For love of the game

My nephews play sports. I like to watch them and to take pictures and videos. Someday I may do something cool with them, but for now I can share some with y'all. Now many of you know that I am not a sports fan. I have no care who wins the world series as long as it is over as quickly as possible and doesn't pre-empt regular programming that I am actually interested in! Most sports are a waste of time and money and are no more than opium for the masses. I have never understood the rabid sports fan, you know the ones, every piece of clothing they own is in the team colors or has the team logo on it somewhere, they read every stat from every season and never miss a pregame or post game analysis. ( Is "anal" the root of "analysis", or is it"lysis". What's a "lysis"? ) The go to the games as often as possible and when they can't make the game the where the jersey all day long even if they are poll bearers at a funeral. Face painters, chest painters, shirtless in a blizzard cheering for their team no matter whether they are winning or losing. Now this is not to say that I don't occasionally watch a game with friends, or can't discuss current events on occasion. Even the sports that do interest me I'm not rabid about. I like Motorsports, and I can honestly say that when nothing else is available I will happily sit and watch ANY form of racing. Mostly because I can fall asleep during the boring parts and then wake up and watch the great crashes. I don't want to see anyone die, in fact I am happiest when the crash is REALLY spectacular and the driver walks away. Then he really has a story to tell!

So anyway, back to my point, my biggest complaint about professional sports is that too many of the players are simply playing for the huge ridiculous salaries. They no longer play for the love of the game. Although I do imagine that some like Brett Favre play long past their effective careers to keep their attention addiction sated. Kids however still play because they like to play. Of course there are always the exceptions to the rule, but we all know that any kid that doesn't truly want to play any sport will do everything in his/her power to completely suck and thereby not actually have to play, meanwhile keeping daddy happy that he/she is on the team. Why do I say daddy and not mommy? Again with some exceptions it seems to be the sports that allow the fathers to connect to the children. At least this has been my experience. There are still the stage mothers who push their children into anything so that their child will be popular (or the stars knows the motivation). The kids that play because they like it, are the best to watch, because they will put all of their energy into whatever they are doing, whether it's football, baseball, soccer, hockey or anything else that kids play. These are the games that I love to watch. I don't even care what game it is or who they are playing, it's just infectious fun to watch when they still play for the love of the game.