Sports Cliches

We gotta put the puck in the net.

We have to put our skates on and make a game of it.

When the game is over, the only thing that matters is what's on the scoreboard.

Our defence didn't play as well as our offence.

We've all gotta dress for the game.

You have to step up to the plate.

etc., etc., ad nauseum...

What's with all the empty sports cliches happening these days? Sure, they've always been around, but what is the difference between what's going on now, and what we had before? Of course, there were the classics from Yogi Berra like, "It ain't over 'til it's over," or "This is like deja vu all over again." Sayings that have weaseled their way into our popular culture lexicon. But I think his '-isms' were probably seen as less empty, because there were fewer cliches out there. I wonder if it's more bothersome now because media outlets have to get a sound bite from everybody and anybody that is remotely associated with sports. That's probably because twenty years ago, you didn't have much choice in where you could get your sports news.

On network TV, you'd have the 10 minutes of sports during the nightly newscast, or the weekend afternoon sports programming. ESPN and TSN started the change, because then you had sports specialty programming, but now you have niche sports programming like OLN and The Golf Channel. Golf Channel?!?!? 24/7/365 of nothing but golf programming? Is this for the golf enthusiast, or a way for insomniacs to fall asleep? Why am I paying for this channel? I don't even play golf, so I certainly don't want to watch it! Why should I pay for it?

Yes, I think that all these sports channels have fed a need for people (mostly men I think, but I suspect more and more women are into it) to watch sports, instead of participate in them. Are people getting lazy as they get older, or are they trying to dive more deeply into the sports they're interested in? Whatever the case is, I wish professional athletes would come up with better sound bites. Hey, what if we protested by not watching these programs?!?!?!?! Drive the viewership down so that there will be some consolidation in the sports channel marketplace. Let the broadcasters know that they shouldn't entice us back unless they can come up with some quality programming....wait...that won't work. Especially when there's a guy in my gym that has two TVs on two different sports channels when he's on the treadmill, one of them being The Golf Channel, and then he ends up talking to the guy running next to him anyway. No, guys like him will never make this suggestion work.

Write to the networks? The cable/satellite companies? Your MP? The Prime Minister? No, I think we're stuck. Sports channels are here to stay and not all professional athletes are Mensa members. I guess I'll have to read the paper when the sportscast is on and continue paying for channels I never use (in fact, they're not on my favourites list, so they get skipped when I'm channel surfing).

Yup, I guess when it comes to sports cliches, Yogi Berra was right. The future ain't what it used to be.

Wings Over The World