From Scott Adams:
More than one, now that I think of it. I used to watch the NFL on Sundays when there was nothing else (i.e. an off-week for F1, no major golf tournaments), and very occasionally a couple of Cubs baseball games (old habits die hard). Never the NBA, AMQ (after Michael quit). I only like watching hockey live, never on TV, and since I left Chicago, not that either. (Actually, I stopped watching the Blackhawks when they moved out of the old atmospheric Chicago Stadium and into the bland new United Center, but that’s a rant for another time.)
Basically, I’m left with cricket (which is hardly ever on, thank gawd for YouTube), English football (which is hanging on by a fingernail because BLM support) and Formula 1. And with F1 I’ve gone from keen support to sorta-maybe ever since Lewis fucking Hamilton suddenly realized he was Black (half-Black, to be precise, but let’s go with the Democrat / Afrikaner “single drop of blood” measure, as Hamilton is). I used to watch F1 Sunday, which is a scene-setting show for the Grand Prix of the day, but as that has turned into a “Kneel for Black Lives Matter” orgy I stopped watching that shit, and now watch only the race itself.
If I do a rough count, I’ve gone from about 20-30 hours a week of sports viewing to about 4 or 5, and even that may slip a bit more if things get too unbearable. (The English Premier League season has ended, so nothing there until September, it looks like.)
So in answer to the above question: yeah, Scott; BLM and the other Commie hangers-on have messed up sports for me too.
I basically stopped watching the big-name sports years ago, mostly because they got “too professional,” and were more about the business than the games themselves.
I get more enjoyment playing videogames nowadays, and if I want a spectator sport, I watch other (much more skilled) people play video games.
I’ve never been bored enough to sit around and watch any of that stuff.
The inlaws had it on on Thanksgiving day so I’d open the garage door, grab a chair and sit there sipping suds. Just sitting in the same room with that brain deadening stuff is more than I can bear.
Willow has been my respite since the 2012 election – no political commercials there. Tests and ODI’s – I just cant’t get into T20’s.
Too much Big Bash, T20 and IPL for me, on Willow.
Sports? Wazzat?
The Snooker championships are on right now.
As for motorsport, forget F1 and look at the British Touring Car Championships. On ITV4 all day every Sunday.
On the participatory side, since you like cricket and shooting, you might enjoy croquet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCW_Rb5Y7t4
Q:
Unless it’s Ronnie O’Sullivan playing, I’m not interested. He’s the Michael Jordan of snooker.
The Touring Car races… we have NASCAR, equally boring.
As for croquet: give me bowls anytime. (Curling played on grass, for those unfamiliar with it.)
With so many sporting events off the air, people are finding other things to fill their time. The more interesting question to me is: Once the Coronavirus becomes no longer an issue and all the sports return, how many of those erstwhile sports fans who found other entertainment options will simply choose not to come back? It won’t be all of them but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a large minority.
Then there’s the whole politicization/BLM crap. It used to be that sports was one of the few things in our society that hadn’t been completely infiltrated and saturated with political posturing. It was a welcome break from the constant political battles that we can’t seem to get away from.
But now that the BLM folks are feeling their oats, they seem to try and take sporting events as yet another opportunity to harangue, lecture and scold white America. So that’s yet ANOTHER reason for millions of people to find different entertainment options.
For me, I’ve gone from watching no sports to… still watching no sports.
I played sports up through high school. My dad loved watching sports, so growing up I got my fill of watching them with him. I can appreciate a good play if I see one on a TV at a friend’s house or in a restaurant or soemthing, but “I wanna watch a game” has never been a thought that’s crossed my mind.
I used to watch NFL. Last season was a crap-show. This year not even a starter.
Hockey, Rugby, Nascar, the other sports I enjoyed, all went WOKE and at that point F.O. When I watched EPL Rugby last year during rainbow flag month, and I got a 10 minute lecture about how Rugby was an “Inclusive” sport. Hockey got that way too. FFS, I go to church to get sermons. I watch(ed) sports for escapism. Still watch the UFC but that’s about the last thing left.
Plus we dropped Direct TV. So we are largely TV free now anyway.
I have to confess I havent missed any of it.
I gave up on the NFL years ago, the NBA decades ago, leaving me with the NHL and MLB (and Aussie Rules). I wasn’t too keen on the playoff format they’re using in the NHL this season and then I saw the morons taking a knee and gave up on them. I gave up on MLB when I saw Fenway Park with its BLM banners. I was an Arsenal supporter and when the EPL started back up this year and I saw the BLM garbage on the back of their shirts, I turned it off and gave up on that, too.
I used to enjoy the Bears and the Cubs, but haven’t watched much the last few years. I’ll attend a couple of local minor-league baseball games, because those are fun, but that’s about all. This year our team probably won’t be playing, so I’ll have to find something else to do. Fortunately, it’s not too hard to replace sports.
I would like to watch and understand cricket one of these days. Maybe I’ll look into that.
Could never watch soccer – the most batshit-boring sport ever invented. Ball goes left, no score. Ball goes right, no score. Repeat ad nauseam.
Could never watch monkeyball – the inverse of soccer. Ball goes left, two points. Ball goes right, two points. Repeat ad nauseam.
Used to watch F1 religiously… until the never ending fucking shitload of stupid rules and regulations killed it for me.
Used to watch NFL religiously… until they changed the rules so as to turn the game into a pass-fest. Now any shitkicking mediocre QB can pass for 4000 yards and 35 TDs.
Great description of Soccer as a spectator sport. My description is : Soccer – oh, sorry, foootbawl – isn’t that the game Europeans go home and watch in order to wind down from a hard day of watching paint dry?
I haven’t been affected, because I never cared about any sports to begin with. And you can’t go lower than zero.
^^ THIS! ^^
Australian Rules Football!
Umpires in tuxedos!
No padding on players!
Frequent blood!
Dribbling an oblong pointy-ended ball!
Geelong Cats!
Oh, wait.
Were you asking about pornography?
Nope.
About the same as always… according to my statistics from the careful calculators at the National Security Agency.
Don’t give me that guff, Marge. You just get moist at the thought of all the tight uniforms and muscled bodies.
Not that this is a Bad Thing, of course. (see: women’s beach volleyball)
I was never into sports at all. That might be due to the fact that when I was a kid none of the Chicago teams won anything (60s-70s). Plus I was that klutzy kid who was no good at sports and always picked last for a team.
For years my attitude has been why waste time watching a bunch of overpaid adults play games? Now it’s why watch a bunch of overpaid, spoiled, whiny, woke pseudo-adults play games?
Like preussenotto, above, says I dumped the dish years ago & now when I’m at friends and relatives homes I wonder why they put up with so many stupid commercials. I might be six months to a year behind everyone else, but I’ll watch TV shows when they come out on DVD.
I’ll admit that when I had TV I’d watch the summer Olympics for the women’s gymnastics, the winter Olympics for the women’s skating (I’m a leg man), and a few minutes of women’s beach volleyball when I came across it channel surfing. But the Olympic coverage got too annoying and I either got too old or the women in women’s gymnastics got too young and started to peg my squicky meter (I fear it’s the former, sigh).
Now sports fan friends gripe not only about Chicago’s loser teams, but the kneeling and crap going on, spoiling for them what was once a three hour respite from politics, “social justice”, etc. I’d say “I feel for you” but I can’t since I was never a fan..Go watch a movie guys. You know that even if Bruce Willis, Jason Statham or Keanu Reeves get the crap kicked out of them, they’ll come back and win in the end. Can’t say that about your favorite team.