Why I Don't Like Sports The Way I Used To

This won't take long, or at least I hope it won't.

Over the past few years my love of sports and my enjoyment as a sports fan has gone way, way down, for one main reason:

For the same reason the vast majority of kids give up team sports at age 13 because they don't find them fun anymore, being a sports fan is not fun for me anymore, and even playing the sports that I've played for years, namely softball, is not as enjoyable as it was for me in the past.

The fact that I'm in my mid-forties and inevitably seeing my athletic abilities declining is obviously a major factor in not enjoying being on the field as much as I used to, as like countless others I can't do the things I used to do and be dominant in, like constantly hitting the ball far.

That's not what I wanted to focus on, however. My disillusionment with being a sports fan in general is what I wanted to talk about.

I know what folks are asking right about now: Why the disillusionment with sports fanship, and why don't I find it fun anymore...

Basically speaking, being a sports fan isn't fun for me anymore because it has become a war of sorts between different fan bases; seeing Oakland Raider and San Francisco 49er fans fighting in the stands on TV, reading all kinds of vile insults online between the different college (and pro, I'm sure) fan bases that make me question the sanity of those who are posting such swill, and most of all...

The rival college fan base and mine, whose names I won't call, doing and saying all kinds of vile things such as forty of them getting into a brawl before the big game involving their two teams, with two of them getting stabbed and three of them getting arrested, not to mention to bigoted-like things being said on the fan forums.

And most of all, me feeling the brunt of rival fan abuse; I won't go into details, but let's just say that I don't wear my school's gear too much anymore outside of sporting events featuring my alma mater, particularly since they haven't been doing too good in football and basketball as of late.

I know, I know, people are saying that's why being a fan isn't fun for me anymore, but I think that even if my school's gridiron and hoops teams were national champions and undefeated powers, I would still be feeling the way I am, because I'd be feeling that target-on-my-team's-back pressure.

They say, "It's just a game", but too many people say that and then act completely different, particularly this person who goes to my alma mater's rival; when I did an interview with her about the recent violence between our two schools, she said all the right things about how it's only a game and how some people go too far, but then trashes my school in her blog, making it clear that she regards us as inferior human beings.

Talk about saying one thing and behaving in a completely different way!

I'm sure that to this person, who of course shall be nameless, talking about my school and team the way she does is fun rivalry banter.

To me, it is hate.

Anyhow, I won't ramble on any longer, except to say that the time is coming, soon I feel, when I'll dump my sports fanship all together and stop going to games.

I think that along with everything else, unlike too many others I'm putting sports into proper perspective more and more.

In other words, sports is considered the toy section of life, and I'm more than ready to leave that section now.

That's my two cents...