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| My view |
There was football on Friday. Roughly five hours at the game site along with approximately 2.5 hours in the car.
There was more football yesterday. A long drive, the stress of finding a place to set up, break down, call the game, and so on.
It's more mentally taxing than physically taxing. Oh, sure, there's walking to and from, the car, standing and gesticulating during the broadcast, etc. But it's the mental side that is probably more exhausting. Still, my back and feet hurt when it was all over.
So, fortunately, I've had a low-key day today. We could have gone to the grocery store but we have enough in the apartment to be fine.
Basically, I've had a restful day of TV and doing laundry. It was a day of house stuff.
For as much as I love football (and I do) I simply don't have the fire for the NFL that I used to have. Oh, sure, I'm still a Steelers fan but I don't have the same passion for the league. That's been building for a few years, to be honest.
Oh, don't overanalyze that. What I'm saying is that I don't watch every game with the same intensity that I probably did as a teenager. Instead, I'm also reading or doing something else.
Our choices here in Greenwich didn't help fuel me. We had Lions/Giants and Jets/Patriots in the early window. Blech.
Then we had a godawful Cowboys/Vikings game on and it did nothing for me. For one thing, I'm among the many who see the Cowboys on national TV and yawn. Don't misunderstand me, I get why the Cowboys are on (same reason the Yankees are often on national TV). They're a national brand. They draw eyeballs. That doesn't minimize being tired of it.
But once that game was out of hand, CBS switched to their other game: Bengals/Steelers.
My head immediately popped up and I was engaged.
So, what's going on? Have I changed? Has the NFL changed?
Yes and yes and that's OK.
I've been mostly all-in on high school football since I started calling a game every week on WVIP Radio in 1999. So my college football intake has been minimized a lot. My NFL energy has just changed.
But, hey, the NFL itself has changed. But they laugh all the way to the bank every week.
And I still have the TV on here.
I also just muttered something about blanking bull bleep holding calls, so yeah, I still have the fire for it.
The Bengals just scored to go up 11 points and I heaved a big sigh. I repeat, so yeah.
Also, the Bengals' white uniforms are an atrocity.
PS, the Steelers lost.
Anyway, now I move on to getting ready for three game broadcasts this week. First up, I'm heading to Fairfield on Wednesday night for West Haven/Fairfield Prep in an excellent matchup. Prep's broadcasts have featured a couple of alums but they're apparently unavailable this week. Since it's likely Chris Erway won't be at this one, they might have to roll with just me.
In the meantime, I'll be hoping someone from Staples High School responds to me to help with the abysmal internet situation at their school.
As with many other places, I know Chris and I will be standing outside. I think we've done one or two broadcasts inside their booth. The internet is the bigger issue. Don't be surprised if that game is brought through via a cell phone connection. Chris and I have had rather epic issues there in the past, including having to pass a cell phone between us back in 2019.
I'm confident we won't have to do that this time but, barring an improvement in the internet there, I don't see it being smooth sailing otherwise.
That game is on Thanksgiving. I've been promised there is a pregame tailgate gathering.
We'll need it.
(Oh, and Carrie Underwood and that dopey Sunday Night Football song are so lame.)
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