This Time, I Mean It!

At the risk of sounding like a sore loser after the Vikings' underwhelming performance against Green Bay tonight, I must say that this season I may stick to my guns and find more important things to do than watch the Vikings (yardwork before the snow, sledding with the kids, grinding my knuckles on a cheese grater...stuff like that).

My reasoning used to be that the enjoyment of the wins were not worth the time wasted on the losses. Tonight, however, I realized it's a couple more things:

1) The game is just not entertaining enough. I don't know why, but I'm finding football more and more boring. Maybe at 42 I'm just growing out of it.

2) I get particularly upset at officiating in sports these days. There is no reason the officials shouldn't be doing a better job in all pro sports. To wit, on a third down play in the fourth quarter, an obvious defensive pass interference was missed. Instead of a first down and the Vikings continuing to drive to perhaps take the lead, they had to punt, and the Packers scored soon thereafter.

Hey, the better team won, and I recognize when my team is aided by questionable officiating, too. But my blood boils when I see poor officiating, especially when things happen right in fron of their eyes.

In my Sports Law course at William Mitchell College of Law, taught by none other than Clark Griffith (son of Calvin Griffith), much was talked about regarding the "value of the game," but unfortunately, most of it focussed aroung the players and league rules. Very little was discussed around officiating (although I would not be surprised to see the course syllabus revised recently thankd to Tim Donaghy). Again, the better team won tonight, but when one poor call or non-call (and there was a similar one earlier in the game) haa so much potential effect, to me, much of the value of the game is lost.

I used to try to treat bad calls like bad hops and bad bounces, which can also be frustrating, but are easier to cope with. But I couldn't get past the fact that a well-paid human being, who is supposed to be an expert, the best in the biz, can often be so inept as to affect the outcome of a game.

Wow, I'm really ramnling and running off course here. So I'll wrap it up. I once again hereby vow to watch far less pro football this season, and this time I mean it. The reason lies somewhere in the above.