A healthy addiction?

Now that my mourning period for rosa parks has ended, I can get back to concentrating on writing these rants. One thing that I have been thinking about alot lately is: Am I obsessed with sports to the point that it has now become unhealthy? For example, today I got home from class and I really had to go to the bathroom. I also realized that I had mysteriously forgotten to take out the garbage from the night before, and the entire apartment smelled like it. I also had to clean the George Eric Foreman Grill that I had used, and that also takes alot of time b/c you have to scrape off all the dried out burnt meat. I was also really hungry. To summarize, I had alot of important things to do. Also, the above list of things should show why I might want to consider the option of marriage. Anyway, the real point here is that I did not do any of the above things b/c I had to sit on the couch and watch SportsCenter. And I told myself I would only watch the first few minutes, but an hour later, and I really really had to pee. This is not the only recent example I have of this type of behavior. Let me tell you about my Sunday. I am not making this up or using any "guzma". If anyone knew what "guzma" was, extra points for you.
Anyway, on Sunday I woke up to attend minyan, and then took the oft-quoted "post minyan nap". I then woke up and proceeded to go straight to the television for a day of football. When football ended, so did my day, I pased out on the couch till monday.

Its not just watching and following sports on the internet. Its also the "fantasy sports", which I have been involved with since age 8 or so. I'm not gonna use this rant as a place to explain to my female readers what "fantasy sports" means. Just know that if your husband/bf/etc. has never been involved with them he is either very orthodox or gay or both. I guess I should also apologize to my female readers for devoting an entire rant to the topic of sports. Although, some of you may follow it, lets face it- its probably a select few. To make it up to you, I will try to devote my next rant to a more female oriented topic- such as knitting.

Is this sports-related behavior unique to me? Definetly not. Anyone who has been to an NFL game knows how this thing is a religion to many people in this country. But I do think that the whole sports fascination does occupy a unique place for Orthodox Jews. Think about your highschool class- was there any guys in the class that were not into sports - either through playing them or following them or both? There were a few, but they were either the computer geek kids that liked star wars, or the really big crackheads. Even the regular, averege-crackheads were still into playing sports. And go to your local teen/young adult/young couples minyan on shabbos, and every single guy will be talking either fantasy or real sports. The reason for this might be b/c alot of other pleasureable things are off limits to us growing up. And of course, we just wanted to be normal and fit in with the rest of this culture, but how could we do that? Mcdonalds? No. Sex at a young age? No. Sports. You better believe it. As I always say "fantasy sports is the only kinda fantasizing that is muttar"

Now I was never one to really play that many sports. I was on the tennis team, but we only played like 5 games in 3 years, and I don't think anyone actually came to see them, so basically I can be making this all up. I was also on the chess team, but even espn2 doesn't ever show chess, so I don't think it qualifies. The one time I was really consistently involved in sports was "little league". Although I cannot remember everything from those days as clearly as I wish I could, I do know that these were some of the greatest times. There were only a few bad parts to the whole little league experience. 1) Parents who came to game and yelled at their own kids and at umpires. (usually from five towns teams). These parents should be shot or arrested. I distinctly remember seeing a kid get screamed at by his own father and feeling so bad for this kid. I remember thinking "this is why kids do drugs." It turned out I was wrong, and that kids do drugs for a wide variety of other reasons which are beyond the scope of this rant. 2) Coaches who dressed in the little league uniform. This was strange. When the father/coach orders all the uniforms is it weird when he asks: "And also, do u make those in adult sizes? Oh you do? wonderful- I'll have one that says "coach on the back." These people always just looked silly.

Other than that, little league was a great time, and it just infused me with a love for baseball, and perhaps sports in general. My father, thank g-d, did not try and wear a tight uniform to the games. Even more importantly, he did not ever come close to yelling at me or any umpire or kid. He just sat in a lawn chair and enjoyed the whole experience. And it didn't matter if we won or lost-, b/c after every away game, he would take us to ice-cream. Sports was fun then and its fun now. Its a diversion from the real world, and I think we definetly need it. But beyond that, it creates bonds and memorable moments, whether its watching the Yankees crumble to the Sox, or remembering when your friends won the basketball title in 10th grade, or going to ice cream with your Dad after embarrasing little league loses. So my conclusion, dear readers, is that sports is a healthy diversion after all. Enjoy it.