Wait till the game is over (for the 7%)

Wait till the game is over!

This phrase haunted me during my childhood. 

Now, I am an adult. My daughter has a neurological disease (a topic for another day).

There are times when she needs our utmost attention. 

We know better than to have her around others during a football game, less she disturb them or stand in front of the television, or do something else that may take their precious attention away from the large screen TV (that has a pause button). 

I sincerely believe something is wrong with me, because while so many other people I know can, and do speak incessantly about 1 hour and 20 minutes of entertainment, I find it not the least bit interesting.

As it turns out, I am one of the 7% of people who have little to no interest in watching sports.

Of course, I am a Nerd. I spend my time reading books, and writing about things. (Hopefully, by now the reader will have ascertained that this particular post is a little off-topic of my regular posts.)

Football is a relatively simple entertainment past time, but it is not life and death. 

 There are no redeeming qualities to watching football. Few people become altruistic watching football.

There are people that make money off the game, and chances are some good use-cases for using R or some other statistical tools may find the statistics useful. I am sure some teams even have predictive models for what to do under any given situation. 

Which means the entire game is practically scripted out by computer models before the first whistle is even blown.

The quote of Dumbledore about the Mirror of Erised can be applied to watching a football game: 

"However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible." 

You learn nothing from watching it. 

If your goal is to simply waste your time, watching the game will certainly do that for you. 

If you have a loved one participating in the play, then by all means support them, and let them know you are there for them. 

If you don't actually know anyone personally on the field, why are you watching? 

I do not hate Football. I do however, consider it a huge waste of time.

I do my own version of wasting time. Reading books, and watching movies.  This is my entertainment. 

Enjoy your entertainment, but remember, there are times when things need to be done.  There are times when things are more important than Football.

Life happens, and when it does it is time for the game to wait.