TV is Going to Ruin Football-Or Has it Already?

Okay, this post  is just me venting a little bit. In the newspaper it would be called an op-ed piece, so maybe I could get away with calling it that. Probably not.

 I’m a true Texan schooled in the pleasures of  football.  My dad was a high school football star. I grew up watching A&M and Texas duke it out on Thanksgiving Day. I enjoy the thrill of a completed Hail Mary pass. My husband played football and gets passionate about the game. My son played football. My daughter was a cheerleader (okay, she didn’t play, but cheerleaders are a part of football, right?). My grandson plays football. I am a loyal fan of the Muleshoe Mules.

So now,  for the past hour and a half I have been patiently waiting, sort of,  for the kickoff of this year’s BCS championship game. The talking heads have been hyping it since end of the regular season, during the other bowl games, and all day today. This last 90 minutes have they blathered on and on, and for what? What have they accomplished? Everything said has been speculation and hyperbole. Honestly, you’d think it was the second coming of Christ instead of a football game.

And then we will  have to endure the same quest to fill dead air with dreadful drivel as Super Bowl time arrives. Ah, yes, that quintessential example of greed run amuck at the expense of the game. It will be discussed ad nauseum for an even longer time since it has been delayed till February. If the teams were just allowed to entertain people the old fashioned way, playing football, I would like it much better. But then what would all those lip-syncing halftime singers do for a week-end gig? Between the halftime carnival and the ridiculously expensive ads, the game is almost beside the point.

Of course, I am just a  party of one, and I am sure most people watching the game don’t see a thing wrong with this overkill system that has developed. I realize all the hype means more money for the schools, in the case of the college games, but rest assured their take is a pittance compared to what the TV networks, refreshment companies, merchandising manufacturers, advertisers, et. al.  will rake in. Football is big business, not a sport anymore.

I do like football. Really. Go back and read my earlier posts about football. And I like to watch games on TV. I just get tired of all the overkill. That’s right, I’m a grouchy old person…

…The game just ended, ‘Bama won, and now we get the insipid, banal, unnecessary questions in the post-game interviews. How do you think Colt McCoy felt not getting to finish the game? Duh. How does it feel to win? Gee, good, maybe? Okay, okay, I’ll quit.