Do you spend more time with the family? Read a book? Maybe build that birdfeeder the wife has been nagging you about for the past 6 months?
Granted, there are perks to all of those choices listed (with the possible exception of the birdfeeder, I’ll let that one wait a bit), but none of those will fill your Sundays with excitement and cheer like watching grown men play demolition derby without cars.
And while nothing can completely replace the joy of the pigskin, let me tell you that there is life after football, and it’s only a channel change away. Know what, I’ll even make it easier on you by giving you four alternatives to choose from that may bring some solace to your aching heart.
This brings us to choice number one: Bowling.
What? Did I just say bowling? How does bowling even begin to compare with the Holy Grail of sports that is football? The simple answer is it can’t…until you actually begin to break the sport down a bit.
Professional Bowling, or the PBA to be specific, has been around since 1959, when a sports agent named Eddie Elias convinced 33 men to pony up $1,650 each to start the organization. It has enjoyed consistent televised exposure over the years, with the number of tournaments in a season steadily growing, along with the payouts.
But even with its years of exposure and the thrill of one on one competition, there was always something lacking about the league. That certain sense of desperation and drive to win out of the top players that people had come to expect out of a sport…that is, until 2005.
Starting in 2005, the PBA turned the eligibility for tournaments on its heals by changing what was once a field open to any with a membership to a set number of 64 bowlers each week. This change made being an active member of the PBA not a guarantee but something to be earned.
Suddenly, known vets like Norm Duke (31 tour titles), Brian Voss (24 titles), and Amleto Monacelli (19 titles) were fighting for their tour lives (the latter two losing their exemption after the 2006-2007 season).
This change has breathed new life int a sport that was threatening to go stagnant and has brought more real competition and drive to win than any die-hard sports fan could ask for. And while it’s not the NFL, it’s worth checking out for anyone with newfound time to kill on a Sunday afternoon.
*The final rounds of each tournament can be seen on Sundays at 1 p.m. on ESPN with replays of it and past tournaments shown regularly on ESPN Classic.
