy the type of friendships and comradery that I've enjoyed so much over the years, both inside and outside of sports…………………and I don’t understand this.

Don't leap from your "guess"--which is incorrect--to a conclusion. Of course I enjoy friendships and camaraderie (that's how you spell the term). What you "don't understand" is something that doesn't exist.

I in fact do enjoy watching the local sports teams with friends; I've gone to many games (primarily baseball and basketball), both alone and with friends. What I object to is the prioritizing of spectator sports over virtually everything else. A case in point is today (and every Sunday for the next few months). Every good ol' Amurrican male butt will be glued to the couch all day. The day is gone for any other purposes, while spouses can only roll their eyes. And I've already mentioned my views on spending hundreds of millions on the Raiders stadium.

I form my friendships and base my social endeavors on ACTIVITIES. Hiking, playing games, discussing books, or cooking and enjoying a meal. I have little affection for sitting on a couch for four hours, drinking Bud and screaming at a TV screen. I realize that for many American males, that is the highlight of their existence.

Kevin, being a sports fan is another way of joining with a group and enjoying comradery with others.  You might want to try it.  I enjoy the the friendly banter with friends as we chat about upcoming games while they favor another team.

Didn't I just say that I do enjoy watching sports with friends? Oh, I forgot, you respond to my posts without actually reading them (by your own admission).

The difference with me is that I don't live and die with the fortunes of the local team(s). I have absolutely no influence over the outcome, so I don't take the results personally either way. But some of my friends? Five years after the fact, they're still talking about that game when Freddy Shlabotnik dropped that touchdown pass and "WE" lost.

If not for the "WE", there would be no organized football, basketball, motor sports, hockey, tennis, golf, all diversions from the humdrum of daily life at the least, and at the best giving folks a sense of belonging to something, which I'm sure you find ridiculous.  And some do live and die by those sports--parking lot pavers, ticket takers, concession people, contractors, builders, plumbers, maintenance, advertisers, everything TV, not to mention the owners and investors of the bucks that produce jobs of every type and family get togethers and Rotel cheese dip and chips and...oh well, nevermind.

There will be humans who devise solutions to parking and the rest of it.  The stakes are huge.  Nothing, nothing is without challenges and uninteded consequences, so we hope wiser minds prevail and work the problems to satisfactory conclusions.

To be truthful, hell will probably freeze over before I attend a game (not opposed, just not interested), but still I pray the endeavor is a success for all.

Poor old DonDiego and teechur completed their NFL Quest last year; . . . saving the worst for last they attended a New England Patriots home game, . . . thereby having attended a game at the home-field of all 32 NFL teams.

And now poor old DonDiego recognizes that several NFL teams are playing in new stadiums ! ! !

What can he do ?   What can he do ?

CORRECTION:

The absolute worst NFL franchise is without question the Dallas Cowboys, . . . not the  New England Patriots.