My Relationship With Sports?

I'm in a weird place lately when it comes to sports. I've been thinking that I haven't done many sports-related posts lately. Actually, other than during the NFL playoffs, I've hardly blogged specifically on sports at all. I've had passing comments in my MixBlog posts, but very few posts on one sports-related topic. It's not like I've lost interest in sports. I'm still reading the sports section of the Daily News every day, I still read things online, I still put games on TV, etc. I'm just not blogging about sports. I'm not entirely sure why, but I have a theory or two.

Part of it is due to Twitter and Facebook...and, going back further, to message boards such as the one at Outsports and the old Usenet newsgroups. I've always found it easier to make a quick comment on a game or some team-related news (Twitter and Facebook are all about brief comments -- 140 characters or less in Twitter's case) than to do a long analytical post. Lately, that seems to be the case even more. For example, after the Super Bowl I've been thinking about the Eagles and their failures as an organization compared to the Steelers...and then Pittsburgh had to go and ruin things by losing to Green Bay. Although the points floating around in my head are still valid, I haven't been inspired enough to sit down and put it together.

(And, of course, the impending owners' lockout of the NFL players -- they have one week to miraculously settle their differences -- has a lot of personnel moves, through free agency -- on hold.)

The Flyers, on the other hand, are doing almost everything right. They're tops in the Eastern Conference and seem primed for another long playoff run. So maybe I'm just waiting for the postseason. This leads to another issue. I still find myself not watching hockey games from start to finish. Take tonight. The game began at 7 pm and I was still running through my Twitter and Facebook timelines until about 7:30 pm. Then I got away from the computer and started watching the game. When the first period ended, I watched
today's TMZ that I DVR'd earlier, and that cut into part of the second period. After that, with the game on TV, I was reading last week's Entertainment Weekly until the end of the second. Then I returned to the PC and was online while the rest of the game played on the TV in the background. I'd look up now and then and, unless there was a goal, I'd turn back to the monitor.

This might be a problem with my attention span, or maybe I'm just rationalizing that it's a looooooong regular season and am biding my time until the playoffs. We shall see.

As for the 76ers, I've stated many times that I don't have a lot of interest in the NBA, which is unfortunate since the Sixers, having started the season 3-13, have gone 25-16 since and are a decent bet to make the playoffs (not that they'll get far). They've already won more games than they did during the entire 2009-10 season. Maybe if there are enough salary-cap changes, etc. stemming from the NBA's expected lockout of/strike by its players, to allow a middling team like the Sixers to more easily build a legitimate championship contender, I'll have more interest.

Part of my thinking may also be that there are so many sports-related blogs and websites that whatever I say about sports isn't going to be unique. (Although I think I have the Pat Burrell-as-the-Machine story well-covered...even if he's not.)

I guess the true test of my sports-mania, or lack thereof, will be the Phillies. They had an exhibition game today against a college team, and their first official Grapefruit League game is Saturday. If my favorite sport, with my favorite team having never been more successful in its history than in the last few years, and with potentially the greatest starting rotation ever, can't hold my interest, then sports and I have got a serious problem, and marriage counseling may be in order.