This past summer, I took the plunge. Having worked through as many of the previous summers as I could remember, I decided it was finally time for a good three months of rest, relaxation and (gulp) unemployment.
Quite a sacrifice, I know. It was admittedly a self-indulgent decision, and a break that was wholly undeserved. Though I did pick up various shifts at an old job, I was largely free to do whatever I pleased.
As recently as a year or two ago, this kind of freedom would have been enjoyed mostly at Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, or in front of my computer reconfiguring a fantasy baseball lineup. In other words, it would have been a summer filled with sports-related thoughts, actions and conversations.
And yet, such was not the case in 2010. My beloved Chicago Cubs were so painfully woeful that I could no longer stomach watching them, and once LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach, there just wasn’t a whole lot to talk about.
For the first time in years, sports were not the dominant force in my life.
In a theme befitting my laissez-faire summer, less turned out to be more. No longer did I rely on an endless stream of ESPN programming to keep me entertained. No longer was watching the most pathetic team in sports a nightly occurrence. No longer was my literary appetite satisfied with nothing but athletic material.
Hence, the point of this column. As is the case with world news, overreporting now plagues the world of sports.
SportsCenter rolls on a loop throughout the day on ESPN, interrupted only by talk show pundits who, you guessed it, scream at each other about what SportsCenter just reported.
It has simply become too much, to the point that non-stories are pushed to the forefront of viewer consciousness by mere repetition.
Take the LeBron James saga, for instance. By the end, we had been assured that LeBron was almost certainly going to play for the Cavaliers, the Bulls, the Knicks and the Heat. It was an exhausting whirlwind that left just about everyone involved feeling cheated and led on.
This world of constant reporting and bickering will not soon end. Not in the era of Twitter, Facebook and a World Wide Web that moves too quickly for most people to keep up.
As such, it is up to the viewers to decide just how much they can stand. Personally, I began to realize this summer that sports were losing the charming aura they had always possessed. Watching my teams and keeping up with all of the news had become more of a chore than anything else, and it suddenly felt absurd to watch two grown men argue about an “important” call at first base or where a 25-year-old would play basketball.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “You’re just a sore loser, and maybe you’d think differently if one of your teams made a run for a championship.”
I won’t deny that might be true. In paying less attention to the daily activities of my teams, I have taken the first step toward becoming the type of fan I used to despise. But you know what? Screw it.
This isn’t just a matter of personal preference. I would argue that, in an age of constantly flowing information, to follow a team with single-minded devotion may even be unhealthy. Sports were created to serve as a diversion from everyday struggles. Too often now they are just another source of stress.
So my advice heading into this school year (and believe me, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it) is to simply unplug sometimes and enjoy sports for what they are.
If the Ducks lose a football game, don’t spend the weekend agonizing over the next AP poll.
Life is just too short for that. Sports are a beautiful thing and will always have a special place in my heart. What I discovered this summer is that, like so many other things, they are better appreciated in moderation.
[email protected]