Fathers, I'm dying to know ...

If you're a dad of young children, or when you were a dad of young kids, how much sports do/did you really get to watch?

In addition to a BCS school beat to keep tabs on, I have two sons, ages 5 and 2. When I'm not working, I get the chance to catch a few innings here, a quarter or so there. If I want to see an entire game -- most of the time, a college game to help me be better informed on the beat -- I have to record it for later.

The last live game I watched from beginning to end that I was not covering? I'm pretty sure it was the 2006 Texas-USC Rose Bowl.

I guess that makes me a pretty poor sports fan. But I like to think it makes be a better husband and father.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to the dads of SportsJournalists.com.

 

Tivo, DVR.

Godsends.

 

Can't remember the last time I watched a full sporting event on TV . . . other than the Belmont.

 

Oh, I'll get to watch the Phillies on a pretty regular basis, just not the entire game.

My wife will give me a break on some Sundays during the fall if the Eagles or Steelers are on.

I'm mostly listening on the radio, though, especially when I'm out running my evening errands on my nights off.

As for my 7-year-old, she'll let me check the score when there's a commerical during Spongebob.

 

Funny, but the 2006 Rose Bowl might have been the last sporting event I watched every second of as well ... on TV.

 

DVR. And having to keep up with motorsports means basically no other sports when I'm home. Get anything that's on anywhere in the office, so watch a tom there. Well, not really watch, but it's on.

 

Keystone, your 7-year-old and my 5-year-old have been comparing notes on how to keep Daddy's TV viewing to 60-second snippets.

 

Went from watching NFL all day Sundays to watching stray moments of golf and an NCAA basketball game here and there.

 

Huggy Jr. is eight and loves watching baseball with his old man.

 

I try to put my daughter to sleep if I'm home, so I'm usually MIA from the TV from 8-9. So I'm lucky if I catch the second half of most NBA games. College hoops and football have been cut way back. I rarely watch an entire NFL game anymore. Mostly, it's just soccer, some MLB, some NFL and golf on the background on weekends.

 

I almost never have the opportunity to watch sports. It's been that way since I got married a decade ago, and it's gradually worsened since the arrival of my two tots. I don't mind. I have the choice of watching the U.S. Open or going to the park for a picnic and some batting practice. Which would you choose?

 

My 10-year-old son doesn't like when I watch too much sports. Games are often on in the background, but if we're watching together, the Cartoon Network trumps ESPN. I have to ask to check a score during a commercial break of "Zach and Cody." That's OK, because soon enough he'll be a teenager and stay holed up in his room and the TV will be mine.