Who Cares About Sports

Ok so for those of you who like to talk about sports...here we go.

This weekend in the middle of cleaning up after sick kids and doing laundry, I managed to watch some football. Now anyone who knows me knows this is nothing new. I don't watch a lot of t.v other than sports, and while I am torn at times about the "business" of the games, I think watching them in my house is important and I'll explain.

When I mention "sports" I mean football, basketball, and baseball. I'm sure there are some Nascar fans out there that want to argue about racing being a sport, and maybe even a golfer or two, and that's fine, but we don't watch them. Here we watch "the big 3".

Now I do believe that sports on all levels can be a very good thing. They can teach us about winning and loosing, and what it means to be a good sport. They can teach us about being on a team and putting others first.

Let me explain the "being torn" part. I am like most people I think, when it comes to these athletes. I am sick and tired of seeing them on t.v or reading about them and the crimes they've committed. Now I get it, people mess up and do things they shouldn't, Lord knows we all have, maybe not to the degree that some of these guys do, but none-the-less we all mess up.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that we, as a society, put so much stock into our sports while are communities, schools and churches around us suffer. Don't get me wrong, I am just as guilty.

I could go on and on about all the things I think are bad about sports, the money spent, the time and energy "wasted" and the franchises getting rich because of them. But the bottom line is, I obviously don't think those things are bad enough to keep me from watching.

Ok so now to why I think it is important in my house to watch them.

This past weekend while the girls were down sick and with the DW being a rock star with a camera, the boy and I had some time to lay around and watch football together. Now mini-me is to the point where he is both annoying and cute while watching sports. Who's got the ball daddy? New England. So are they New?? No that's just their name, you know where they're from. Who's got the ball now daddy? Still New England. Is our team the snatchers? (He means the Steelers). No our team is the Colts. Who's got the ball now daddy? So you see what I mean.

The thing about it is, Daddy is a middle classed family man. I don't travel the world sampling unique dishes and drinking fine wine. I live a very simple life which means my clowns live a very simple life. Which means when the weekends roll around in the winter and there's nothing going on at the Yacht Club, we watch sports. This weekend he an I watched some games and he cheered when I cheered, (even if he didn't exactly get it) and I tried to answer all his questions the best I could so he could understand it (and let me tell you explaining instant replay to a four year old is not easy). But mostly we just hung out and enjoyed being father and son.

You see we spent some quality time together, time that I hope he remembers for a lifetime. Now I'm sure he won't remember this one particular weekend, but hopefully he will remember lots of weekends where he and his dad watched sports or chucked the ball around, and maybe one day he'll have a blog and tell stories of his dad and sports. I know I can remember watching certain games with my dad, and that's the type of stuff that makes memories. I'm sure there will come a time when he doesn't want to even be in the same room with me, so for now I'll take all the questions of who's got the ball now, and which team are the snatchers that he can come up. Even my girls know certain things about the games, and while they appear to not be as interested, it still is a time we can share together.

So I guess I'll keep root root rooting for the home team all the while hopefully making memories with my clowns and try not to focus on all the negatives in the sports world. 

J-Tony