How 'bout them Ducks!

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Yesterday's civil war game between Oregon State and University of Oregon was one for the record books! Although the defensive strategies dominated the game, there was plenty of.......oh, who am I kidding. I didn't watch a second of it.

Actually, I don't watch football at all, or basketball, or any other team sport. I don't follow any teams, and I literally cannot name (I tried) a single football player for any college or professional team.

I keep expecting the guy police to show up at the door, kick me in the crotch, and take away my guy card.

The whole following of sports teams with anything other than a passing interest just seems so tedious. I realize I am in the smallest of minorities with this opinion. Clearly allegiance and excitement for your local team is a passion world-wide (soccer, rugby etc...), so I'm sure the "problem" is more mine than anything. I also realize that probably the more you follow, the more fun it gets.

This is a huge (relatively) problem on those occasions where I am left alone to make conversation with a bunch of guys (especially in social circles where I maybe don't know them as well). It is simply expected that I can speak with some degree of knowledge on the week's sporting events. I cannot. I mean, this is what guys do! They talk about sports. It's not the kind of thing that is too easy to fake, either. If the conversation gets far enough for me to be obliged to point out that I really don't follow, AT ALL, what's happening, I kind of get these looks of incredulity - Dude, seriously?

I'd like to point out here (protests too much?) that this does not make me a wuss. It's not like I don't know anything about, or cannot play these sports, I just do not choose to follow them. I played high school and Division III college football, I know plenty about the game . Sometimes I think it's because I spent so many hours in college on the practice field, in the drafty clubhouse watching hours of scouting films, in the bus on Saturdays driving to and from games, that I wore out all my tolerance for the sport. Maybe.

I know Kate doesn't mind. I'm not taking hours every week to watch football on TV (like I have that kind of time or concentration anyway). I like the fact that my mood for the week isn't set by how my team did that weekend, and that I can get out and do things during times when instead I would in front of a TV or at a game. And (I'll probably get in trouble for this), the whole die-hard team allegiance - with flags waving on your car or dressing head to toe in team colors, seems kind of , how shall I put this, conformingly misdirected anyway.

Ok, this is plenty on the subject. I need to wrap up this blog so I can go spend hours on the tree-climbing discussion boards, read my triathlon magazines, and re-vamp my training schedule.
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