As you know, I no longer watch most professional sports. I crack on your mancaves and wings but I used to be that guy, at least with the sports obsession. I still follow combat sports to a degree.
I still have a special admiration for men who literally lay their dignity and sometimes their lives on the line for my entertainment. If you have never participated in a combat sport whether it be wrestling, boxing or a full contact martial art there is no way to explain the combination of nerves and fatigue that must be overcome at any level, let alone the highest.
However, I rarely even watch combat sports anymore in real time. I mostly watch old boxing matches. If there is a particular fight that I heard was worth watching, I usually catch the replay online.
One of the best-kept secrets in sports was the NCAA wrestling tournament. It has gained some mainstream attention in the last few years due mainly I think to how integral wrestling is to MMA.
I am biased as a former wrestler. But I know several non-wrestlers who love this event. You know why? Most compete for simply the love of the sport. Their sacrifice as a college athlete is second to none.
Think back to your college days and all the beer and bad late-night food you consumed. Imagine making weight?
They are everything you want an athlete to be. They are tough as nails. They compete hurt and I am talking major injuries, not a quad strain.
When they are too hurt to compete, they get back on the mat in half the time the millionaire mainstream athletes do. Are they the pure athletes the basketball players are? No. But you know what wrestlers sometimes do for a light workout to take a break from their regular grind? They play basketball.
Basketball players complain when they have to run suicides. Suicides after wrestling practice were the conditioning run we begged for.
They mostly act like gentlemen off the mat and most do not over-celebrate, even when winning titles. I have to say in recent years, I have seen a little more flexing after matches and me-first nonsense than in past years. Maybe that is to “sell” a sport that needs no selling.
I don’t mind spontaneous enthusiasm, but I do not need the Hulk Hogan pose. However, their celebrations are minuscule in comparison to the choreographed nonsense in mainstream sports.
The problem is, the tournament is shown on ultra-woke ESPN, owned by pedo Disney. I cannot in good conscience criticize the Stuper Bowl and watch ESPN, even if I love the event.
BTW-all you conservative tough guys who think you’re a patriot because you don’t watch CNN are feeding the same beast by watching ESPN for tips on how to better fantasize about superior men.
Anyway, for the last couple years I would watch the tournament at a friend’s house or a bar because I cancelled cable when they refused to talk about election fraud.
What good is that if I am enabling others to have ESPN to host me? Nope, that is hypocrisy.
This year I will catch the matches I want to see online after the fact. We must walk our talk.
Walk soon, talk soon.
-Marksman