I grew up as what is generously referred to as a “sports nut” because of my day-to-day interest in several major sports, including baseball, football and basketball, in no particular order. The teams stayed pretty much the same from year to year and fans like yours truly watched our favorite players improve or decline as time passed. That is no longer the case, with new rules about trades and acquisitions having been loosened to the point that your star performer this year may be an arch enemy in the future. There is no “home” team to follow as you grow. That has impacted the previous level of love people felt for sports teams.
There are other changes in sports that don’t sit too well with fans either. One is how professional basketball is currently being played, which I have blessed with the name “Hop and Pop,” which is what each team does when it secures possession of the ball. They race down court, find the open team member no matter where he is in the arena, and launch a three-point missile towards the basket. This style of play is boring, and I am not the only one to say so.
Recently, Draymond Green, a forward for the San Francisco Warriors, said for publication that, in his opinion, the game has “become boring.”
On the other side of the coin, when baseball was losing fans a few years ago the commissioner’s office adopted changes to hopefully reverse that trend. Time limits were placed on pitchers as well as on coaches trying to help their pitchers with advice on the mound. The game has gathered some speed, but it could use a few more nudges to reduce the length of games.
And don’t get me started on the NIL system adopted by the NCAA for college athletes or the motivation for NFL referees to make patently bad calls at crucial times during games. My bet is that there will be significant changes in the NIL system before you can say Arch Manning and, with respect to the NFL, I can only wonder what the results of an investigation would show regarding motivation.
So there you have it. One fan’s opinion about the current state of some of our national sports. If some corrections are not introduced soon, advertisers won’t wait to pull their financial support of our favorite teams. Without financial support, electronic coverage of games will disappear, followed by fans in the stands. None of us want to see that happen.