HBO Sports='s pure awesomeness.
Just finished watching a reality series "Hard Knocks" that follows the Cincinnati Bangles after a disappointing season in 2008 with only 4 wins. Ouch. And just like any other sports reality show, I end up an emotional wreck after. The real tear jerker is when the producers decide to concentrate on the "personal" side of the players and turn them into people--just like me and you. I guess I'll try and list the most frequent storylines that really pull at my heart strings:
1. The dude from the projects who knows nothing else, and loves nothing but football.
You know, that guy who's dad left him when he was three, while his mom, alongside his 5 other siblings all work together to make ends meet, and the future lies with this athlete, who needs to get drafted or else everything goes to shit, but it's okay because he's got his family. Yea. I'm a mess.
2. The dude who finally makes it as a starter, but then ruins his career with a gnarly injury.
When grown men, large enough to crush you with just a flick of their wrists start to cry because of an ankle injury that needs surgery and will take 6 months+ to heal. Man. What makes it even worse is that in "Hard Knocks" the dude who messes up his ankle turns out to be the star veteran player who also is the "big brother" to the rest of the team. Morale de-booster for the rest of the team.
3. The dude who just isn't good enough.
The worst of the three. He's always been the one in the background, always struggling to get noticed, but works 10 times harder than the rest of the team and just never makes it and never knows why. Then watching the head coach break the news to him at 5 in the morning, with blaring lights from the camera in his face as his dignity melts away, and told he has two hours to leave the training camp, and in his state of half sleep, half attentiveness.
Three reasons worth watching HBO Sports at 2 in the morning.
Something else I just noticed, why is it that I always feel more sympathy for athletes who wear glasses, as opposed to athletes who don't?...
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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2 comments:
Perhaps because glasses imply a certain bookishness that contrasts with the physical robustness of professional athletes. It makes you wonder if the glasses-wearing football player was once or still is a hyper-literate scholar that can also take on 300-lb. behemoths on the field.
Interesting point, Abe. Maybe that is the reason, or maybe it's after that one time I watched Jurassic Park and was scarred by the fat dude who's glasses broke in the rain and the dinosaur ate him because he couldn't see. Could it be that I'm sympathetic towards glasses-wearing people because they, like super fat people who can't run as fast, or old people, are in some way, debilitated?
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