Sports Becoming a Crumbling Obsession

Cutter's Log - Stardate 3102.12.90
Current Song - Layla (Derek and the Dominoes)

Yesterday, for the first time that I can remember since covering football games regularly since 2006, I decided to take a Friday night off from the gridiron.

I have had missing weeks since then, but they have almost always been because of an emergency work conflict. Even on the day before my sister got married, I just had to make a trip from Dundee to Elmhurst just to see a football game (I told my parents that I was in Elgin). The only other two times I can remember taking a fall Friday night off was when I chose to cover the Little 10 Conference Volleyball tournaments; something I've been doing for the past two years.

Rain, shine, sick, puking, I was determined to make it to a football game. That was, until yesterday.

Yesterday, I decided to have some fun and try my luck at the Mega Million jackpot. I spent five bucks on five seperate tickets. Two of them were quick picks and three of them were special numbers chosen on personal association. I also played four Pick 3 tickets and one Pick 4 ticket. I could have done all of this before I went to a football game, but I wanted to try something different. I wanted to spread out my purchases over the course of the night.

Aiding in my decision to skip a football game was that my friend Nicci was working at the gas station and some of our regular customers and coffee table mainstays, as well as one of her friends, were also going to be there.

Only one of my tickets hit for $3, and that was the one where Nicci and I picked out half of the numbers. I get $1.50 and she gets $1.50.

Between all of the talking that I did that night, off and on, I had quite the fun. I still had that feeling of Friday fun, but this was a completely different form of it.

In fact, it made me think about many of those Friday nights over the years.

***

Since starting Northern Illinois Sports Beat in 2004, I've pounded plenty of pavement throughout northern Illinois. At my peak a couple of years ago, I was hitting 3-4 games a week. There would be some Saturdays that I would double-dip, such as one Saturday for a baseball game in Richmond and a soccer match in Burlington. There was one Saturday there I even triple-dipped: A 12:30 football game in Lena, a 2:30 volleyball match in Elizabeth, and a 6:00 football game in Lanark. I've gone as far as Chicago and Kankakee to cover games.

I think it is important to note that I go to these games not as a fan, but as a journalist. Someone asked me not too long ago if my obsession was about just sports, or writing about sports. The latter is true. If this was simply a sports obsession, I'd be on the recliner watching the sports channels 24-7 between pros, college and high school. What became simply trying to keep my writing skills fresh after leaving the local newspaper in 2004 turned into searching for that unique story and seeking out unique and different situations.

These searches made me pound so much pavement. I put a geographical restriction on myself, better known as the Northern Illinois Sports Beat coverage area. This allows me to only travel so far without spending so much gas money. Little did I know that I would indeed be spending quite a bit; since every waking moment I wasn't working or sleeping was spent wanting to write about high school sports - and thus seeking out whatever interesting there was to bring to light.

This is the job of a journalist. Problem is, I'm the only one with such borders. One particular week involved a soccer match in Leland, a volleyball match in Annawan, and a football game in Galena. Name someone else who would do this? How about at 25 years old (as I was at the time)?

When I bought my car in January 2007, it had about 117,000 miles on it. I'm approaching 214,000 now. I'm willing to bet that half of those miles was sports stuff. Counting the hours spent on the road is where it gets a little hurtful. Truckers have it pretty bad when it comes to long hours. Hardly anyone my age spends that much time on the road alone.

It's not just on the road driving where things get kind of lonely. I'd say at about 75% of the games that I go to, I don't know anyone else there. This is because I just can't see games in which I have a pretty good idea as to who the winner is going to be. The sensations, to me, are few when I have a very good idea as to the final outcome, and thus they aren't worth seeing for me.

What I just wrote may best be described as elitist. Traveling to "only the best" has earned me some criticism by some sports fans, especially those who think that I should stick to a particular school or schools. After all, they know of my extreme shyness and figure that the best way to deal with that, along with following sports, is to be closest to schools that I know more people from.

The three schools in my Twin City area (Sterling, Rock Falls and Newman) are the top three in which I actually know the most people from. Seems natural. Every time I do something with Geneseo, Kaneland, Morris or Rochelle, there's always a meeting of the message board minds. To a lesser extent with Annawan, Eastland, Morrison and Winnebago. Hinckley-Big Rock is another. Sometimes I tend to gravitate toward these schools when I just cannot decide where to go (in a recent example, seeing Geneseo host Morris in football), because I know there are people that I can meet up with and talk. But I'm careful not to do it too much, as it would lead to a fairness unbalance within the website.

Sometimes I cherish the friendly chit-chat more than I cherish doing my journalism job. I used to think that sports journalism is a lonely job, but almost all of the sports journalists that I cover games with have some sort of local following consisting of a handful of people for each school - whereas I don't have that handful, but a couple. Most times none.

***

I think the very passion and obsession that I have has taken a toll on certain things in my life. Two years ago it was finances. Last year it was health. Now I'm starting to realize that it's time to improve on social life.

I've always wanted to cut back on doing what I do. I guess the thrill of adventure makes me keep on going. Cutting back would make it easier on my finances, time schedule and social life.

I guess I needed that break-through moment that would help me cut back for sure. I've always said that when a particular moment happens in my life, that'll be the time when I will be ready to deconstruct everything that I have built. That particular moment is now at the closest it has come to being a reality. Going broke wasn't it. Hitting 345 pounds wasn't it.

When I reach that moment is when I'll understand the true meaning of why I should scale back and do what's best for me.

I've always had this backup idea if the content portion of NISB were to meet the sunset. The message boards would last for a long time. I think this idea will help me personally, to be real honest.