Sports burnout: Do you ever get tired of sports?

Thing is, TP, I'm already there. I ALWAYS would have rather watched a replay of the '71 ASG. Been like that since I was 6 years old.

And, like I said in my first post, I do know that adult responsibilities get in the way so you can't block off a three-hour stretch to watch a ballgame every night, even if you want to. There was a time when I wouldn't have dared miss a minute of the Michigan NCAA game today. But I'm at work, and I just don't have a choice. I won't lose sleep over it.

I will say this: Only change I've noticed in terms of sports enjoyment is that I'm not nearly as into the NFL as I used to be. Part of that, though, was moving to the West Coast and choosing sleep over 10 a.m. start times. Part of that, too, is burnout from the way that league has been hyped up 24/7/365 the last couple years.

But baseball? My passion has only increased. I will eat crow if you're right ... but I have a hard time believing that I'll ever get "full."

 

A friend got out of the business early into his career because he was tiring of the seasonal cycle -- if it's September, it must be. ... I always found that comforting, but I also can relate to sports becoming less a part of my life outside work. I especially tire of topics begun only because I have a sports background, and these inevitably are either surface-level nonsense or offer points of view that are uncomfortable to disagree with. It also has helped that I've had non-sports gigs as well (and am in a hybrid spot now).

 

Same thing happened to me, TP, and I think, buck, that age does have something to do with it. I still had the passion when I was your age, but it's like it slowly got beaten out of me over time. I also think it's harder when you spend your actual work days in the belly of the beast. If I were covering preps somewhere, or worked as an editor, I don't know that it would ruin my ability to enjoy the NFL. If I were covering the NFL, I think it would be different.

Now that I've been forcibly removed from the business, one of the positives is that I hope in time I can learn to be a fan again. I've stayed a fan of my college football team and the NFL team where I grew up, but that's it. I'd like to be able to go to a local game and cheer again, but maybe that's gone forever. Last time I sat in the stands at a baseball game, the guy behind me was explaining to his companion how Ichiro is Chinese, and I about ground my teeth down to nubs.

 

That chink took my job!

 

WHEW! I was worried that this was a thread about this:

There is no way anyone could get burned out on that classic album!

 

Ah, if THAT were the question, there would be NO getting burned out on "Sports."

(That little guy behind Huey got so much tail, he should have been arrested.)

 

First CD I ever bought.

I'm not burned out on sports in general, but I'm already sick of hearing people root for/against certain teams because "it messes up my bracket." Grab a tall glass of STFU and enjoy the fucking game.

 

Better than the guy who starts yelling "I called it!" to anyone who hears about some 13-4 game that he picked at random when he's never seen either team play.

 

True. Although that's inevitably going to come up. The best part is when people ask about my bracket, which doesn't exist.

 

Oh, shit, that could be 94% of us in here.

 

I wonder, AB, how much of that has to do with a) being a sports writer (as opposed to a news writer, desker or out of the business); and b) still having some optimism about your career when you were my age. What got beaten out of me at about age 25 is the idea that I'm going to be a career journalist, so whatever passion I had for my job has been transferred to my enjoyment of sports or to other places now. I suspect when y'all were my age, you were still busting your ass at a job you loved, still moving up, still having a passion for newspapers and for sports journalism. I don't have that anymore (thank you, Dean Singleton.) I bust my ass, but it's just a job to me now. So I don't have that passion for being "in the belly of the beast," as you say.

I just wonder if that is a factor for some of you. Because that's probably a huge difference between you guys at 27 and me at 27.

Or, you know, maybe it is age. In which case, I'm just a know-it-all punk who will learn my lesson one day.

 

I'm not sure the love is gone, but that youthful innocence is.

Part of the charm disappears when you realize your favorite player is a selfish jerk, or worse, accused of rape, etc.