The Case for Sportsball
This post was originally written seven years ago and never published. I’m posting it this week as part of a seven day publishing experiment (that has been extended by one week) to take a deep dive into my drafts folder, and air out the stuff that I hesitated on.
Don’t really remember why I didn’t publish here. Maybe it didn’t go far enough? Wanted to sharpen the positive. Or just hesitant to admit how hard I fell. But here we are, from 2014:
I’ve spent most of my life ignoring pro sports and looking down on people who seemed to care. I’m into art & tech and sports to me, has always been an elaborate way to sell Bud Light. The drama is loud and dull and I had plenty of disdain for the people in the back of the bar shouting at a wall covered in plasma screens.
… For whatever reason, this year was different. I fell hard for the Broncos and then the Nets. One is my hometown and one is my new town where I’ve lived for 7 years. It started slow. Both teams did way better this year than anyone thought. They fought hard then both had crushing endings. One, a rout in front of 111 million people.
I’ve felt so horrible after each season that it made me question whether to let myself do this again. The season is fun, sometimes thrilling, then it ends and it’s darkness. Dreams are crushed. I feel stupid because I let myself fall for something I have no actual ability to control.
The ending is what makes sports so different than art. You go through a similar up and down in art but the ending in art is designed. There’s an arc and a specific message. Sports doesn’t have that. The story is TBD. And for every sport, there is only one winner each season which makes most everyone a loser. So why do billions of people agree to a routine and public punishment?
It’s an open question to me and I’m posting this here because I want your answers. But I’m also starting to think that the punishment is the point. They take the hit for you. You think about what it means. Then they walk into the press conference and say next season things will be different.
A note from 2023. The Nuggets are in the NBA finals for the first time. They just took game 3 to be 2-1. I watched nearly every minute of the game on my laptop tonight and when they won, all I felt was mild relief. Nothing real until they close the deal.