DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
I was thinking about it all evening after reading the Nascar thread:
Why is Nascar so popular? Because it's a sport - any sport - on television Sundays that allows couch potato Americans the opportunity to waste away 4 hours of a beautiful day by sitting indoors, sucking down a few beers, and watching television. Of course, they'll rationalize it by thinking of all sorts of reasons to explain how watching the same 40 or so guys racing the same cars around in circles week after week is exciting. Sure, there's a lot of strategy, I'll agree with that. Read on.
Then comes football season. Could you go out hiking, camping, take the kids fishing perhaps? Nope. After that 50 hour work week and having to put in some overtime on Saturday, you've gotta sit in front of the television from noon (depending on the time zone you live in) until that late evening game is over.
How did this country go from going to the occasional ballgame (or race - I've enjoyed going to a few car races; sprint cars, etc.) and cheering for the hometown team to this absolutely insane devotion to absolutely gotta gotta watch it. Half our clothing, especially outer-wear (jackets, winter coats, hats, mittens) has to proclaim to the world our devotion to our favorite team or the number of our favorite Nascar driver?
I'm not trying to say, "you people shouldn't be allowed to voice your opinion as to which football team or Nascar driver you adore by buying hundreds, even thousands of dollars worth of sports memorabilia." Heck, I used to have tons of Redskins things laying around. I even had Redskins underwear, sneakers, and those pants things, whatever they were called.
But, as I thought about this, years ago if you were running around wearing Yankees clothes, and wore a Babe Ruth jersey and had customized yankees plates on your car (he played for the Yankees, yes?no? I'm not looking it up), and had the Babe's number painted on your garage door, people would be saying, "dude, what the fvck is wrong with you?" Babe Ruth himself would probably have questioned your priorities or mental status.
But, nowadays, it's completely mainstream. And, the players *expect* us to worship them. And, as a nation, we're much less active and more obese. Woohoo, I can get the football package on directv and watch over 200 games, recaps of every game, highlights of every game. I can get baseball packages, watch every Nascar race, watch hockey. People are spending hundreds upon hundreds of hours sitting around, watching sports on television.
How did it happen?
Why is Nascar so popular? Because it's a sport - any sport - on television Sundays that allows couch potato Americans the opportunity to waste away 4 hours of a beautiful day by sitting indoors, sucking down a few beers, and watching television. Of course, they'll rationalize it by thinking of all sorts of reasons to explain how watching the same 40 or so guys racing the same cars around in circles week after week is exciting. Sure, there's a lot of strategy, I'll agree with that. Read on.
Then comes football season. Could you go out hiking, camping, take the kids fishing perhaps? Nope. After that 50 hour work week and having to put in some overtime on Saturday, you've gotta sit in front of the television from noon (depending on the time zone you live in) until that late evening game is over.
How did this country go from going to the occasional ballgame (or race - I've enjoyed going to a few car races; sprint cars, etc.) and cheering for the hometown team to this absolutely insane devotion to absolutely gotta gotta watch it. Half our clothing, especially outer-wear (jackets, winter coats, hats, mittens) has to proclaim to the world our devotion to our favorite team or the number of our favorite Nascar driver?
I'm not trying to say, "you people shouldn't be allowed to voice your opinion as to which football team or Nascar driver you adore by buying hundreds, even thousands of dollars worth of sports memorabilia." Heck, I used to have tons of Redskins things laying around. I even had Redskins underwear, sneakers, and those pants things, whatever they were called.
But, as I thought about this, years ago if you were running around wearing Yankees clothes, and wore a Babe Ruth jersey and had customized yankees plates on your car (he played for the Yankees, yes?no? I'm not looking it up), and had the Babe's number painted on your garage door, people would be saying, "dude, what the fvck is wrong with you?" Babe Ruth himself would probably have questioned your priorities or mental status.
But, nowadays, it's completely mainstream. And, the players *expect* us to worship them. And, as a nation, we're much less active and more obese. Woohoo, I can get the football package on directv and watch over 200 games, recaps of every game, highlights of every game. I can get baseball packages, watch every Nascar race, watch hockey. People are spending hundreds upon hundreds of hours sitting around, watching sports on television.
How did it happen?
