Are You Ready for Some Football?

A little Hank Jr. for you...

As everyone knows, I like sports. I enjoy sitting back and watching football on a breezy fall Sunday afternoon. The game is the ultimate TV sport. Each play is called, men are set in position and are frozen in time until the call of the leader. Only then can each player release the stored energy in each muscle to dominate their opponent. A furocious ballet ensues for approximately 5 to 10 seconds, the play ends and the game is suspended until it's time to do it again. What can be done during the down time? A REPLAY of the last play giving the viewer insight into why the play was a success or failure. How sweet is that? Not to mention that with NFL Sunday Ticket, I get to watch any game I want without blackout restrictions.

This is my 4th year with NFL Sunday Ticket, and each year it has been well worth it. This year is slightly different that the last several years because of a minor detail- I am NOT playing fantasy football for the first time since 1993. Yes, I said 1993- I harken back to the days of a mail-in draft and getting our scores Thursday by mail based on the stats inside the USA Today from on Monday.

I decided not play fantasy football this year because it has begun to be more work than fun. I no longer wanted to talk to a friend for 30 minutes trying to get a deal done. Neither do I want to flip through every game on Sunday without really watching any of them for the sake of the stats of my players. I wanted to take a break over the past few years, but so many people have wanted me to play, that it began feeling more like an obligation than fun as well.

Turning on the TV on Sundays this year has changed dramatically. I now look at the weekly schedule and am unable to find a game that I have any interest in as I look through the list. NFL parity has not added credibility to the league and increased competition. It has diluted itself into mediocrity. There aren't dominant franchises that create the dynasty of the 70's Steelers and the 80's 49ers. Now I see a bunch of teams that are predominantly average at best. I still watch the Dolphins, but after their game, I haven't had the urge to watch other games because I seemed to have lost interest in the matchups. Maybe it's a coming of age for me, I'm not sure.

I have told Jen that I will probably not buy the NFL Sunday Ticket next year. I have not been using it enough this year to make it matter. Instead, maybe I will get MLB Extra Innings. The idea of being able to watch the Yankees virtually any night I wish from April to October does peak my interest. And the MLB Extra Innings package is not exclusive to DirecTV, so it opens the door for a healthy competitions between service carriers. Plus, I feel that I would get a lot more use out of watching baseball rather than football. A blog of the beauty of baseball to be posted soon...

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