As we get older in life we have to make conscious decisions about things to give up in this life. Because there are many things we add in maturity that are More Important (spouses, children, jobs, houses, faith), many of the things we were raised with lose their importance.
In recent years I gave up college football (there were many negative reasons to give it up: athletes getting ripped off, many dull games, games were far too long, no real champion, why are colleges involved in this?) and except for the Royals I have gradually given up following any major league baseball. There are just too many games, and I just don't have time to follow 25 players on 30 teams. Of course, I could say that since I only follow the Royals I don't follow any major league baseball. Zing.
It was hard to give up both of these things in my life: baseball was part of my upbringing, and for many years most of my Saturdays were dedicated to college football. Especially when I lived on the west coast, Saturday football would start at 9am and many days I would watch the better parts of four games before the day was done.
The NFL, however, has been a relatively more recent addition to my life. I didn't grow up having a team, as the closest team was the Cowboys and I picked up my older brother's hatred of them, and the Chiefs never seemed worth rooting for. Only when I hit my mid 20s and was not far from Kansas City and had many friends rooting for what was often a good team (Derrick Thomas, Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Neil Smith) did I jump on the bandwagon. But never was it a huge thing for me...I didn't live or die with the Chiefs like I ever had rooted for the Royals or the Sooners.
I have also developed a growing fascination with soccer in recent years. I'd much rather go to a Sporting Kansas City game than a Royals or Chiefs game, and I'd much rather spend a Saturday morning watching EPL soccer than a Sunday afternoon watching the NFL. I'm not sure exactly when things changed...part of it may be that after 40 years of baseball and football it seems to dull to me...soccer is something new, even though I played it as a kid. I enjoy learning the nuances of the game in a way that is something like learning a second language...it's not natural, but it's fun when it starts to make sense.
The NFL in many ways is a greatly entertaining product, but I'm just about done with it. The Chiefs have been bad enough that they haven't been must-see for years, but now that all this information about head injuries is coming out I'm not sure that I can keep watching. Just as I don't want to watch MMA because the point of it seems to be to hurt somebody else, the idea that football leaves so many people with debilitating injuries makes me squeamish about supporting it. I decided a few years ago that my son would not be playing football (there's plenty other games out there to make him tough without squashing his brain), and so maybe it's also time to give up the NFL as well.
The season starts in a few weeks, and it might be tough to escape it. But there are enough projects around the house to be done that I think I can get by without it.
