Eternal Trophies……..

I need to apologize, I have been a sports junkie, and i’m ashamed of my self, I’m also ashamed of sports!  Sports were designed to be a pleasant past time that we could enjoy and take our minds off the more serious things in life like working and raising families! With every passing decade sports has become a bigger and bigger business.  In the U.S. alone we have ESPN, Fox Sports, ABC Sports, CBS Sports, and now NBC has started a 24 hour sports channel.  And what is the result of all this?  When you have to talk about sports 24 hours a day 365 days a year, you quickly, very quickly, run out of relevant things to report on.  So, you start to obsesses over the irrelevant ad-nauseam.  The latest major 24 hour news cycle sport story has been the Peyton Manning, next team up story.

Here is the quick rundown for those that don’t know or care (God bless you for not caring)!  Peyton Manning was and All American quarterback from Tennessee who went to the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL.   He has had a stellar career having been MVP, (most valuable player), several times.   Many consider him among the two or three greatest quarterbacks of all time in the NFL.  By all accounts he is a good guy, family man, respected by his peers both on and off the field. Last season for the first time in his career he missed an entire season due to injury and surgeries to repair his neck.  In  his absence the Colts collapsed into the worst team in the NFL.  The Colts, having so much respect for him, and all he had done for the team over the past decade, said that he was their man and they would stick by him!  Nope, remember this in 21st century professional sports, they dumped him for the latest, greatest kid out of college.  The big story of the off season has been where would he go??!!  As he shopped his talents around to a number of other teams, at the thought of getting as QB of this level of talent fell all over themselves trying to entice him to join their teams, at the same time sending the message to their current (formerly loved QBs), you are yesterday news. Now every team that pursued him, but didn’t get him, have to explain to their remaining quarterbacks that they still want them and think they can win with them, even though they wanted the Peyton badly!!!!

I’m sick of it, 24 hours a day trashing players that ere yesterday’s heros, criticizing every decision, second guessing everyone’s value.  Nitpicking every players personality, all the while,  everyone in the business is making high six figure incomes.  It just makes me sick to my stomach.  I know sports was never as pure as the driven snow, but it once was something we took a lot less seriously.  I was talking with my brother Homer at the Old Car City workshop a couple of weekends ago about this very subject, we have both been big University of Kentucky fans for years, and our beloved Wildcats are advancing through the NCAA tournament with ease, we agree though, that even though we would love to see them win it all, we will be fine the day after our first loss. In the big picture,  it’s just not that important.  (I will be hunted to the death now by fellow Kentucky fans for even breathing such harassey!)

The movie that I talked about a few posts back, 7 Days in Utopia, puts it all in perspective.  I guess it’s not too surprising that ESPN has not raved about that film!!  It’s kind of the anti-ESPN film!  Look, I admit to being a sports addict, but I’m going to try and get some help, I’m going to try and remember that no matter what others make it, it’s just going to be recreational for me, I’m going to care about who wins every game,  about as much as I care whether it’s sunny tomorrow.  I wish Peyton Manning all the best, and I hope the teams that trashed their current quarterbacks can make amends and work things out with them.  I can’t really hope that the Indianapolis Colts have great success with their new draft choice,  after they dropped Peyton like a hot potato.  The bottom line is this, it’s just as game!

Maybe we should be thinking more about Eternal Trophies!!!!!!

game 1 |gām|noun1 a form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.

the pilgrim

Definition of the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NCAA, NHL, and all other sports organizations;   a place where years of exceptional performance are rewarded with near total amnesia when the next great player or team comes along…….  Interestingly enough the image above is of Donovan McNabb long time great player for the Philadelphia Eagles, once consider one of the NFL greats traded to the Washington Redskins when he failed to take the Eagles to the Super Bowl, he was cut after one season with the Redskin.  The Eagles, by the way, signed Michael Vic to a record breaking contract  only to see him have a performance melt down the following season.  See any patterns here?!

Note:  I will be leaving at O:Dark Thirty headed out on a three week swing through the south.  Florida Camera Council, then Sun n’ Fun air show, and finally the Masters Golf Tournament.  I will continue to post, but some posts may be in the evenings after long travel days!