Gladiatorial Competition of Choice

Current Tunes: Chatter & indie tunes at Starbucks

Three days afterward and I’m still disgusted and upset over the Super Bowl. I’m thoroughly happy for the city of New Orleans, I really am. I’m thoroughly sad for Indianapolis too, Peyton Manning especially. Regardless, that was one of the lamest Super Bowls I’ve seen.

The reality may be that I’m simply coming to accept my displeasure and general apathy toward the NFL. I went to one college football game this year and one NFL game this year. The two experiences could not have been more different. At Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, there’s only one money-making entity vying for your attention and it’s the University of Alabama. Even Coke takes a back seat to the unending avalanche of crimson and white media that attacks you at all angles, ingraining the Alabama faithful in their worship experience.

At the Georgia Dome though, everyone from Georgia Power to Budweiser to car dealerships and banks are competing for your attention when you come to the game. The NFL has become such a gargantuan money machine, it now takes an overwhelming amount of corporate sponsorship to keep that machine rolling. It was literally so distracting it was somewhat difficult to tell there was a game going on. That’s saying a lot if you ask me, considering how the game I went to was the Philadelphia Eagles against the Falcons, which meant the return of Michael Vick to the town he “betrayed.”

The NFL isn’t a complete catastrophe or anything, I will say in fairness. They have a lucrative business that they have marketed with extreme efficiency and power. And I don’t fault them for that at all, it’s just becoming a bit too much for me to stomach given my aversion to advertising. They know how to manage and market their stars and turn it into a frenzy for fans all over the nation. It’s a major American sport. And I do love the sport itself, but I really think I’m going to eliminate the NFL from my “I Care” column. College football presents me with the same game, often times on a much more exciting, much less predictable scale, and without the hyper-advertising world of major stadiums.

I'll still care about the NFL Draft though. The NFL draft is as big and as exciting to me as Christmas.

Hockey is ss much to blame for my recent distaste for the NFL aas anything else actually. I went to my first ever hockey game, of any level of competition, just a few weeks ago and the experience was nothing short of riveting. The game itself is only a small part of what I found so enthralling. It’s fast pace and tough attitude are very appealing to me of course, but there’s more to it than that.

Phillips Arena was maybe half full the night we went, with just as many Buffalo Sabres fans as there were Atlanta Thrashers fans. That wasn’t so particularly surprising to me; hockey has a damn hard time catching on in the south where ponds don’t exactly stay frozen over eight months out of the year. What gripped me was that despite a lackluster turnout of spectators, both teams appeared to be playing their hearts out. That spoke to me; it clearly showed me that the guys who get out there and play have to be doing it because its what they love. Hockey isn't the most popular or most lucrative sport in America right now, but these guys play anyway, and play hard. I was touched by that.

I’m certain I wouldn’t have had the same reaction if I’d gone to a game in cities like Detroit or Montreal where devotion to hockey is moderately cult-like. Or even in cities where turnout for games is bigger because they have young superstars like Washington or Pittsburgh, I probably wouldn’t have come to that conclusion either. That’s fine though.

I think I like hockey a lot. I like what it has to offer, and I’m going to learn more about it. I’m going to go out of my way to watch games on TV, more thoroughly learn the rules, and I’ll have to pick a team to start putting my support behind. I’m pretty much devoted to being a Sabres fan already, since my good friend Chris who went to the game with me is a huge fan of theirs. I’m ok with that. I do like the Buffalo Bills after all. I think I’ll have to teach myself to be a Thrashers fan too, since they’re the hometown team and all.

This newfound love for hockey couldn't have come at a better time either. The Winter Olympics start Friday and I intend to fully plunge myself into the icy splendor of Olympic hockey in the coming weeks. I'm excited enough to be crossing my fingers for some sort of Droid phone app that updates scores and results, but I doubt that'll happen. I'll just have to settle for regular old Internet surfing I suppose. What a shame...

Only thing I wonder about is to be a fan of the sport, don’t you have to actually play it? I’ve never even picked up a hockey stick. And I definitely can’t skate a lick’s worth. Maybe I could learn though. New experiences are always a good thing. Unless they kill you, like I imagine could happen to me when I trip on my own skates and fall and break my neck.