pinkfloydpsw's Blog

These are the words of the Gladiator, delivered by Russell Crowe in the film of that name. I was entertained by that, I am not entertained now..

I figure that we turn on the TV to watch sports because we wish to be entertained. I know that’s why I watch sports anyway. I watched very little of the world snooker championship this year, some football, some tennis etc. I enjoyed so very little of it for one simple reason, they are all robots (I don’t mean that literally though). Sport is now simply the expression of a scientist’s strategy, the footballer has his every move calculated to build a picture of its effectiveness, then he/she is told how to give the team its best overall chance of not losing by being instructed, along with the rest of his/her fellow participants, exactly what their role is. To me this lacks freedom, it lacks personality, it lacks the rogue element of human emotion. Granted there has always been strategy in football, but it was the strategy of a couple of guys that run the team, not a bunch of statistics graduates.

Last years World snooker champ was the unconventional Luca Brecel, cutting a very exciting and at times nail-biting path to the trophy. Nerves were shredded as he went for his shots, played against the percentages and the better judgement of the commentators. The crowd loved it, just like they loved watching Jimmy and Alex back in the day, just like they want to see O’Sullivan entertain or Trump play cheeky ridiculous exhibition type snooker. Brecel was a blip in an otherwise plain landscape of players that are born to be mild, beige in their approach. Now you might think that I don’t like the game, but the opposite is true, my love of snooker is never ending. I love it as an aggressive game of risk and reward where the victor is maybe the guy that hangs his balls out, or maybe the guy that wins the crowd but loses the match. Jimmy White might be the most entertaining player that the game has ever seen, everyone my age knows his name and remembers his style, each one of us wanted so badly to see him win just once. I’ve watched as snooker became a science, as every player bar a few were coached into becoming the same practitioner, playing the same shots, the same percentages, approaching the table the same way, saying the same things in the interview afterward. This year Kyren Wilson won the big title, and while he thoroughly deserved it, I was not entertained. This man is a great player, but who wants to see robotic snooker?

In the Euros it’s more of the same, no give and go, no long ball, very few crosses, lots of playing back toward the keeper. Possession based football where the goal is to not lose the ball so the opponents cannot mount an attack. This has players not taking a shot from 30 yards out because it isn’t the percentage thing to do, instead they pass it around and back to the defenders so that they may draw out the forwards of the opposing team. Of course that doesn’t work because they are also well scientifically disciplined. It makes for a game of little excitement if you don’t like strategy more than you like passion. I like passion in sport, I want to see the players take risks, that’s why I watch it. Yes these teams are measurably better than their predecessors, yes that snooker player is doing more right than the guys of old, yes that tennis player is playing the percentage shots, but it’s fuckin boring. My favourite motorcycle rider was Casey Stoner, he rode it his way and when it worked it was a captivating and incredible spectacle to witness. He picked the bike up early and squared the corner off by spinning the back wheel to get greater speed exiting the bend, ringing the bikes neck to get the best out of it. The excitement of the cheeky pass or the paint to paint overtake, that’s what we tune in for. The unconventional boxer that gets the against the odds win is why we watch pugilism, it is what adds the excitement to the sport.

I say that sport has forgotten its purpose, and in doing so it may lose its audience. As a sports person your revenue is linked to you popularity as much as your success, the world champion at table tennis makes a lot less money than the world champion of darts, and he/she much less than the FIFA player of the year. There’s a very simple reason for this, and it has nothing to do with winning or proficiency in what they are doing. Bums on seats, people in the crowd or at home spending money to watch them do what they do. I think sometimes the sportsperson forgets this, that we the crowd are paying them and we want something in return.

Paul S Wilson