Raiderstation

That, I think, is what sport is all about. If you follow a sport it becomes a thread which runs through your life and provides memories and narrative and meaning and context. Sport becomes a kind of companion, part of the richness and texture of lived experience. At the same time, you could argue that sport is the only thing on television that is real. The things you are watching happen are actually happening right now, as you watch. So much modern reality is mediated, packaged, predigested. This is obviously true for all forms of drama, but it is more subtly true of news and current affairs, where the effects can be more pernicious, because we’re seeing an image of the world which makes claim to be the real world. Sport isn’t like that. It is clearly artificial: it happens within a determined frame and a clear set of rules and in that sense is as mediated as human experience can be. But within that frame, when you’re watching live sport, you are watching reality as it really happens. It is perhaps the only completely, inarguably true thing you can see on TV. These events, which define the lives of the athletes taking part, are taking place while you watch.

You can have intense moments of feeling watching sport, just as you can have through reading or through drama or through art. The meanings it gives are both individual, because nobody else has seen exactly the things you’ve seen, and collective, because anyone with an interest in the sport has similar experiences, similar memories, and is connected to them, and to you, as a result. Esports give me none of that, which is the reason they can mean so much to people who play them, but nothing at all to me. And so although thinking about esports hasn’t made me get into esports – to be honest, if anything it has put me off – at least it’s made me realise where those thousands of hours have gone, and why. So thank you, esports. But also, respectfully, no thanks. I’m dancing with the one what brung me.

rich72 wrote: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:33 pm Its not the same as it used to be when I was younger, before the Internet. Everything is fake now, including people.

Xramfan wrote: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:22 pm When I was a kid I looked up to professional teams and athletes with awe and wonder. If any of my teams lost, I’d have to go for walks to settle down and if they won, I was walking on air.

Today I’m a grey beard and they all look like children to me and the cash flow is insane. When my teams win, cool. If my teams lose, oh well. My priorities have changed a great deal over the years

rich72 wrote: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:33 pm Its not the same as it used to be when I was younger, before the Internet. Everything is fake now, including people.

Attyla wrote: Thu Nov 13, 2025 7:11 am I have avoided entering this thread for the last 24 hours because I wanted to carefully consider how to approach this.

Sport at its core is about watching great men do great things. Across sport today, I do not see that like when I was younger. The heroes are not as mythical, the great games are no where near on par with the glory days. Is it my age or is that the reality? It is hard for me to know. I think for me, I could quit today's sport without giving up my loyalties. But perhaps that is because the expectations have hit basement levels. If we were better, perhaps I would embrace it more. But I traveled to see the Browns beat my Raiders under Art Shell. I think, like many, I have just grown weary of expecting epically bad teams.

Perhaps nothing completely demonstrates how fcked up the NFL is than who they selected to do the halftime show at the Super Bowl.

Ocoordinator wrote: Thu Nov 13, 2025 8:00 am Growing up it was always expected to win with the Raiders and the Athletics.

It’s not as mythical anymore, at least for me, because the days are long gone since I believed in Santa.