I Don't Learn from My Mistakes

I've never really been a big sports fan.

When I was a teen, I loved watching pro football. It seemed so awesome to me back then.

I loved the big, strong, monstrous guys butting heads.

To this day I still love thinking about some of the awesome runs that Houston Oiler running back Earl Campbell made in the late 70s.

It seemed as if every year the Oilers would get to the AFC championship, only to lose to the Terry Bradshaw era Steelers.

But as a family man, I quickly lost even that interest in pro football.

Over the years, I have watched very, very few hours of sports.

I always end up hating myself when I do watch a game of anything, later realizing that I could have at least read a good book with that time instead.

So yesterday, I sat and watched both the NFC Championship game as well as the AFC Championship game.

Both of the teams I was rooting for lost, so as I went to bed last night I was mentally kicking myself for wasting seven hours of my life like that.

To avoid hating myself altogether, I practiced my guitar (chords and scales and a couple of songs) a little before I went to bed.

THAT was fun, so why didn't I practice my guitar for seven hours yesterday and not waste all that time watching stupid football games? Seriously, I'm the winner every time I practice my guitar or bass, or read some in my engineering books, or even read a novel, which at least engages my mind at deep levels.

It's like I told my wife, every now and then I guess I have to waste a whole day doing something stupid like watching sports, and then regret the heck out of it, so that hopefully I'll go a few more years doing something more productive with my time instead of wasting it like that.

That's seven hours of my life I'll never get back.

Plus, I'm convinced that when I watch whole games like that, that I'm the reason why the team I want to win loses.

I'd like to offer a formal apology right here, right now, to both the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers for watching their games and thereby causing them to lose.

Hopefully I won't be stupid enough to watch any more sports games again.

At least I know that I won't be wasting my time in watching the Superbowl this year.

And you can't pay me enough money to get me to watch basketball, baseball, or NASCAR, so no worries about those being on TV over the next six months or so.