OT: Is it me, or am I not alone on this?

[4XPIPS]

Typically this time of the year I am excited about what the new season brings us. We are less then 2 months away from preseason, and the camp battle stories... making the 53. However, with everything going on in the real world today and we just got involved in an active war. I just can't wrap my brain around getting excited for Seahawk football or even talk about useless points that I enjoy to debate over. I am just wondering if I am alone on this?

[River Dog]

Typically this time of the year I am excited about what the new season brings us. We are less then 2 months away from preseason, and the camp battle stories... making the 53. However, with everything going on in the real world today and we just got involved in an active war. I just can't wrap my brain around getting excited for Seahawk football or even talk about useless points that I enjoy to debate over. I am just wondering if I am alone on this?

No, you're not alone. I don't start getting excited until Labor Day when the seasons begin to change. Training camp and preseason games don't mean much to me anymore.

It's the slow time of the season. Heck, we just went a week without a single post in this forum.

[NorthHawk]

I'm always kind of zoned out at this time of year with nothing going on.
But as TC approaches and we start getting information things pick up.
For me sports has always been an out from the daily pressures and it's probably the worst time of the year because the only thing going on is Baseball and it's approaching the All Star game which is boring as hell for someone my age. As a kid it was great - and the All Star type games are geared for the kids, but for me it's something I avoid.

[River Dog]

I'm always kind of zoned out at this time of year with nothing going on.
But as TC approaches and we start getting information things pick up.
For me sports has always been an out from the daily pressures and it's probably the worst time of the year because the only thing going on is Baseball and it's approaching the All Star game which is boring as hell for someone my age. As a kid it was great - and the All Star type games are geared for the kids, but for me it's something I avoid.

Yeah, I used to be a huge baseball fan, but over the past 20 years and coinciding with the Mariners slide into obscurity, my interest has waned significantly. The All Star game used to be a huge, can't miss event for a lot of people.

[Aseahawkfan]

I tend to keep busy all the time reading on all types of stuff. I can't really zone out or stay calm mentally, my mind is always needing more information and more activity or I get antsy and start looking for more. I've got to be mentally engaged with something all the time. Not even sure what I would do with downtime. I'm not a person that knows how to relax, take vacations, or sit still with time off.

This world politics stuff is interesting to watch. Though at this point, it's starting to all seem fake. Just a big bunch of manufactured problems that are more tempest in a teapot than much real. The world is massively entwined. We have most food production at a level of abundance unseen in history. We can build out infrastructure where ever we want it. It seems there are a handful of scummy leaders left wanting to cause some problems, but mostly the modern world has human life locked in to the point where we're dealing with modern problems like excessive obesity, social media addiction, and figuring out what to do with our time between work hours.

Everything going on seems far away. The only way you seriously engage with it is if you watch too much TV with the 24 hour news cycle. If you step away from the electronic media, you don't feel or see any of what they claim is happening to us all. All this end of the world talk and trouble seems like far away stories on TV once you turn off the TV or computer, go outside, the world seems fine.

I stopped worrying about it because I can no longer tell what is real and what is a 24 hour news station having to manufacture news to maintain ratings to make money. It sure seems like they greatly exaggerate things to wind us all up. I can't help but think it is very much done on purpose. I don't know that I feel like having that done to me anymore.

[Irish Greg 2.0]

Typically this time of the year I am excited about what the new season brings us. We are less then 2 months away from preseason, and the camp battle stories... making the 53. However, with everything going on in the real world today and we just got involved in an active war. I just can't wrap my brain around getting excited for Seahawk football or even talk about useless points that I enjoy to debate over. I am just wondering if I am alone on this?

The only thing I will offer is that we aren't in an "active war". It was a very strategic and limited strike in Iran, and there are no boots on the ground, nor has there been a Congressional declaration of war.

FYI, I am a retired Navy Command Master Chief and still work for the Navy as a civilian contractor. I maintain an active Top Secret/SCI security clearance and have been briefed on the reality of what is going on. Just wanted to state that so it doesn't seem like I am talking out of my kazoo, lol.

I don't mean you, but far too many throw around the term "war" these days. This wasn't any different than strikes ordered by Biden, Trump in his previous term, Obama, Clinton, etc. It's heavy and for sure something to worry about, but for my money, things like football are the kind of distraction we need to not just sit around worrying about the world all day.

I don't want to make this political as people get hot and bothered about all of this, but in general things are fairly stable now...especially with the world's largest sponsor of international terror (a country who has killed literally thousands of Americans either directly or through their puppets Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) having their nuclear ambitions crushed for the foreseeable future.

[trents]

I've found myself being increasingly disinterested in sports as a whole and I'm not entirely sure why. Yes, definitely, part of it is that my attention has been captured by the political drama of world events that seem to have us on the brink of a world war. I was doing the math the other day and it has been around 80 years since the last world war while there was only 27 years between the end of WWI and the end of WWII. I remember as a kid in the 1950's and 60's that everyone was expecting WWIII to break out in the form of a nuclear holocaust at any time back then. But it didn't. I think the fact that the countries possessing nuclear bomb technology realized it might destroy humanity actually kept a WWIII from happening - sort of a stable tension. But when nuclear armament technology gets in the hands of fanatical idealogues like Khomeini, that stable tension becomes more dynamic. But I digress.

I think another factor for me in my waning interest in sports these days is that the leagues and the teams have felt the need to cooperate with the social and cultural reengineering efforts of political correctness. I cringe every time I hear or read that the Mariners or the Seahawks or the Trailblazers announce they are celebrating gay pride day. They never seem to feel a need to celebrate straight pride day. I wish they would just focus playing baseball, football, or basketball and stay out of politics. Their marketing departments seem to have their ears to the ground listening for the latest cultural vibration so they can appeal to some special interest group and make themselves appear inclusive. There was a time when sports offered more of a respite from all this stuff.

And as far as college sports is concerned, I'm very disillusioned by the whole transfer portal/NIL thing. It's ruining kids' character ("What's in it for me, myself and I?") and it will result in the collapse of many programs who just can't afford to play the NIL game. It's really hard to develop allegiance to a team when there is such turnover from one year to the next that you don't even recognize the team.

[River Dog]

I've found myself being increasingly disinterested in sports as a whole and I'm not entirely sure why. Yes, definitely, part of it is that my attention has been captured by the political drama of world events that seem to have us on the brink of a world war. I was doing the math the other day and it has been around 80 years since the last world war while there was only 27 years between the end of WWI and the end of WWII. I remember as a kid in the 1950's and 60's that everyone was expecting WWIII to break out in the form of a nuclear holocaust at any time back then. But it didn't. I think the fact that the countries possessing nuclear bomb technology realized it might destroy humanity actually kept a WWIII from happening - sort of a stable tension. But when nuclear armament technology gets in the hands of fanatical idealogues like Khomeini, that stable tension becomes more dynamic. But I digress.

I think another factor for me in my waning interest in sports these days is that the leagues and the teams have felt the need to cooperate with the social and cultural reengineering efforts of political correctness. I cringe every time I hear or read that the Mariners or the Seahawks or the Trailblazers announce they are celebrating gay pride day. They never seem to feel a need to celebrate straight pride day. I wish they would just focus playing baseball, football, or basketball and stay out of politics. Their marketing departments seem to have their ears to the ground listening for the latest cultural vibration so they can appeal to some special interest group and make themselves appear inclusive. There was a time when sports offered more of a respite from all this stuff.

And as far as college sports is concerned, I'm very disillusioned by the whole transfer portal/NIL thing. It's ruining kids' character ("What's in it for me, myself and I?") and it will result in the collapse of many programs who just can't afford to play the NIL game. It's really hard to develop allegiance to a team when there is such turnover from one year to the next that you don't even recognize the team.

10/4 on the college sports scene. One only has to look as far as Shedder Saunders for a character that was ruined by it. Plus, I'll throw in the break-up of the Pac-12 as another incident that has hastened my dislike for CFB. Money, in general, has ruined the game.

For me, sports has pretty much come down to the NFL and sometimes MLB.

[NorthHawk]

Shedeur Sanders is a rich kid who acted like it during the draft process. The description was that most teams thought that he approached it not as a job interview but as he was being recruited. It turned most teams off and many took him off their board.

I'm glad the players in College are getting paid and expect it to continue, but there will be changes and maybe even a Union or equivalent that manages how much each can get along with rules about poaching players from other teams.
It's going to take a while as the sport adjusts to the new reality, but the main thing is the performers and getting paid now instead of the University bureaucrats and coaches.

[Aseahawkfan]

College football is now officially the NFL's farm league. The pretense that college football was pure football while college coaches were getting paid millions was a joke. Now the players can get get paid for making the million dollar coaches and universities look good.

[River Dog]

Shedeur Sanders is a rich kid who acted like it during the draft process. The description was that most teams thought that he approached it not as a job interview but as he was being recruited. It turned most teams off and many took him off their board.

I'm glad the players in College are getting paid and expect it to continue, but there will be changes and maybe even a Union or equivalent that manages how much each can get along with rules about poaching players from other teams.
It's going to take a while as the sport adjusts to the new reality, but the main thing is the performers and getting paid now instead of the University bureaucrats and coaches.

Obviously, Saunders attitude during his visits at the scouting combine had a lot to do with his historic drop in the draft, but he had to have been vastly overrated as a quarterback for teams to have taken him completely off their boards. If he was truly top 10 material, someone would have taken a shot at him in the 2nd or 3rd round. I also think that his father's past and reputation for controversy had a lot to do with it, too, and that Shedeur reinforced that perception within the long memories of GM's during the interviews. I can just hear them talking between themselves: "The apple didn't fall very far from the tree."

Sports, in general, are seeing a decline in popularity. Gen Z is much less interested in sports than previous generations. There's just too much competition for entertainment and people's free time. It would be an interesting discussion for the offseason.