Friday, July 6, 2012

Part Three

Following sports, prima facie, seems like an artless recreation, free of deceit, natural genuine, and innocent. However, the more one studies, one's insight is augmented, and as his insight becomes larger, his criticism follow in suit. This has befallen me, and thus, I am here to deliver this austere message (albeit from an individual not so austere), a message which is serious and sober, which is severe in attitude, but yet true. It may seem to disclose my intense antipathy for fans of sports, my deep dislike and aversion to them. But, in an effort to placate them, so not to alienate so many people (did you know one of the most watched events in TV history are the FIFA world cups!), I must tell you that I am really an affable guy, a warm and friendly fellow, who simply cannot resist shedding light on the realities of the world.


David Brooks once wrote in the NYT the following:


Since I am me, I've read a bunch of social science papers on the nature of sports fandom, trying to understand this attachment. They were arid and completely unhelpful. They tried to connect fandom to abstractions about identity formation, self-esteem affiliation and collective classifications.


It's probably more accurate to say that team loyalty of this sort begins with youthful enchantment. You got thrown together by circumstance with a magical team - maybe one that happened to be doing well when you were a kid or one that featured the sort of heroes children are wise to revere. You lunged upon the team with the unreserved love that children are capable of.


The team became crystallized in your mind, coated with shimmering emotional crystals that give it a sparkling beauty and vividness. And forever after you feel its attraction. Whether it's off the menu or in the sports world, you can choose what you'll purchase, but you don't get to choose what you like.


Beautiful words from a fascinating man who seems not to need to aggrandize himself, does not need to exaggerate or make greater his role in the world. No, I don’t expect you to respond with alacrity, with cheerful and speedy willingness, to revoke all your allegiances to sports team since you have realized that he is wrong. Yes, you will tell me, there are some values that lie in following sports, which, in the aggregate, with it all gathered together, it is all worth it. But I disagree. The adverse of affects of this practice, the harmful aspects far outweigh the good. Children begin to speak with the affected accents of their sport's heroes; they think this fake utilization of verbalization somehow makes them "cool". They think that becoming successful in life is as simple as playing a game of ball, when, in fact, it is a long and arduous climb to greatness, a difficult and strenuous journey. You, the reader, will attempt to assuage these attacks, to make milder and relieve this diatribe against sports, by claiming that I blow things way out of proportion. You tell me that my fury will abate; my rage will be reduced if I only took a deep breath and had a broader view of things. But I aver with great confidence that I am right. I thus abjure my commitments to the ball clubs I have followed; I renounce and repudiate those ties.


I don't mean it, of course, who can forgo the pleasure of Superball Sunday, the joys of taking one's son to a baseball game, and the delights of a buzzer beating three point shot or goal. In fact, the acme of my year, the summit and peak of enjoyment, is watching the Superball with friends and family. To spend a Sunday without watching football is for me an aberration more than the norm. The abrasive remarks of my nemesis's fans, the irritation and annoyance, and the schadenfreude of watching their downfall is incomparable. And guess what! This is only the abridged version of my ideas, imagine what the full things looks like!

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