Tom Rupp commentary: Oh, the games people play

I have always enjoyed sports, including playing them in youth as well as following them as an adult. Baseball was my primary game, both playing and attending. In fact, as an adult I played softball at Lembi Field until about 2005 or so. A pulled hamstring ended that. Basketball was my second game. We grew up two blocks from a rec center, so that was where near-daily pickup games occurred. I continued playing basketball until a few years ago when, after a whole-court game, I could hardly walk for a few days. Football was different. We played tackle pick-up games, without equipment, but that was it. We had the Baltimore Colts to follow and that was enough for me. So as the aging process took over, I played less and less and watched more, to where we are today. As the professional football season began last week, I find myself increasingly turned off by the boisterous bluster and incessantly inane chatter that surrounds the game. Sure, it's been going on since its inception, but each year it wears a little more on my psyche and my ability to ignore it in order to keep watching. Fans in the stands yell and scream and get all worked up … over a game. Many of them take it personal, even to the point of fighting fans of other teams. Some go through rituals and dress up, adhering to superstitions in the misguided belief that what they do affects the outcome of the game. Commentators blather on about this and that, without knowing what is going to happen and why. They are merely spewing their opinions, throwing them up on the screen to see what will stick. In the series "Ted Lasso," former star Roy Kent tries his hand as a TV commentator and, before walking out of that gig, says, "We don't know. All we do is sit around and guess what a bunch of (players) are going to do, and then we come back at halftime and we complain because they didn't do exactly what we'd thought they'd do. We're just on the outside, looking in. Judging them." Exactly. Don't mistake this for sour gripes, the grumblings of a frustrated barely-fan. No, I like to follow the games, the matches, the drama, and will continue to do so. It's just that I have another life that will continue after the game. Tom Rupp is a Folsom resident and weekly Telegraph columnist. You can reach him at truppfolsom@yahoo.com.