Why I Don’t Go to or Watch NFL Games (or Other Sports)

I'm a lot less of a football fan than I used to be.

Part of that comes from the fact that, about 15 years ago, I decided to limit the amount of sports that I watch because it was taking away from my efforts to do anything noteworthy myself. I used to spend a lot of time watching sports (football and hockey), talking about sports, listening to talk about sports and thinking about sports.

Then I had a thought. Maybe I should be spending more time creating my own personal legend, rather than watching a rotating cast of people I would never meet creating theirs. I was watching sports all day Sunday, almost every Penguins game, and I realized that that was time I could be out enjoying the Earth, or creating things of my own.

The other thing that helped me lose my love for the game was actually a trip to a game. After I moved to Colorado, I hadn't been to a Steeler game in years. On a trip home, my brother in law took me to see Heinz Field for the first time. I grew up and spent most of my young adulthood going to Three Rivers Stadium.

For some reason, the screaming fans weren't a group I wanted to join anymore. I loved the time spent with my bro, but as I looked around and saw the emotions of a couple thousand people rise and fall with the plays unfolding on the field, it made me a bit queasy. Some dude in front of me was yelling precise instructions to Coach Cowher, and we were nowhere near the field. People 10 rows up couldn't hear him above the din. He still screamed, with invectives, very precise plays, until he started to lose his voice. It was a bit comical, and quite sad.

It was too much. In the 90's It seemed like being a fan started to take on a life of its own. With Pittsburghers especially, but it happens all over, people seemed to start to feel the responsibility to take their fandom to a new level. We wore more gear, hung more pictures, designed entire rooms, got tattoos, and declared that we would not miss a game, no matter what. And when we lost, I felt like I had to mourn. It became exhausting, and honestly, I really didn't care that much.

It's just a game, and a it's a game I'm not even playing. At that game, and as I remembered, at others, I felt a mob mentality. I felt an atmosphere of escalation. I heard adults that probably don't swear in front of children on a regular basis shouting curse words at the top of their lungs. It didn't feel great, and it pushed me away from wanting to go to an NFL game ever again.

My sentiments remain, and after seeing the above report on CNN, it just reinforces what I was thinking. If you search 'NFL fans fight' on Youtube, you get this, among many others.

When I was 19, I broke up a fight in the bathroom at Three Rivers. Some guy in Browns gear bumped into a guy in Steeler gear by accident. They were both about 5'8" and 250 pounds. Huge fat guys. They looked at each other, and it was on. I tried to pull one off, but he was just too huge. Some other folks helped me.

I started to realize then that being a fan might be getting ridiculous.

Perhaps, I thought, I should put that amount of energy into becoming an author, a great radio host, or the person I want to be. There is nothing wrong with loving the team, but the team isn't paying me. It isn't putting bread on my table.

It was actually doing very little for me, except showing me the amazing things humans can do with their bodies, which is the thing about spectator sports that I still appreciate. Besides that, in my late teens and early 20's it was a huge, time wasting distraction.

So I asked myself, "What can I do to make people watch me the way I watched Mario Lemieux?'

The answer was clearly not playing any of the sports that I used to love to watch. I'm not great at anything like that. But what am I great at? What could I do to reach the level of my heroes?

They were able to play the game they loved and be paid handsomely for it. The question became, 'How can I do that?'

Not hockey, or football, but how can I do what I love and do it at a great level? The answer was clearly not by spending a lot of time watching sports.

I still watch, it's just very limited, and it's way more baseball than football nowadays.