Can't lie. I'm depressed today. Took the day off.
- Thread starter Mr. Potter
- Start date
Pitchers and Catchers report this week. Spring beckons.
I used to get down in the dumps like that after my team lost. Over the years I've come to grips with the fact that life is much bigger than one game.
Haven't been this depressed the day after since the Andy Reid years after NFC Championship games and the 2004 Superbowl with McPuke at QB. Reflecting back, its only a football game. It has been a great ride the past 6 mos with Philly Sports. Future is looking good. Going to be bummed because Miles ain't cutting it and will no longer be an Eagle.
Yeah, really, 3 lost championships in the last 5 months, yowzza !!!
99% of the time, the next morning after a disappointing sports outcome I am over it.
Even in those rare instances, still not to the point where I need to curl up in fetal position and cry.
Even in those rare instances, still not to the point where I need to curl up in fetal position and cry.
Indeed. I was once a diehard Penn State/Steeler and my emotions rose and fell based upon the success of millionaire ballplayers and college kids I never met. I finally came to realize that the games were just another form of entertainment, no different than a movie or a TV show. Time spent with family and good friends is more precious than all the National Championships and Super Bowl wins could ever be. Certainly cheering for a team is part of human nature, but I try to guard against investing too much emotional capital in wins and losses.
I started to arrive at that same realization from a somewhat different angle, Fair. It was actually the winning of Super Bowls and the national titles that awakened me to what you are referring. The old Peggy Lee song, "Is That All There Is" would come to mind, and put things in at least a modicum of perspective. Much of this also comes with age, of course.
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You're right. All those years Penn State and the Steelers chased championships and when they finally got them my life was still pretty much the same. "Is that all there is?" fits perfectly. I remember Joe saying in 68' or 69' something like "You know what happens when you're No. 1? Nobody is happy until you're No. 1 again and that might be never".
And yes, age is a big part of it, although I recall an Oscar Wilde quote that "With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone". There are times when I think I'm the smartest person in the room but perhaps that's only when no one else is present.
Eh, I think the younger generation(s) are coming to that conclusion, as well. My kids don't even really root for pro/college teams, even though they love playing certain sports. Why should they really care? It's people they don't know, who don't really care about them at all, playing a game ... why would they get emotionally involved in that? You're just cheering other people on to play a sport .. people who could just as easily be on another team (and likely will be at some future point in time), if that team had a chance to draft them, or offered them more money.
It's fun to watch talented people perform and compete. It's fun to have some kind of rooting interest to make it more interesting. But at the end of the day? It doesn't really matter if "your team" wins or loses. Many more kids these days are just as happy watching other folks play a video game ... because they play the exact same game the kids play, and the kids see the exact same things that youtuber sees (it's not like little kid versions of what the big guys are doing .. it's the same exact thing) ... and they don't really care if that person wins or loses, either. It's all entertainment that doesn't really make a difference in your personal life, regardless of outcome (unless you have money riding on it, of course).
I can be that guy but not for long, replaying the game over and over was and is my Kryptonite.
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