I love international football (soccer) -- world cup, euro cup -- but have a hard time getting into the professional sport as a fan because it's kind of boring. What hockey (ice hockey) really adds is that possibility of scoring. It's the potential that adds tension and excitement. I watched a bit of NHL in 1991 by virtue of having free cable for some reason in my apartment in Chicago. Years later I went to a blackhawks game at the (then) new united center. I can't get past the fighting. It totally ruins it for me.
It's a great sport -- looks awesome in HD, has (like baseball) wonderful sounds, fast, elegant, bruising but without all the stops in play of NFL. I watched some men's and women's hockey during the olympics and was reminded how beautiful the game can be. I just can't abide the fighting in the pro game. It's not done in the international game or the college game. It's an easily solvable problem. Fix that and I'm in.
5 comments:
I was completely drawn in by women's hockey during the olympics. I don't know why. Any descriptives would sound stereotypical. But I could see the plays setting up and appreciate the sheer skill--I guess I wasn't in a constant teeth-grit waiting for the next gruesome check.
I started to feel bad after the Canadian women would score their 300th goal by the end of the 2nd period.
It was interesting in the women's hockey matches, that the whole crowd began to root for the under dogs. I was on a business trip the week MSNBC broadcasted many of the matches, and remembered working out and doing yoga watching the Vancouver crowds cheering whoever the Canadian women were whooping, each time the scoreless opponent ALMOST got a goal (Czechs, Russians, etc). It just seemed much less... mean spirited. I found myself not wanting to change the channel.
Oh the fights are funny. I went to a Wolves game with the boys, and all of a sudden there is a fight for almost no reason in the middle of the game. It was more funny than anything. I wish they would stop it but then it would take away some of the old school charm out of this modern world.
Hell, if you can't see a quick fight at a hockey game, where else are you going to see one.
Soccer. Take the fights out of hockey, but add them to soccer.
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