A Recovering Football Addict
So, the big BSC title game was last night. I didn't watch it. I don't even know what channel it was on. Truthfully, of all the bowl games, I think I only watched about 10 minutes total -- and that was because I was sitting in the same room as my dad when he tuned in for one of the games.
I've never really been a big college football guy. The school I went to was in D-II for football. They've switched to I-AA and I couldn't care less about them now either, now that all the rivalries I loved growing up are over. Doesn't matter really, I couldn't watch them on TV if I wanted to.
And not just because they aren't on TV. Even if they were on TV, I don't get cable anymore. I don't get satellite TV either. I have an antenna on my roof. It gets 6 PBS channels and CBS. Occasionally, it pulls in low power ABC and NBC stations, but they usually aren't very watchable.
We pulled the plug on our cable after the NFC championship last year. The Super Bowl was on CBS, which we got just fine, and after football season was over, there wasn't much on TV we considered worth watching much anyway.
Besides, we can use our modded Xbox to watch pretty much anything on demand, including Hulu, Netflix, etc. But with 4 kids in the house, we don't have much time for TV, what with reading to them, bathing them, feeding them, cleaning up after them, and getting them to bed at a reasonable time.
But there was that NFL season looming. Would we do OK watching only a few Vikings games each year? It turns out ... yes. Of course, the vikings had a terrible year, but I had plans for what to do if they had a great year. I spent $40 of the $400 I saved by cutting the cable on NFL Game Rewind. We can watch replays of games on -- you guest it -- the Xbox. But most of the time, the Vikes played so poorly that to watch them again, knowing full well how terrible they had already been, seemed foolish.
Anyway, it turns out, that I didn't care as much about the NFL as I thought I did. I don't twitch on Sunday afternoons. I certainly don't miss the super violent commercials where FOX previews the kind of show I would NEVER let my kids even listen to, much less watch while I scramble to flash the TV to some cooking show on PBS for a few minutes. And we actually do stuff as a family on Sundays instead of staring at a box together. Sledding. Ice fishing. Board Games. Often while listening to the game of the radio -- at least until the season imploded. Who knew that missing the NFL could be so fun and easy?
I'm not telling anyone to do the same. I just was surprised at how I could give something up that I thought I needed. We may even find something else to do on Super Bowl Sunday. Maybe find a deserted water park somewhere? Of course, if the game happens to be on somewhere in the hotel ...
And that's the news from Browerville.
I've never really been a big college football guy. The school I went to was in D-II for football. They've switched to I-AA and I couldn't care less about them now either, now that all the rivalries I loved growing up are over. Doesn't matter really, I couldn't watch them on TV if I wanted to.
And not just because they aren't on TV. Even if they were on TV, I don't get cable anymore. I don't get satellite TV either. I have an antenna on my roof. It gets 6 PBS channels and CBS. Occasionally, it pulls in low power ABC and NBC stations, but they usually aren't very watchable.
We pulled the plug on our cable after the NFC championship last year. The Super Bowl was on CBS, which we got just fine, and after football season was over, there wasn't much on TV we considered worth watching much anyway.
Besides, we can use our modded Xbox to watch pretty much anything on demand, including Hulu, Netflix, etc. But with 4 kids in the house, we don't have much time for TV, what with reading to them, bathing them, feeding them, cleaning up after them, and getting them to bed at a reasonable time.
But there was that NFL season looming. Would we do OK watching only a few Vikings games each year? It turns out ... yes. Of course, the vikings had a terrible year, but I had plans for what to do if they had a great year. I spent $40 of the $400 I saved by cutting the cable on NFL Game Rewind. We can watch replays of games on -- you guest it -- the Xbox. But most of the time, the Vikes played so poorly that to watch them again, knowing full well how terrible they had already been, seemed foolish.
Anyway, it turns out, that I didn't care as much about the NFL as I thought I did. I don't twitch on Sunday afternoons. I certainly don't miss the super violent commercials where FOX previews the kind of show I would NEVER let my kids even listen to, much less watch while I scramble to flash the TV to some cooking show on PBS for a few minutes. And we actually do stuff as a family on Sundays instead of staring at a box together. Sledding. Ice fishing. Board Games. Often while listening to the game of the radio -- at least until the season imploded. Who knew that missing the NFL could be so fun and easy?
I'm not telling anyone to do the same. I just was surprised at how I could give something up that I thought I needed. We may even find something else to do on Super Bowl Sunday. Maybe find a deserted water park somewhere? Of course, if the game happens to be on somewhere in the hotel ...
And that's the news from Browerville.
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