Tag: basketball

Sports Heroes September 2017 – Fifty Plus Going On Fifteen

With the beginning of fall, a convergence of professional sports seasons occurs unlike any other time of the year.

  • Major League Baseball (MLB) is winding down and the Cleveland Indians are one of the hottest teams playing ball prior to the playoffs.
  • National Hockey League (NHL) is ramping up with two more weeks of preseason play and Las Vegas has a team.
  • The National Basketball Association (NBA) completes preseason play this week and the big question is Cleveland or Golden State.
  • National Football League (NFL) is entering week three (3) of the 2017 season and the NFL cannot figure out why viewership is taking for the second straight year.

I am an avid National Football League (NFL) fan who has followed the Minnesota Vikings and Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders since the late 1060s. My Vikings have broken more hearts than Zsa Zsa Gabor and my Raiders have won Superbowls and have been the laughingstock of the NFL.

When I talk about being an avid football fan, my level of interest includes:

  • Counting days until the draft, preseason, regular season, playoffs, and Superbowl.
  • Purchasing and reading magazines and subscriptions to websites to be better educated.
  • Purchasing televised subscription services for all NFL games and I love the Red Zone.
  • Studying stats so I can participate in football picks each week.
  • Studying player and team stats so I can participate in my fantasy football team.

Well, it is week 3 of the NFL season and I have walked away from the NFL with exception of doing football picks and fantasy football since I have obligated my involvement with friends. I don’t like it but I do not like the new political NFL.

Please do not get me wrong since I believe that everyone should be able to support their political leanings but professional players are at work when they play and is it right to take your politics or religion to work?

So there is a void in my fall sports needs and to fill this void I am filling my time with non-political sports like college football and hockey.

I do have other options and I am warming up to MLB baseball again but the 1994 baseball strike still catches in my craw. NHL hockey is an option but a couple weeks out so perhaps we dive deep into hockey. I love NASCAR but all the rule changes have resulted in less interest and Junior is having a poor final year but I hope he is having fun.

Perhaps, the NFL will figure out that people do not really care about politics when watching football and will take a handle on this issue but perhaps not. Until the NFL does treat political protests like a personal foul, I will refrain from fully participating in my favorite sport.

Have a great day and it is great to be Fifty Plus Going On Fifteen.

Jay Patterson

What Happened to My Sports Heroes – Fifty Plus Going On Fifteen

Can you believe the 2017 National Football League (NFL) season starts tomorrow!!

2017 continues to buzz by and I have conflicting thoughts about the upcoming season and even if I want to play fantasy football this year.

What are my conflicts?

Sports have normally been a haven from politics where you could kick back, watch the game and only get miffed if a referee made a bad call or if your team just did not show up. There were blips of politics here and there but politics were normally checked at the door.

In recent years, we have experienced a significant increase in individuals wanting to make a statement at the expense of the team, fans and sport and I have an issue with that. I have become much grayer and less black and white as I have aged but I resist the motivation of bringing politics, religion, etc. to work and/or sports.

In 1994 Major Leage Baseball went on strike over unfair pay practices and other concerns and I thought it quite ironic that an MLB player was going on strike and impacting the concession employees, etc. because the millions in direct earnings and product endorsements were not enough for the professional player.

Well, I went from 1994 until this year without attending a baseball game in person and I would be shocked if I have watched 10 games in 23 years on TV. I doubt I made any impact at my level but there were more people like me out there.

So, the NFL season starts in one day, my fantasy football team is drafted, and I am uncertain if I can support an organization that allows its employees to blatantly exhibit beliefs that I may or may not agree with. Last year, I compromised with my beliefs and did not watch regular season games but played fantasy football.

Why?

When I was growing up, we had a number of students that did not stand for the Pledge Of Allegiance or the National Anthem for religious reasons so is this any different? I believe there is a difference between religious and political reasons but I must also admit that much blood spilled and lives lost to allow people the right to do as they please even if I do not agree with it,

With that said, the 1994 baseball strike is different from the politics of present day sports because greed caused the strike and conceptions and/or misconceptions are driving the current environment. I do not believe sports figures are the hero figures I had as a child but I believe they are role models that should be an example to our young in what is acceptable behavior.

In the end though, it is not the sports figures job to raise our children but ours.

You can agree or disagree with politics and religion in sports and you must decide how to deal with it fairly. I have chosen a gray line to deal with it because very little is black and white.

Have a great day,

Jay Patterson