iSports: the Sports Fan's Electronic Revolution!

The dedicated sports fan lets few things stand in the way of his sport’s viewing pleasure. Men have been known to sneak portable radios with headphones into weddings, funerals and graduation ceremonies. Monday Night football has made many a man on the east coast have a very grumpy Tuesday morning (when you go to work, does anyone ever say, “somebody’s got a case of the Tuesdays!”?). Few things can get in the way of a dedicated sports fan and his favorite events.

Many relationships have taken fatal trips to the wayside due to too much sports viewing. Let me give two very prominent examples. First, Charlie Sheen’s incredibly attractive wife Denise Richards, while pregnant with their second child, left him citing his propensity to not help enough with the kid, especially while viewing Football. Example number two: Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. Nick is supposedly an avid USC fan. Although their ongoing attempts at a supposed “three-peat” (and hell no I will not pay Pat Riley to use that term, and see Ek’s previous article on the reason for the quotation marks) lead me to question most every USC fan I now encounter, especially if they are a celebrity, he understandably has good reason to want to watch football every Saturday. They’re a great team, and it’s a great time to be a fan of the Trojans. In fact, one thing that does defend Nick’s claim to being a true USC fan, is that Jessica and he never conceived, meaning that he was either impotent, or a “Trojan MAAAAAN”. Either of which would, in my book, defend his claim to be a USC fan… And I digress…

The only point I wanted to make with the extremely long paragraph above is this. There’s a part of me that hears about guys like Charlie Sheen and Nick Lachey splitting with their wives that makes me say in my head, and a few times I can think of, out loud, “what the heck are you THINKING!” And of course there is the obvious moral problem with it, but HAVE YOU SEEN THESE WOMEN?! But, on the flipside… You gotta respect that kind of sports fan! I mean, the white trash redneck who doesn’t spend enough time with his girlfriend, because their relationship was going nowhere anyways is one thing, but having your sports viewing interfere with your relationship with women of that caliber, that’s dedication my friends! Oh and bye the way, Jessica, I’m still single!

All of these examples aside, even the most dedicated fan occasionally runs into conflicts that are unavoidable. I can think of the last World Cup, when all the games started around 3AM, as an example of when viewing a fine sporting event was difficult. The fact that I had to be at work at 8AM the next morning after every game, made it very hard for me to see more than a few good weekend games and the finals. Living in Europe I often experience the same problem come Bowl Season. In fact, in most recent years, I’ve been in the Austrian Alps for New Year’s, and missed many a fine National Championship or other fine BCS game that I would have gladly sacrificed to see, by staying up toe the wee-hours of the morning. Alas, it was not to be.

Which brings us to our current age of the wonders of technology. TiVo has obviously been a great advance in the delayed-viewing department. However, at times it requires more foresight than many scatter-brained, yet dedicated fans have at their disposal. It’s also not the cheapest thing in the world. All in all though, it is a great way to catch every game, without the scheduling conflicts that live sports viewing often entails (not to mention the commercials, and if it’s an NBA game, the incessant timeouts).

But now, from the wonderful company that is Apple, another solution has arisen, and will continue to evolve. The iTunes music store recently added TV shows and other videos to their purchasable selection. And now, for this fantastic Bowl season, they are offering 15-minute highlights of the BCS games for purchase, for a mere $1.99! This is a major development. It’s not the whole game, or even a slight abbreviated viewing, but it’s the start of something special. Of course it will take a while before all major events are covered in this manner, but think of the possibilities (NFL Network anyone?). Think of all those times you forget to set your TiVo, got the wrong time for tip-off or made an ill-advised previous engagement months prior to the big game. Now, thanks to the wonderful developers at Apple, we may finally have a solution on the way (and can you tell I use a Macintosh?).

All that said, on the eve of the National Championship game (a true championship game this year, thank you Lord!), I plan on watching the game live; even if I could get the whole game through iTunes. Yes it starts at 2AM local time for me, and yes I’ll regret it in the morning. But as great as technology is, and as much as I hope to reap the benefits that iTunes and other similar programs could eventually bring to the table, nothing can replace live viewing. Call me sentimental, call me old fashioned, but I’ll watch this one live with my friends and family, one last time…