As we wind down the first weekend of the NFL season, over at PrawfsBlawg, they ask the question, "why do we watch Monday Night Football?" Their theory:
But it is beyond me why people watch a national game of the week that does not involve 'their team.' . . .Maybe I'm not the right person to answer this question, as I'm not a MNF devotee for the simple reason that the game generally doesn't finish until after my bed time. But when I do watch, unless the Vikings are involved (as they are tonight), I watch because - shock - I actually like watching football!
Often, though, people will watch Monday Night Football and comparable programs in other sports, because of the program's status as an event. Anybody who's anybody is watching. So how does a sporting event gain this status? My guess is the packaging of the show -- chiefly the announcers. . . .
Whatever you think of, I'm betting it has little to do with the game itself.
I've had other people ask me how I can watch a game in which I have no rooting interest. For me, when it comes to my true favorite sports - soccer, road racing, football - I actually enjoy watching the game played at a high level. Most of the soccer games I watch hold no rooting interest for me (Exhibit A - the Reading/Manchester City game I'm watching right now), but I enjoy the game for it's own sake, not for some sort of personal vindication that "my team" won. OK, so a WVU game (against anybody) is more interesting 'cause I spent 7 years in Morgantown, but I enjoyed the end of the Syracuse/Iowa game this weekend just because it was exciting. When it comes to racing, I don't really have any favorites, but I like the racing itself. That's one reason I don't like NASCAR - the racing itself bores me and I haven't been taken in by the cult of driver personality to get invested in how one guy does on a weekly basis.
What's my point? Just that there are some people out there who will watch the game itself, oblivious to the production values surrounding it.
Oh, and, go Vikings!
1 comment:
You forgot the obvious reason... "because it tells me to."
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