Saturday, September 8, 2007

instead

things i could have done instead of watching Notre Dame get beaten into the ground: call my mom ... work on an art project ... walk around the river ... read a good book ... vacuum ... think of something more interesting to blog about ...

But I did watch every last miserable minute of it. Because that's what a good ND alum does, right? Stand by your team in good times and bad. And horrifically terrible times too. I have to say honestly though, when the team is doing badly it does make me re-think how I spend my time - whether I really ought to spend 3-4 hours every Saturday being consumed with worry over a bunch of guys throwing a ball around ...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

When Bill Reinhardt found out that there was a Vikings game on, he immediately stopped doing anything productive. I liked his reasoning, too. "Nobody else in Minnesota is doing anything productive, so why should I?" I can't say I give a care about football, and I think I once went to part of a basketball game while I was at college....

Buddhist, RN said...

You certainly don't have to watch it...but there's certainly nothing wrong with it. Just because you aren't out saving the world for those 4 hours Saturday doesn't mean you're some sort of lazy bum. Take a break, watch some TV, and forget about stuff for a while. You have the rest of the day to do it. Relaxing is good. If you really feel like you need to get other stuff done, that's OK, but never feel guilty about the simple act of watching a game. And football games are only a few months per year. You have many productive Saturdays the rest of the year.

Jeff Payne said...

There are three kinds of sports fans:

1) Rabid fans, who watch their team every game, regardless of wins or losses, and feel they are letting the team down if they do otherwise.

2) Loyal fans, who watch their team as often as they can, but may have other priorities in their lives. They may not watch when the team is struggling, but that doesn't mean they aren't rooting for them.

3) Bandwagon fans, who root for whatever team is winning that year.

There's no shame in being #2, especially considering #1 includes a lot of wierdos...Just don't become a #3 :)

Every sports team (especially college) goes through ups and downs. ND was starting a true freshman - can you imagine having that kind of pressure on you when you were 18? It was clear that while ND did try to win the game, the game plan was heavily loaded toward not getting the poor kid killed (short distance, short duration plays). You will see the benefit of this experience in another year or two.

And keep in mind - what fun is gloating over a win if you have never had to take your lumps?