I’ve been talking about video games the last few waiver weeks. That is really all there is to talk about in regards to sports. Everything else is pure speculation. At least that is true in regards to football. What other sports are there for me? I like basketball, but as a Knicks lifer I do not really like basketball. It is an ever present disappointment. I don’t consider eSports to be true sports either. I won’t sit up here and talk about the Apex Cup or Fortnite or any of that. I realize they have value to others. I realize the entire enterprise of sport is built on the ‘sport’ having value to enough people that it is played and talked about and financially sustainable. This is how soccer can be as huge as it is in some countries and barely exist in others. This is how League Of Legends operates the same way. Such is the way of shared belief systems.
When I was young I developed a sport based around the Marvel Superheroes RPG. The sport was Lacrosse without the sticks. Your job was to reach the other goal and score the ball. That was it. However, the presence of powers made that task quite difficult. I often wonder how that imagined sport would translate to a fictional world. I ask myself, should I write this out? There is this world in my head where this sport exists and I feel like I can speak to it in story, but I never do. I suppose I have a number of untold tales of that nature.
As we round towards the new stories of the upcoming football season I am taken with the idea of story. We are always looking for stories in sports. We are looking for underdogs and heroes. We are looking for the rules and lines and circumstances that define people other than ourselves. Through those definitions we seek to have our beliefs challenged and ultimately to prevail alongside our scions. This is what makes sports matter.
Some Thoughts:
- My youngest is off to Texas to battle with all stars from across the US. Should be a good test for him. Is he gonna be a G or a JAG?