I know, right?!
Now, don't get me wrong. I love sports. I think sports are a great thing, a necessary thing, even. People need to be active, to have fun, to set goals and compete and work as a team. There are tons and tons of benefits to sports.
HOWEVER.
I think our culture puts far, FAR too much emphasis on athletics, especially athletics as an industry. We pump tons of money into sports organizations, and many people's lives end up revolving completely around a sports team (while, incidentally, they end up getting fatter from sitting on the couch watching games instead of playing them). Athletics is a ridiculous, unnecessarily huge part of our economy and our lives, while other just-as-worthy (if not more) things like academics and the arts get pushed to the back burner.
Obviously, the media have a huge role in this overblown worship of sports. A really substantial portion of the news (about 20% of the local newscast, sometimes even more) is dedicated to reporting sports, while other things may get a brief mention.
So I was never terribly interested in reporting sports. I thought being a sports anchor would be fun because you get to be enthusiastic and sort of funny, and there's a pretty big market for female sports reporters, but I think my time is better spent reporting more serious (real) news.
But then!
The roller derby team in Greeley, the Slaughterhouse Derby Girls (love it), had their first sanctioned bout this weekend, and I thought, we always cover normal, boring sports like football and basketball like everyone else does when there are so many more interesting sports out there, like roller derby, that never get any air time at all. So I pitched that we cover the roller derby bout, and there's my first assignment as a sports reporter!
It was SO. MUCH. FUN!
Bryan, however, is not a huge fan of me not having any teeth.
And maybe I should wait until I have health insurance again...
But my roller derby name would be "Smashley Choke."
Photo via Slaughterhouse Derby Girls on Facebook.
2 comments:
I just recently joined a local league and passed bootcamp and currently Fresh Meat. It's so much fun. And we wear mouthguards...so you have a higher percentage that you can keep all your teeth :)
It is kind of ironic that sports are such a huge part of our culture, yet people are more people are sitting on their couches watching them instead of actually out playing them. I don't even like watching sports, but I do love to play them.
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