Finishing college was a traumatic experience. Among other reasons, I just flat-out didn't know what to do with my life, and the best thing I could think of to do for my next act was AmeriCorps. (Actually, given the economy at the time, that was likely the best thing I could've done!) But another aspect of finishing college was the reality that I and everyone I knew would go our separate ways. And as great as some of the friendships I had were, I knew this also largely meant a big fundamental change in each of those friendships, and many cases, an end to the connection we enjoyed while in school, whether immediately, or gradually over the course of time.
Today, in 2021, I'm basically still in touch with two of those friends I had in college, out of maybe 500 friendships or acquaintanceships, including about 30 such persons I would say I considered good friends over the four years I was in school. Out of all who I was connected with, I'm still in touch with only two. And even at that, one of them I'm not sure we would otherwise maintain contact were it not due to the fact that our third friend is the one keeping us connected.
So where am I going with this? Ah, yes. Sports is what's largely keeping the three of us connected. Although about five years ago I had actually dropped out of touch with both of them for a few years, and I only initiated contact with each of them again because I had a burning question that I was in the middle of answering and wanted to bring to them: who was the greatest NBA player of all time, and why? (For more, check out this post here.) A fruitful discussion ensued, rekindling our connection via a common topic of interest.
Sports is what brought us back together. The three of us even visited at my home for a few days a few years ago. And then a year later, one of the other guys initiated an agreement that we would call each other once a month, which we did most months, for about a year-and-a-half. That is, until I announced last year that I couldn't keep it up regularly due to my schedule getting busier. Since then, most of the contact I've seen has been via email, and pretty much exclusively about sports, primarily the NBA, since the first shutdown in March 2020.
I'm grateful for my friends. My interest in sports has shifted yet again. While the Chicago Cubs' drought-busting championship allowed me to finally have peace in the sports fandom aspect of my life, and while I did begin following it a touch less, it wasn't until the last year I began examining some of the other aspects of the various leagues and players and storylines that has led me to developing even more different perspectives on the game:
1.) all the Chicago teams are mediocre to terrible. The one exception is the White Sox. They have the potential to be great. They even were great last year. But, they flamed out in the first round of the expanded playoffs, and as a Cubs fan first, they are still the team on "the other side of town." I want the Sox to do well, and at the same time the message I get is, "so what that they're a Chicago team?! They're not on your side of town!" 😡😞 (I get that message from both Cubs and Sox fans, although moreso from Sox fans.) I digress, however. All other teams are terrible or in transition. That doesn't help.
2.) the NBA isn't really all that exciting for me anymore. It used to be. It helped that I grew up watching Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, et al compete for a championship every year (and win most of those years I was following). The other thing though was that, the way "the system" was drawn up, teams had more control and had a greater ability to develop great teams or not, provided you had the right people running the organization. And players were still expected to be professional, regardless of whether they were in a favorable employment situation or not. That's different now. Really beginning in the summer of 2010, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh teamed up in Miami, was when the balance of power shifted to the players being able to dictate where they want to play. While I've grown to accept and understand the players' power to choose--in any other job or line of work, a similar dynamic is playing out with people my generation moving to a different city every few years to grow or explore, etc.--as a fan I hate it. Gone is the opportunity for a franchise to really have their sales pitch be of any use. I've seen teams over the last decade plus bend over backwards, flying their coaches, general managers, and sometimes even owners, to wherever the player is (sometimes it's even outside the country) just to have an audience with them. And then the player rejects them, either because of an unresolved personal slight (or the perception of one caused by a basic misunderstanding or miscommunication that the coach, general manager, or owner might have said or not said but didn't even know was a slight until finding out the player communicated it sideways, through the media, etc). Or it's because the city is too cold. Or it's because the city doesn't have "the right opportunities" for their self-actualization goals (the city; not the franchise!). Gone are the days when any given franchise or any given city, could have realistic hope for a winner if they built "the right way," because the player will leave anyway if any one little thing is not to his liking. And then even when his next team wins championships, he leaves anyway because one of his teammates was "mean to him." (I'm looking at you, Kevin Durant. You may be a talented championship player but you've long lost my respect as a human being. And the fact that you regularly whine to the media about being criticized because you think you're above any criticism doesn't help.) Durant sticks out the most, but there are so many who fit this description: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, among some others. As far as I'm concerned, LeBron James redeemed himself. He went back to Cleveland, and he won a championship with them. He could have moved on to another city, and he definitely would have won more rings elsewhere. But he returned to Cleveland after learning how to win. When he left again, things had changed enough in the landscape of not only the business of the NBA but also the fans' expectations, that there was no vitriol when he left Cleveland the 2nd time. Everyone in Cleveland and across the nation understood. Even I was fine with it. Plus, the next generation of players collectively seem to have developed a different attitude: Giannis Antetokounmpo decided to stay in Milwaukee. It may cost him professionally in terms of his ultimate basketball legacy. He may never win championships, or he may only win one. That's very possible. But he's a much humbler man, by all appearances. And Russell Westbrook will always have my respect. Yes, he's quirky, moody, and stubborn. But his character is for real. He's had different turmoil thrown his way in his career, and he's handled things well, overall.
The other thing about the NBA is the unwritten rule that an employee, whether a player, coach, general manager, owner, league official, or even commissioner, must be politically active. And specifically, such a person must be politically active with a certain bias. If there are people who have other other opinions that might go against the grain, we don't know about them, because those that share opinions of the perspective that's main and public shut the others up or ostracize them. And that's the best-case scenario. As such, often when I've tuned in to highlight reels, or to read the results of games played, or even to catch the current day's headlines, there appears to be a bombardment of the propaganda of the prevailing public/political/social perspective. Not even us, the fans, can escape it. It's almost it has become expected that the fans be in on all of it, cheering for the big-name players only, cheering for only whichever team wins the championship, cheering for the players when they feel slighted by their organization (whether or not actual slighting is taking place), and of course cheer for every political and social propaganda platform that the players (and by consequence, the league) puts out.
It's a dilemma. Now, you might think, after what all I just wrote, this sounds like a clear-cut decision: stop tuning in to the NBA. Why it's a dilemma is simply because I've followed it my whole life. It's a dilemma because I remember how good the game was 20 years ago, and it's an opinion shared by so many people. The game used to be good. The players were men. They played like men. They fought like men. And, yes, selfishly for me, the Bulls once were the top team in the league for years on end. It was a fun time. As a fan I still hope to see another Bulls championship. As such, this is what I would classify as an addiction. Sports on the whole takes time away from my day. I could working, resting, planning, dreaming, cleaning, or otherwise prepping. And really, I should be. So I have to draw a line somewhere, sometime.
3.) MLB: the Cubs are in transition. And their chief divisional rival, the Saint Louis Cardinals, dormant for a number of years, have been developing the next generation of stars for their team, who are now ready to play in the big leagues. On top of that, they recently acquired by trade one of the best players in the game right now. They're ready to win again. The Cubs are not. It's just simply discouraging, although at least it's within the confines of how the sport is run, which I prefer. Still, discouraging, and I'm getting the feeling that it's going to be a while before the Cubs win again. And I've also covered the White Sox.
Oh, and this. MLB is not quite as far on the cutting edge of the humanism movement that the NBA is, and while I myself don't condone this particular (now ex-)CEO's actions or words, the idea of immediate blanket condemnation leading to his resignation (he otherwise would have been fired), even though he's made right his previous transgressions, is still wrong. Whatever happened to giving people opportunity to learn from their mistakes? [Jesus did tell Apostle Peter that we needed to always forgive someone if they apologize and ask for it (Matthew 18:21-22) ... oh, right, the world doesn't work this way...]
4.) NHL: I was never a big hockey fan growing up. (I like to play floor hockey, but I never got in to watching the game.) The Chicago Blackhawks were terrible for a long time when I was growing up. Then in my mid-to-late twenties, they were great. The playoffs were exciting, although I noted that I was only interested in watching their games once the playoffs began. Once they stopped winning, I stopped following. That, and I've noticed that the league doesn't get as much coverage or publicity on the sports sites I follow.
5.) NFL: this is another sport I never followed, a.) because neither of my parents liked the game itself, and b.) because, like the Blackhawks, the Chicago Bears have rarely been good. I was nine months old when they won their one and only Super Bowl. I was a junior in college when they made it back, losing to the Indianapolis Colts this time. They made it to the round before the Super Bowl only one other time that I can recall. Other than that, we have had terrible teams, mediocre teams, and an inordinate number of teams that do quite well the first half of the season, only to play terrible the second half and miss the playoffs entirely. (Also, for whatever reason, I have never gotten into college sports, despite their coverage. I did follow NCAA basketball once, when the University of Illinois made it to the title game. But pretty much never NCAA football. For the above reasons.)
That said, this last year, between all the world-rocking events that have gone on, the NFL to me has become the sport least affected by everything. Prior to the Super Bowl last year, when it was the Kansas City Chiefs vs the San Francisco 49ers, there was a prophetic poster going around on Facebook that declared that if the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, those who were true to the Christian faith also would rise up and speak the truth, prophesy, and stand their ground against whatever Satan or the world would throw against them. (This was literally a month before the coronavirus nonsense hit the US with full force.) The Chiefs won. It turned out to be the last major "old normal" event within the "old normal" rules of how the world worked.
Since then, every other sport interrupted their season, or in MLB's case, spring training. When each sport did return, it was all under an umbrella of fear and precaution. The NBA resumed and finished its season in a bubble. MLB basically played 1/3 of a season, and 1 1/2 as much playoffs. I think the NHL resumed and finished its season in a bubble. Football? They began the 2020 season trying to be as normal as possible, balancing being smart about the virus (requiring masks and social distancing on the sidelines), without giving in to the fear and propaganda (aka lies). This is both the NFL and NCAA football. And this month, when it was Tom Brady's Bucs vs the Chiefs who were back in the Super Bowl, I again had this sense of relative normalcy within the sporting world.
More about football: Prior to the pandemic, I would've been rooting strongly for Tom Brady to lose because winning would have meant that he had more championships than Michael Jordan, and consequently, it also would mean he would have a legitimate shot at wresting the all-sports GOAT title from him, too. But you know what? That might be a good thing. In this dark time, people all across the country who are praying and wailing for justice for our country's soul, Brady stands out, symbolically of course, as a beacon of hope that our prayers might yet be answered. I think it's no accident that Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title with a different team from the others, also for symbolic reasons. Our country is in a time unseen since the Civil War in the 1860s. For the first time, also since then, there is legitimate doubt that we might survive, if no miracle arrives. Those of us who pray for not only our country but also our founding principles to be preserved, we are praying for not only a miracle, but also a reason to believe that one might potentially arrive. Tom Brady represents that. Not only so, but let him be considered the GOAT, if necessary. If that symbolically translates to the US once again being great, even if some key pillars of our society must fundamentally change, I'm all for it.
I've found something that's far more important than sports. It's our nation, and our faith, not strictly a national faith but rather a recommitment to serving Jesus Christ as Lord in addition to receiving Him as Savior, as a nation. As for the ongoing debate about whether the United States of America is -- or ever was -- a Christian nation, I offer this: no nation in the history of humankind has ever been 100% faithful to the God of the Bible. Not even Israel, God's favorite nation. But I also offer this: George Washington, John Adams, et al. had a vision that they would found a nation in the same manner that someone begins a new ministry. The United States was designed to be a ministry but in the form of a nation. That's why our government is so complicated structurally. Monarchies and dictatorships are the easiest for Satan or the world to corrupt because only one person is in charge. It takes longer for a multilevel, multilateral, multicameral government to become corrupted 1.) because of the number of people, but also 2.) because of all the different levels, roles, and responsibilities. And, well, 244 years in, it finally was accomplished: the United States is as badly diseased as North Korea. (Yes, I said it.) It just took a lot longer. But, back in the first years, Benjamin Franklin's response to a citizen asking what kind of government we had, replied: "a republic, if you can keep it." Well, Mr. Franklin, we tried. And it's abundantly clear at this point that we can no longer keep it, not unless all the rotting cancerous cells get cleared out inside.
My point being, our nation, our freedom as Christians (as well as those who choose to practice other religions), and our future, are all more important than sports. And it doesn't help when sports in general aren't inspiring us. Not that they ever should have been a primary inspiration. But when one league is leading the humanist propaganda charge, two others are caving to fear and continuing to make themselves less and less relevant, and only one seems to be doing anything remotely inspiring, a time has to come when it's time to call it a wrap. The question is, is that time now? After all, with the depth of changes to our nation needed to preserve it, that may include officially rendering all sports, and all entertainment, irrelevant.
(Yes, I got on my soapbox.)
Whenever that does end up happening, from this one fan's perspective, sports kind of has already done itself in. It's darn near impossible for me to enjoy or root for anything significant due to all the humanism propaganda that has proliferated the industry. I haven't decided whether I'm "done" with sports, but it's just really not enjoyable across the board to follow any of it.