Sports talk with Jordan Lumsden
As so many families sit down at the dinner table to enjoy turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving Thursday, others are huddled around TV’s watching Aaron Rodgers gun it down the field or Megatron make a leaping catch in the end zone.
In my family sports are the one thing everybody has in common. No matter what the holiday you will always find us watching a game.
You will always find my family eating at 12:30. Recently I’ve heard of families eating based on the football games on thanksgiving and the basketball games on Christmas day, which I find funny and also brilliant. Not that its rocket surgery to eat your meal between games but the idea that people strategically plan around sporting event is comical. I feel more and more sports can dictate our daily lives especially on holidays. Not only as fans, but the players as well.
The league schedules these games on holidays because… why not?
They know that the majority of Americans are like my family, sports crazed fanatics that cant get enough of the action. But while we stuff our faces, screaming and cheering at the screen, these athletes are sacrificing their holidays to entertain us.
Now don’t get me wrong. If they’re getting paid millions of dollars they can afford to work a holiday or two.
The sad thing in my opinion is the extremes sports and holidays have come to in a business sense.
The NBA releases special jerseys for their Christmas day games. These jerseys are only worn one time but will get sold to thousands of fans. The NBA and NFL know that holidays are opportunities to introduce the next “new thing” someone has to have.
Although there are obvious marketing advantages to having more people watch on these specific days but sports also bring families like mine together.
Watching the game after eating a meal together is relaxing and fun. We’re able to laugh, talk and always give each other a hard time about their favorite team. Sports is the common denominator that mine and so many other families have that make their holidays that much better.