Just Another Sunday

I don’t like to use the word hate, but in the interest of accuracy I’m going to in this case.

I hate football.

I have not watched a football game on TV from start to finish since I was … I dunno … 12 years old? It has been a long time and to be perfectly honest I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. Maybe it’s the 10 seconds of action followed by a 30 second huddle that turns me off; maybe it’s the borderline unhealthy obsession most football fans have with their team.

I think it has more to do with that fact that, as I always say, football is too American for me. People always ask me what I mean by that, and I don’t really have a good answer. It was a game born in the United States and spread to Canada and is the most popular sport in North America. But only in North America. Hockey has spread to Europe, baseball to Japan and the Caribbean, and basketball is probably the most global sport outside of soccer. But not football. For some reason, that bothers me, that the all-American sport has invaded Canadian culture, but no one elses. I suspect that is because the older, and in my opinion the superior, sport of rugby already exists. It's yet another example of how dominant American influences are in Canadian culture, and it bugs me.

Today is apparently the Super Bowl, the be all, end all of football. Thank God.

I’m not even entirely sure what two teams are playing, and I really don’t care. What bothers me about the Super Bowl is the millions of people who don’t give a rat’s ass about football, but all of a sudden on Super Bowl Sunday are die-hard fans of one of the two teams involved. Hypocrisy at its worst. And people wonder why I don’t go to Super Bowl parties. Why would I sit through 3 hours of agonizing television that I have no interest in just to have a few beers with my friends? And that’s just the pre-game show.

So while all you die-hards of varying degrees are out cheering on your new favourite teams, I’ll be doing the same thing I generally do during Super Bowl Sunday: homework, study, watch a movie, or maybe even play some hockey. Just another Sunday evening for me.

-matt