For the last twelve hours, I have been traveling. We left at 9 A.M. from Chicago O'Hare, spent eight and a half hours on a flight to Honolulu, then hopped a short thirty minute flight to Kahului, Maui. Factor in the forty-five minute drive to our condo on Ka'anapali beach, and I at no time had a minute to follow sports.
So it's not like I intentionallly neglected the news in sports today. I just couldn't access the Internet until now.
I haven't checked any of the scores yet. I don't know who won the football game, or who even played, although I believe the Colts were playing the Jaguars in a game that only means something to the Colts. Don't ask me where it was played, however.
I don't know who played in college hoops tonight or the NBA. I couldn't tell you which hockey teams skated tonight. The only thing I know is I just spent the last half hour in the Lahaina Safeway shopping for groceries for my vacation. Before that, I had a nice dinner with my family in Lahaina after a long day of traveling. I watched the scenery around me, and thought about how lucky I am to be in Maui at this time of year.
And you know what? I'm probably not going to check those scores, or that news until tomorrow.
This was one of those days for me when sports come into perspective a bit. Granted, if I was free all day, I'd probably be consuming sports information all day. Minimally, I would be blogging about it in this forum at some point.
But I didn't miss it today. I wasn't thinking about what games were on. I didn't find myself longing for something athletic to watch. I just didn't care.
I love sports, and hope to be lucky enough to continue a career in sports, whether it's broadcasting or otherwise. But as much as I love sports, I can remove myself from them. As much as they are important to me, I realize that they aren't as important as I make them out to be in my everyday life.
Sports are a fantastic distraction. That's one of the many reasons we all love them. When the real world bogs us down we look for some daily live entertainment to take our minds off everything else, and sports are the perfect fix. Yet sometimes we even need a distraction from our favorite distraction, and sports take a back seat to something more important.
So I suggest to you, diehard sports fan, a one day hiatus from sports. Don't flip on SportsCenter. Don't listen to sports talk radio and don't watch the game for just one night. Find something else to entertain you for the day and night. You might find something else you like a lot. Maybe you'll catch up with some people you haven't talked to for a while. Maybe you'll curl up with a good book.
Then, when you come back to sports the next day, you'll be able to distance yourself from it. You'll feel better, I promise, especially when your teams are losing and you sports fan loyalty is tested. There's more to life than sports, even though for some of us that concept is hard to believe.
And while I say all this now, I'll be back at it tomorrow.
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