Clear your feed, clear your mind
My attempt at actively avoiding the chatter of Sports, while still enjoying the actual games
The day after the 2020 Presidential election, I deleted roughly 50 accounts on Twitter that I was following that breathlessly reported details about the election. My mental health improved. When the election was called for Joe Biden, I deleted another 50 or so. My mental health improved even more.
Don’t worry, this is not a post about politics, and I sure hope it does not turn into a post that is critical of the media. [But it might.]
It’s hopefully a post about my changing consumption of sports media, and making an active choice to ignore opinions about sports that I don’t want to bother me.
Actively trying to avoid sports storylines is a hard habit to break. I like to read. I like to learn. I’ve spent my whole life working in media. It’s literally my job to know what’s happening in sports. I’m still a journalist, at-heart, even if I’m not a daily practicing one.
Maybe it’s old age, but I just don’t have the energy to get worked up over controversies, especially contrived controversies that are performance-based for ratings.
I still watch just as many sporting events as ever, probably more, considering nearly every sporting event is on some type of platform.
Yet I rarely watch SportsCenter, except when I’m still awake for Scott Van Pelt, I rarely watch pregame and postgame shows, and I actively go out of my way to avoid all the “Embrace Debate” programming on sports channels throughout the day.
In the last few days, I’ve scrolled quickly away from posts where apparently some of my fellow San Diego State fans/alums are upset that other SDSU fans are being overly critical of players. I used to take these things very seriously. I considered myself some type of “sports fan cop” who must convey these very important and specific sports rules to everyone. Now? You do you, boo. I’m gonna keep scrolling and find a cute video of a dog being cute.
Unfortunately, before I could find some serotonin to brighten my day, I had to quickly scroll past headlines of Charles Barkley criticizing Kevin Durant for not being a leader, Kevin Durant responding to the criticism of Charles Barkley, Shannon Sharpe questioning whether JJ Redick understands how “First Take” works, and Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields unfollowing the Chicago Bears on Instagram.
The headline for today’s Newsletter is actually from Fields, who explained – and I know I’m being an old man yelling at the clouds here, but can’t believe this passes as Journalism – the reason he unfollowed his employer on Instagram is he wants to clear his feed and clear his mind.
If you want the full story, Fields is tired of hearing his name in trade rumors, wants to stay with the Bears, but mostly wants clarity. Good for him. Sounds reasonable to me. [I still don’t want the Raiders to trade for Fields, personally, but I like him more now.]
All of this is to say that my enjoyment of Sports remains in watching the actual competition, but keeping up with all the noise that takes place before and after games has me mentally exhausted. So I’m trying to put my head in the sand to avoid it. [Emphasis on trying.]
This is how I consume sports these days:
I hate drafts. All sports drafts, especially the NFL. The only thing I hate more than a draft is a mock draft.
I enjoy reading feature stories about a player’s background.
I really enjoy reading a historical retrospective about game(s) I watched … or didn’t watch.
I’d rather spend 90 minutes watching a well-executed documentary than wait 9 seconds for an ad to disappear before I watch a 90-second highlight.
I enjoy reading about the building of stadiums/arenas, how billionaire owners try to justify having cities pay for them, and how teams pit cities against other cities as leverage.
I only listen to sports talk radio if the hosts are people I know personally and like. Even then, sorry friends, I’ll change the channel if the topic bores me, and I change the channel 99% of the time if they take a phone call from a listener. [Which is why I haven’t listened to Jim Rome this century.]
Speaking of sports talk radio, I have this theory, which the data will probably say is wrong, but it makes sense in my head and maybe you’ll agree.
It starts with these facts: all the research indicates football is the most important topic for sports talk radio. If you want ratings, talk about football. It doesn’t matter if it’s football season or not. It doesn’t matter if there is real news or not. Just talk football, over and over, and the ratings will follow.
The problem is this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Football fans listen to sports talk radio because they know they’ll hear a lot about football.
Baseball fans, like me, are now trained to not listen to sports talk radio because they know they’ll rarely hear anything about baseball, or worse yet, it’s unintelligent opinions on baseball that make us more upset. So baseball fans watch MLB Network or listen to Sirius XM’s MLB channel. But they still might not hear enough about their favorite team, so they’ll listen to a podcast dedicated to their favorite team.
[I know, I know, this varies by market, but it’s overwhelmingly the case.]
There are so many options to consume sports nowadays, it does you no good to focus on a little of everything. Sports is a niche. Baseball is a niche within that. Your favorite team is a niche within that. Your favorite’s teams minor league prospects are a niche within that (and my actual industry). Everything is a niche within a niche within a niche.
Here on Substack, posts and notes are filled with people giving advice on how to grow your Substack audience. The theories differ, but most agree to stay on one topic.
My silly little Substack Newsletter is all over the place. It was supposed to be mostly about baseball and I guess that’s still the main topic. But I write just as much about San Diego State, the Raiders, hanging with friends, saying farewell to a favorite party shirt, trying to remember exactly where I watched every Super Bowl, and gratitude.
I’m egotistical enough to want a huge audience. I’ll admittedly put Taylor Swift’s name in a headline, or plant a photo, if that entices a few more of you to click and read.
I’m at peace that I’ll never get a huge audience on here. That’s fine. I want to write about what interests me, lift the curtain a little to chronicle some of my life’s best moments before I’m too old to remember them, express authentic thoughts that are not to just get a reaction, and the process of writing even something like this helps clear my mind. [Thanks, Justin Fields.]
But, seriously, criticizing college athletes on social media is really dumb. Please stop.
Friendly reminder: this Newsletter is free now, but you can buy me a monthly cup of fancy coffee with a paid subscription. Your investment inspires to think of clever things to write.
I've gone through this transition myself. I'll watch games all day. "Discussion programming" does not interest me. I will still have College GameDay on, though that's become more of a chore, and Premiere League Mornings still is entertaining since I need all of the education on the sport across the pond. But the Mt. Rushmore discussions, the blasts from one athlete to another, it's all just noise that I prefer to filter. I've taken the same "Free Your Mind" mantra, but the En Vogue version... "The Rest Will Follow."