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Being a sports fan used to be a big part of me being a man. This is true of many men. Women have increasingly gotten interested in being fans as well. This has made many men happy.
It used to be that March was a downtime for sports fans in the United States. The Super Bowl was over, Major League Baseball hadn’t begun yet. Professional basketball and hockey don’t get interesting until the playoffs. March was a time for giving spectator sports a rest. Now it is a time for following the National Collegiate Athletic Association playoffs for college basketball. It is known as March Madness.
Many men find spectator sports as a way to celebrate territory. If they live or work within two hundred miles of in a city that has a professional sports team, they feel the right to refer to that team as being “theirs,” as in “my Eagles, Red Sox, Yankees, etc.” March Madness extends the territory. It greatly increases the possibility that a man has driven by a college in the playoffs in the last week. There is even a chance that a man has attended a college, in the middle of nowhere, whose team is amongst the 68 teams that are in competition. Following college basketball can lead to some strong identifications with the outcome of games.
In this age of sensitivity to people’s feelings as to their ethnic origins, it is difficult to understand how a professional football team associated with our nation’s capital is still playing under the name, Washington Redskins. March Madness can give men a break from such pondering as they marvel at the names of college basketball teams. This year’s crop of team names in the playoffs includes Horned Frogs, Tar Heels, Crimson Tide, Bonnies, Sooners, Boilermakers, Ramblers, Hokies, Shockers, Lumberjacks, Gaels, Aggies, Buckeyes, Friars, Quakers, and Orange. I used to get excited when the Orange were in the running like they are again this year. I went to college about 35 miles away from Syracuse University, so that qualifies me to rejoice when the Syracuse Orange wins a game. Orange is not the team’s nickname based on the color of their uniforms. It is the team’s name. Their mascot is a large round orange ball, but it is not a fruit. Many Syracuse fans don orange outfits in March, that they have been saving since Halloween.
Women used to be spared the lunacy of basketball watching in March. Now they want in on the office March Madness bracket gambling pool. There is always some men at work that are willing to provide a complete education. The amount of money bet legally will be dwarfed by the illegal and friendly workplace kind.
There was a time when live coverage of college basketball meant sitting on a piece of wood in a smelly gym. In 2018 national commercial productivity will suffer as millions of eyes sneak a peek at some games on smartphones.
Web pages and commentators abound, to keep the fanatical fan informed of their teams’ performance and prospects.
It used to be women would complain about the men in their life ceasing face to face conversation with them during a spectator sports season. Now they are more likely to join them.
Real passion for personal achievement has been increasingly replaced by watching someone on a screen win or lose.
College coaches now can make millions in annual salary while students rack up college expense debit that they will be lucky to pay off in a lifetime, even if they graduate and find employment in their area of study.
Women used to yell at their male partner for blowing the rent money on a college basketball bet. Now they might worry less because the loss only had a nominal effect on their credit rating and where there is credit, there is hope. Hope too can be found with easy to obtain scratch-off lottery tickets.
Imagine if the women’s movement had gone the way of breaking down barriers to men feeling more comfortable talking about family and friend relationships, instead of making women feel more comfortable wearing orange while Syracuse was still in the playoffs.
If a time traveler from 100 years ago paid us a visit this March 2018, to do an assessment as to how men are spending their free time, how could such traveler not be shocked by how many men have lost their minds to spectator sports and have taken so many women along with them?
For so many men, spectator sports is what they live for. It is not something engaged in as a bit of a relief from a daily grind of work and home maintenance responsibilities. It is the main satisfaction. Life’s primary reward. How profoundly sad.
I don’t care anymore about any spectator sport. How freeing this has been. I feel a familiar disease creeping back as I do some research for this article. What are the prospects for Syracuse University basketball winning it all this year? How do you like that there are five teams named Wildcats in the playoffs. I wonder what the chances are that two teams named after wild cats could face each other in the final game?
I need to back away from the computer screen. I feel the madness creeping in.
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