Passing by the National Passtime

At no point in the year to I feel less attuned to the nation than during the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.  I have to finally concede that I have less than 0% interest in them.

It's not that I'm opposed to football, although I am a bit concerned about the developing consensus that concussions associated with it can have a lifetime impact.  No, as I blogged here earlier, I just can't get into it for some reason.

I've tried.  If you don't follow football you are the odd man out on some conversations.  And people regard ti as strange, or just flat out don't believe it. Twice in the last several months I've been in conversations with groups of lawyers from all over the country when football came up, and I literally knew absolutely nothing about what people were talking about.

In those conversations, if you live here, it invariably is stated; "so you must be rooting for the Broncos, huh?"  No, I'm not.  I don't care who wins. Indeed, even though last weekend or whenever it was I knew who both teams were, I had to be reminded on Friday that the Seahawks were the other team.  My interest level is so low, I can't even remember who the other team is. And I'm not rooting for them either.

I do find it a bit odd that everyone assumes that Wyomingites are automatically Broncos fans.  Why would that be true?  I guess its because it's the closest professional team. But, while things have changed over time, it used to be common here that people would make sure to note that Wyoming isn't Colorado, and that a lot of things associated with Colorado, particular a large metropolitan area, we do not want associated with us. As I've stated, things have changed and that's no longer as common as it once was, but even back then it seemed most Wyomingites were Broncos fans.

I'm fine with that, I'm just not one.  Or a Packers fan.  Or a Steelers fan.  Or whatever.

I wish I was.  I've tried to follow football so that I could at least participate in these conversations, but it's impossible.  I can't do it.  At least this year I was in one of these group conversations where another lawyer, who had grown up overseas of American parents, stated he couldn't follow it either, passing that off to not growing up here.  I've given up trying.

I'll see the game, as my wife is a football fan and makes sure we always watch it. Some years we'll travel to a party to watch it.  I'm glad that we are invited, but I've actually had the experience of sitting through an entire party that way and not knowing who won. 

Sooner or later, I'm sure, some pharmaceutical company will offer a remedy for this condition, with all sorts of risky side affects.