Super Sunday

     It's that time of year again.  The culmination of a season’s worth of blood, sweat and tears on the gridiron will come to a head today on national tv with millions of people around the world watching.  Those involved work all year long to make it there, and for a few short hours the fruits of their labor will have people on the edge of their seats in anticipation.  It's Super Commercial Sunday!  The most entertaining ads for all the goods and services we don't really need are upon us once again!  Oh yea, and there's some football game on too at the same time.

     So yea, I may be a minority among guys, and I may jeopardize my man-card for my opinions here, but I am just not a fan of most professional sports.  I could give a crap less who wins the Superbowl today; it's amazing I even know what teams are in it.  My indifference to most sports wasn't always the case; over the years my interest in football and baseball in particular have slowly declined for a number of reasons.  One of the bigger reasons is the salary situation with pro athletes.  I'm one of those people who are unimpressed with anybody - I don't care how hard you can hit a ball or how well you can throw a football- who has a pissing match with an employer over how many millions you need every year to play a game.  A game. 
    
      I'm all for Capitalism, supply and demand, all that stuff; however when a team's salary is such that a fan ends up spending 12 dollars for a soda and 9 bucks for a bag of peanuts just to keep these poor athletes gainfully employed and swimming in dead presidents, I call bullshit. There is no reason that an average family of 4 should need to spend 1,000 dollars or more to enjoy a day at the ballgame.  That is, IF there is a ballgame.  IF there's not a strike going on whereby a players’ union is holding out for more money or more this or more that for those undercompensated athletes.  And I don't mean to just pick on the players - the team owners and operators are just as guilty.  They all need to take cuts across the board and bring the costs shoveled off on the fans down to reasonable levels.

      I think another reason that my interest in mainstream pro sports has waned is on account of attending a number of smaller leagues/venues and realizing that they end up being just as exciting, if not more so, than their mainstream counterparts.  Arena football games, minor league baseball and hockey, and even high school sports are all good examples of entertaining competition that has most of the pros of the big leagues and few of the cons.  The team rosters may not be full of bright lights big city stars, but they most times are full of people who lace up and put on a show worth watching. 

      So tomorrow morning when I get home from work (I'll miss the big game tonight, oh darn), I'll definitely be watching the highlights reel to see how things unfolded.  But the stars of the reel I'm going to be watching won't be guys in pads, it'll hopefully be things like frogs and lizards pushing beer, babies selling stocks and bonds, people opining about going to Disney World, and Betty White getting tackled for a Snickers.