Home of the Willie Wants to be a Writer Project
“A Blog a Day, a Book a Month and Poetry on the Side”
January 3rd, 2010
I’m taking my kids to a hockey game this afternoon, and I am not thrilled about it. I’m committed, my wife needs a couple of uniterrupted hours because she is teaching English to one of our neighbors, so I need to get them out of the house for a couple of hours.
I gave them a choice between ice-skating and going to see a hockey game and it was a split decision, decided by a coin toss. So, no way out now.
I’m not anti-sports. I believe they play an important role, and fulfill an important function in our society. They are traditional, and in many families provide an important link between the generations. They are an outlet for aggression and keep many a young person occupied who otherwise would be indulging in anti-social or criminal behavior. Sports keep people fit, and fit is healthy. Sports can be a binding force for a school or a community. Sports provide an aesthetically pleasing alternative to combat.
But I’m not a sports fan. Especially in America, I could never understand the appeal of big league sports. So, there’s a team in your city. The players aren’t necessarily, and usually just plain aren’t, from your city. You didn’t grow up with them. You don’t know them.
They are not representing your city out of love. They are getting paid millions of dollars to have your cities name on their back as they play a child’s game which they are exceptionally good at. They will move as soon as the millionaire club owners in some other city offer them more money.
It really is about the money. Teams in Los Angeles, Dallas and New York aren’t better because somehow those cities are better, or their players more inspired by a spirit of teamwork and dedication. Those teams tend to be better because their millionaire club owners spend more millions of dollars than other millionaire club owners for the best players.
It’s not any better here in Europe, although the players aren’t quite as overpaid. (basically, everybody in Czech major league hockey is hoping for an NHL contract). The thing that offends me here is the names of corporate sponsors everywhere. On their helmets, on their jerseys, on their pants, on the boards, on the ice.
And, of course, the fans. Most of them, I’m sure, if you knew them individually, would be perfectly pleasant people. But if you put them all together in an arena and get them shouting, they sound like a bunch of damned Nazis. And, in a crowd of that size, I’m sure that at least a few of them are.
www.gurukalehuru.com 