A bit of sports talk (sorry, rabbit ☺):

I enjoy sports although, as with most things, I prefer reading about it to actually watching it. While I read the sports page in the daily newspaper faithfully, I rarely go to a sporting event or watch a game on tv. The events I enjoyed watching most were my sons’ soccer games and cross-country and track meets. Occasionally I will watch a televised game when I need to grade a test or I have a magazine to read, since then I can ignore 95% of the game and just look up when something exciting happens.

Today I was grading an Honors Algebra 2 test during a Big East basketball game between Rutgers and Seton Hall, and I was somewhat stunned at the game. Not the actual play, but at how blatantly the referees determined who should win the game. I am fairly knowledgeable about college basketball, and I thought the teams fouled about equally, but Rutgers got 41 foul shots while Seton Hall only got 12. Sadly, Rutgers won the game in double-overtime even though they were mostly outplayed the entire game by Seton Hall.

The refs called the game so blatantly one-sided that it bordered on a rigged game. I wonder why a major conference like the Big East–perhaps the major college basketball conference in the country–allows such a thing to happen? Is it because Rutgers was on their home court and trying to break a five-game losing streak, so it was a sympathy rigging? Or maybe because Rutgers is a major public university which had a powerhouse football program this past fall, and we all know that football is more important than just about everything in this sports-crazy country? Whatever the reason, on the heels of Duke winning a game recently because the timekeeper rigged the game clock in their favor, it makes me despair for college basketball as anything better than showtime on the level of professional wrestling.

As for the upcoming Super-Bowl, I follow the local football teams, the Giants and Jets, but once they are eliminated from the playoffs, I lose all interest in the games. I haven’t watched a Super-Bowl willingly since the last Giants victory in 1990, so I will probably sit this one out too. I am pleased New England is not in the Super-Bowl, since I have not forgotten how Bill Belichick cheated the Jets by walking out on his head coaching contract only a few days after signing it. While sports figures in this country tend to be idolized whether they have any moral fiber or not, I generally include morality as a factor in whom I like as an athlete. Tiki Barber is a gentleman and a scholar. Bill Belichick is a sad human being who happens to be a talented coach.