Now that football is finished for the year, this time of the sports season is the equivalent to the dog days of summer for baseball fans and players. Both the NHL and the NBA are getting closer to their trade deadlines, and while there are some close races for playoff spots in both leagues, the schedule is to the point in time where you wish it was one month further along than it is now, and that much closer to the start of the playoffs for both leagues.
Psychologically, one month from now is also that much closer to the beginning of spring weather, which makes everybody feel good.
For those who follow football closely, you get into a routine with the National Football League. When you get up on Sunday morning, you start to watch the pre-game shows, as early as 10am if you watch the NFL network, and of course ESPN’s television programming for the NFL starts at 11am, with the early games kicking off at 1pm. With the west coast games starting around 4pm, and a Sunday night game as well, the football fan has an entire day planned out for a good portion of the year. When that pattern concludes after the Super Bowl, you go through a withdrawal, because you are so used to that routine.
Of course, one can always spend more time with family and friends,which is always a good thing. That is always time well spent,as you come to appreciate more so, as you get older, and realize how short life is, as friends and family move away, or unfortunately, pass away as well.
The one sport that for me comes closest to substituting for the NFL, is Premiership soccer. For the most part it is a weekly routine, but for those with teams in the Champions League, there are some weeks with two games, and that creates a lot of excitement and nail biting as well. As a Chelsea supporter since 2007, that has certainly been the case for me.
As a very proud, born and raised Canadian from Toronto, I never thought that any sport would equate to, or supersede hockey as a favorite game to watch. Much to my surprise, that in fact has happened for me, as I will always place a Chelsea soccer game ahead of any hockey game, and the same for the National Football League, whose games also rank ahead for me, on the few occasions when their schedules collide with hockey, as is sometimes the case on a few Saturday evenings. The same applies for me if my alma mater, Syracuse University is playing football or basketball. That too is a programming priority.
It’s not as though I don’t enjoy hockey, as it was my first love as a sport when I was a youngster, by a wide margin. I guess it means that with the globalization of sports, and the fact that technology now allows us to watch almost any game being played, anywhere on the planet, we all have much more to choose from, which was not the case when I was growing up in the 1960’s, when we had as few as approximately six TV channels to choose from altogether.
The saying goes that variety is the spice of life, and that certainly applies to sports as well. With the possibility of the NFL being shut down by a labor dispute next season, I’m dreading the thought of having to substitute so many Sunday’s with other activities. That could definitely take some getting used to. Let’s hope that is not the case. If the league is not operating, it will give a whole new meaning to that sixties pop song by the band,Spanky and Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be The Same”. It wont be the same until the NFL returns.