Onlineseats Blog

Two thousand and ten is the dawn of a new decade and the coming teen years of the 21st century appear to be loaded with greatness (LeBron James) and conflict (multiple potential season-ending collective bargaining agreements). So, let’s take a trip to the future after these years of calamity and see what the world of sports is like in the post-apocalyptic date of 2020.

I have not seen the new movie Legion, but I have seen trailers and read reviews and the big-budget apocalyptic thriller is by all accounts a disaster. Similarly, I have not seen the backroom collective bargaining agreement (CBA) discussions between the NFL Players Association and the team owners, but I have seen trailers (the three debacles known as the 1994-95 MLB strike, the 1998-99 NBA strike, and 2004-05 NHL lockout) and have read the reviews (Tim Graham’s February 1st ESPN column) and am pretty sure it would be a disaster of actual biblical proportions.

The Monday after the NFL conference championships the football news is pretty scarce. There is some analysis of the Colts victory (they looked bored until the Jets scored their second touchdown, at which point they outscored New York 24-3) and the Saints overtime win (they struggled to win despite winning the turnover battle 5 to 1). In other news, the Pro Bowl replacements have been announced for the four players playing in the Super Bowl. Then, there was a little ditty about the league canceling a second game in Britain next season…and possibly expanding the league with a team in the UK. That’s right; the NFL is publicly championing expanding American football to a country whose sports fan base is upset that we call their version of football soccer.

Conan, Leno, and NBC. This is the entertainment debacle spotlighted in the news. No Lindsey Lohan weight loss watch or Disney teen actress sex scandal can bump this story off the “lite” news cycle. It has been examined from every angle – the straight forward news angle, the industry angle, and the fan angle- and whenever something becomes the subject of this much analysis it invariably eventually falls into sports metaphors, a nice, concise way to explain the most complicated situations in terms of something a good number of Americans know better than the constitution or basic nutrition.

At its best, the NBA is a competitive league with the best athletes in the world playing at such a high level that it shames the fans watching over the age of 25 (who have come to grips with the fact that they are terrible athletes in a perpetual decline) and inspires fans under the age of 18 (who still have the youth on their side and unbridled confidence that they can do anything). At its worst, the NBA is a league in which overpaid athletes coast during games and fans fail to truly care about the game. Every year, without fail, the worst example of this is the NBA All Star game.