Christmas Day is in the homestretch and it looks like I somehow will survive without watching any sporting events.
Imagine that. Instead, I spent time with the extended family, and now that they all have returned to their respective homes, I’m DVRing a Christmas movie, monitoring the upward explosion of gold and silver prices in Asia trading, contemplating plans for Friday before the ice storm hits, and writing this.
The NFL made it easy to decide not to watch, exiling their three Christmas Day offerings to Netflix and Amazon Prime in the league’s never-ending quest to wring yet more money from media outlets. No big deal, I’ve read, because “everybody” has Netflix and Prime.
I don’t have either, and I’m certainly not going to sign up just to watch three irrelevant football games. Really, people are expected to pay up to watch not one, not two, but three matchups in which five of the six teams won’t be making the playoffs?
They ought to be paying us to watch the games, and even then I’d not be a taker. It was more fun helping the two granddaughters explore their slime presents today, or watching them learn how to write cursive with instruction from my wife.
Interesting note: Cursive writing no longer is widely taught and I read that an effective code these days to prevent younger folks from catching on to a message is simply to write it in cursive. It’s akin to the foolproof way to prevent car theft by millennials and younger – drive a manual transmission car, which they cannot do.
The NBA’s “Dunk the Halls” marathon of Christmas games was available on regular and cable outlets. Still, I’m not a taker.
I recall back in the days when I wrote for the Local Woke Gazette and the Christmas Day NBA was just being tested. Some hack glandular case who played for the New York Knicks was whining about playing on the holiday and I noted a lot of regular folk – me included – often worked on Christmas and other holidays, and for a lot less money.
Somehow the guy read it and ripped me on one of those daytime talk shows afterward. If only I could have been there to respond.
I’m the first to admit to enjoying holiday time with the family. I’m also aware that there are many who have to work holidays, ranging from police, military and healthcare workers, down through newspaper types. Remember, your morning newspaper is put out the night before, so it you want a product the day after Christmas, people work Christmas day or night to make it happen.
Add in that sporting events often are played on holidays. If you are covering a team, you are working those holidays. Even if there is no game, frequently you are on the road in anticipation of the games, or returning home from same.
This is not a complaint, merely a statement of facts. If you want to work Monday-Friday daylight hours, get a job as a bank teller.
Too bad Steelers wide receiver DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf wasn’t playing on Christmas Day and going after a fan who had the temerity to call him by his legal name.
Also, too bad we didn’t have yet another meaningless bowl game that devolved into an end-of-game brawl to spice up the holiday.
Increasingly, I’m finding sporting events carry too much baggage to make them able to hold my interest.
That goes doubly so on holidays.
Merry Christmas!
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