Baseball playoffs are my favorite sports playoffs because the tension that can build up ever so slowly over nine innings if fantastically nerve-wrecking. There has to be a conclusion, and you're duty as a fan is to anxiously wait for it to come. No hustle. No bustle. No hurry or worry. Just wait for it to come. NFL playoffs, however, as nearly as equally marvelous. Although it rarely happens anymore, there's little that's more appealing to me than planting my plump arse down in a big, comfy chair smack dab in front of the TV and watching about five hours straight of football. If it's snowing outside, the weather is unfriendly, and there's no excuse to go anywhere, that's even better. If there's a team that I really like, nirvana.
These days, I have a four-year-old with boundless energy and the determination to see that all of it is expended every day. I also live with four girls, and only one shares a remote interest in the game. On any day, there may be two or three additional girls in the house, all of which works against me watching in peace. Add in the work I invariably bring home on many weekends, kids fighting, dishes to get done, supper to make, basketball games to take kids to, blah, blah, blah, and football tends to fall down the priority ladder all to quickly.
I'm not sure why football is so appealing to me. It's brutal and violent and egocentric and some parts of it display man's worst traits. It's also brilliant with strategy and determination and will power, and some parts of it display man's best qualities. Playoff football just ramps all that up five or six notches. Everything becomes more intense. Leaders surface to the top. The brightest minds who can defy the distractions of tension and pressure survive and move on. I know it's only football, meaning it's only a game, but it's often riveting and often draining in an entirely good way. Why question it?
Playoff football can also make people from different walks of life, occupations, incomes, beliefs, etc., stop and collectively watch the same moments unfolding in front of them. That's beautiful. A decade or so ago, I was stuck in a hospital bed with pretty much the only thing keeping my spirits up being the playoff games happening on the TV above me. At one point in the afternoon, my doctor came in for his rounds, got caught up in the action, pulled up a chair beside me, and we ended up watching several minutes together. He escaped the grind that comes with being a doctor; I escaped from constantly dealing with being sick. Just two men who didn't really care about much else in that particular moment than what the next play was going to be and if the defense could stop it.
I understand why some people dislike the game. I live in a house with some of those people. I also understand why some people stop whatever the hell it is they're doing for an afternoon and let the world creep away for a few hours by getting caught up in a "game." I may be just a game, but it's a beautiful one. I'd say it's even important on a few levels.
These days, I have a four-year-old with boundless energy and the determination to see that all of it is expended every day. I also live with four girls, and only one shares a remote interest in the game. On any day, there may be two or three additional girls in the house, all of which works against me watching in peace. Add in the work I invariably bring home on many weekends, kids fighting, dishes to get done, supper to make, basketball games to take kids to, blah, blah, blah, and football tends to fall down the priority ladder all to quickly.
I'm not sure why football is so appealing to me. It's brutal and violent and egocentric and some parts of it display man's worst traits. It's also brilliant with strategy and determination and will power, and some parts of it display man's best qualities. Playoff football just ramps all that up five or six notches. Everything becomes more intense. Leaders surface to the top. The brightest minds who can defy the distractions of tension and pressure survive and move on. I know it's only football, meaning it's only a game, but it's often riveting and often draining in an entirely good way. Why question it?
Playoff football can also make people from different walks of life, occupations, incomes, beliefs, etc., stop and collectively watch the same moments unfolding in front of them. That's beautiful. A decade or so ago, I was stuck in a hospital bed with pretty much the only thing keeping my spirits up being the playoff games happening on the TV above me. At one point in the afternoon, my doctor came in for his rounds, got caught up in the action, pulled up a chair beside me, and we ended up watching several minutes together. He escaped the grind that comes with being a doctor; I escaped from constantly dealing with being sick. Just two men who didn't really care about much else in that particular moment than what the next play was going to be and if the defense could stop it.
I understand why some people dislike the game. I live in a house with some of those people. I also understand why some people stop whatever the hell it is they're doing for an afternoon and let the world creep away for a few hours by getting caught up in a "game." I may be just a game, but it's a beautiful one. I'd say it's even important on a few levels.
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