With Respect to George Carlin

Football is possibly the most ridiculous and least interesting of any sport. I just can't stand the game. I've tolerated it in the past and even purposefully taken in a game over the years. I always return to my belief that football is utter pants.

It is the absence of baseball and the presence of football that brings me to the earliest forms of winter doldrums long before the first flake of icy white has hit the ground.

There's less for me to listen to and enjoy on the radio when there's nothing but football discussion hitting my ears. I'm not as happy to enjoy a beautiful day knowing that football is on the minds of the mindless enthusiasts and fans of the sport.


I appreciate the brutality and the aggression of the game, but as for a sport, it leave me wanting more. Easy to follow rules would be a good start, but I doubt that I'd ever truly enjoy a game of football even if I created the rules myself. It is just an awful sport that brings out the worst in the spectators and generates no love nor excitement from me when watching the players. Truthfully, if I were to watch football with any enjoyment ever again it would need teams filled with high-quality individuals and true heroes of athleticism like Walter Payton. Sadly, his brand of intensity, integrity, and sportsmanship died soon after he left the game.

During this awful time of the year when my only sporting options include basketball (UGH!), hockey (Eh?), and the aforementioned football I find myself watching more of the favorite baseball movies such as Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, or The Natural. Tonight I was reminded of the greatest collection of videos a true baseball fan can own, the perfect antidote for the poisonous swill that is football. I still own a copy of Ken Burns' Baseball.

My copy is still on VHS. Until we replace our aging DVD player, which doesn't read the data on DVD copies of the box set properly, I take this out very sparingly. When I do pop a tape into the machine, my pain is rather promptly soothed.

Some people have as strong an opinion about a Ken Burns documentary as I have about football. Therefore those people simply won't understand when I say that this remains as one of the finest examples of storytelling in all of film. It is a wonderful series of information and anecdotes that play more like a feature film than a documentary.

I've watched the entire series many times over the years and even though the subject matter is something I'm more than familiar with, I find myself being delighted, surprised, enthralled and saddened by all of the details that emanate from my television set. There are still times when, even though I KNOW the story and know how it all happened, I find myself crying when a Babe Ruth passes and cheering when a Ted Williams hits that home run in his last at bat. This is all due to expert storytelling and wonderful, emotional attachment to the material.

I doubt I'll watch this series many times this year as I don't want to risk ruining my tapes. However for now, a time when I'm missing the beauty of a summer day's baseball game and eagerly awaiting the start of December's busy season for an entertainer, I know that I'll weather this storm. More importantly, I have something much more interesting to pass my time with than a lousy football game.