At the Same Damn Time

By Sarah McVeigh

I am very lucky — my husband really is a gem. The other night, I was doing the dishes after eating a lovely dinner that he made me. While I’m in the kitchen, I hear the squeaking of sneakers on the TV and conclude that he is watching the Knicks. By the time I retire to the couch, the Yankees are on the screen.

I sat quietly (which is so hard for me) and watched this wonderful, intelligent, man flip back and forth between two different sports, while also checking Sports Center notifications on his phone.

Before I go any further, I would like to give my husband some credit, because compared to his friends (yikes, sorry) and other people we know, he is pretty mild with his sports intake. He only watches the teams he cares about and the playoffs for major sports. Whereas there are people who watch and bet on sports that they don’t care about or have any connection to. Dodgeball, pickleball, bowling — you name it, they’re watching it.

Now, this is a sports column, I am not bashing supporting sports!

I just cannot get behind watching multiple and different sports at the SAME TIME.

NFL Redzone, for example, gives me whiplash. Once I figure out who is playing, what the score is, which team has the ball, and where they are on the field — BAM — it switches to the next game. It’s just too much! I also do not understand the allure of Redzone. Let’s say you’re a Giants fan, claim to be a diehard — why are you watching Redzone? If you are such a true fan, you should only be watching the Giants game. Why do you care about the other teams making it to the redzone? I can understand needing to check the results of the games after to see where your team stands, but why do you need to know right away and miss out on time watching your Giants!

And side note about Redzone, why does this not exist for college football?

When I am watching a game with a team I am really invested in, such as ASU football, I am giving it my full attention. I don’t even want to flip to another game during the commercial break. Maybe this says more about me and my attention span than it does about sports consumption in general. But I would consider myself a true fan. I want to watch the entire game — good, bad and ugly. (I also like to listen to the announcers and if you watch sports on mute, you are a freak. That’s an article for another day.)

I am clearly in the minority with this opinion. There are several streaming options available for people who want to watch more than one game at a time.

I guess my question is simply: “why?”

Is it for fantasy teams? Betting purposes? Or is it really just enjoyable?

This article is taking a scrooge-like tone, but I am just trying to understand!

In a hunt to grasp the appeal, I asked some of my girlfriends what they thought about the issue. These friends both played sports in college so they don’t have the cheerleader-brain like me. What do they think? The gist of what they said was: “Redzone is for fake fans” and “You don’t need to watch every sport in existence, just the teams you are a fan of.”

So, I guess it’s not just me!

In the past, I wrote about being a fangirl but here I am hating. I apologize. Go watch NASCAR, luge, and slap fighting all at once if it makes you happy. Who am I to judge? Just Sarah on the Sidelines.