Weaverville – So, I watched my first sporting event since the era of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and COVID-19 began, and I thought I’d relate my impressions of my viewing experience.
First, let me make it clear. I am not a sports fan! I am a team fan. I can not just sit down and watch hours and hours of sports. I have my teams, and I’ll watch those games and only those games and usually, I limit those teams to two sports – basketball and football.
I used to watch the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Why a Dolphins’ fan? Well, as I said, I’ve never been a sports fan, so back in high school, all my friends had their football teams. My best friend in school was a Dallas Cowboys’ fan. North Carolina was yet to have a team, so the Panthers weren’t an option for someone who knew nothing about NFL teams. So, I looked around the league and selection the only way I knew how…who had the best mascot. In my view, it was the Dolphins. So now you know a little into my way of thinking when it comes to sports.
Anyway, I gave up on the NFL back when the whole mess came up about taking a knee by some players while the National Anthem was played. If I’m going to watch sports, it’s an escape for me to get away from the real world as to me, sports is, again, just a game. I understand why players need to interject their politics into the game as in the big scheme of things, sports has no tangible meaning and impact on the average person. The players are just a bunch of overpaid kids playing a game. However, if I want to watch politics, I’ll tune-in the news, not some millionaire sports figure or movie star to belittle my country or my beliefs.
So back to my impressions of the first sporting event under the new era. I tuned in to watch the UNC Tarheels (why the Tarheels? That’s right. This is the Tarheel state) play the Syracuse Orangemen. I also was reminded of an 86-year-old man I use to play basketball with named George. George, who has since passed away, had played football for the Orangemen, and I had George on my mind as I watched the game.
Right off, I was taken back at the empty stadium, yet a soundtrack played a low roaring crowd. I wonder if the players on the field could hear it or just the sounds of the barren stands with their cardboard cutout fans. To me, the lack of fans diminished the game and the players’ enthusiasm for the game. The first half was flat. If there had been a crowd, I would have chalked it up to tough defense on both sides, but I feel the teams were only trying to find their way without a crowd.
Seems to me, with that vast stadium, that the powers that be could let several thousand in and still have plenty of room for social distancing. It is, after all, an open-air event.
Next, the announcers spent an excessive amount of time on how ‘woke’ the players were and the thought that went into their paying homage to the BLM movement with the little patch sewn on to their uniforms.
I know this will seem incredibly insensitive to the movement, but I think the BLM group is just a front for those who would turn our nation into a so-called “socialist utopia.” The movement, as defined by BLM, Inc., has nothing to do with saving black lives from dying, but advancing an agenda of socialism and civil unrest. As again, I told you I tune-in so I can tune-out the real world for a while and escape to being a kid again.
Look, I’m going to give it another week or two, but if this continues, I might just have to go back to watching my TCM movies and Westerns in order to escape, at least for a while, the problems of the world. By the way George, the Heels demolished your Orangemen in the second half!