After just over four days of feeling like I have been fighting off a cold, coupled with my decision to keep on running regardless, today I have been sneezing, snuffling, constantly blowing my nose and generally feeling sorry for myself. In some ways I’m not too disappointed that the cold has broken out with full force because that should hasten an end to it and Sunday [today] is probably the best day to be feeling really grotty. The other thing about Sundays, or at least many Sundays at this time of their year, is that there is a more or less constant stream of football on the television and so I have been able to plant myself on the sofa and let the world turn away whilst Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Southampton and Liverpool battle it out in front of me (not all at the same time obviously).
I enjoy watching football a lot, but I have often thought that the glut of football on TV these days is a form of anaesthetic for the modern man (and woman of course). No matter what is going on in life it is possible to kick back on the sofa watching whatever match is on with a level of interest that fluctuates from ‘minimal’ to ‘fully engaged’ as the play ebbs and flows. It’s possible to forget whatever else is happening and have the illusion that you are doing something. Interaction with the real world becomes unnecessary and the senses dulled unless/until some player does something a little extraordinary (I saw 5 goals in total today and I would say that two of these fell into that category).
My view of TV football as anaesthetic for the modern man is usually something I see as a negative, even when I am the one partaking in the ‘drug’, but today it was just what I needed – I wasn’t much good for anything more challenging or active and it gave me a ‘sort of purpose’.
And Conor Hourihane’s goal for Aston Villa and Mo Salah’s for Liverpool were rather good ones…
Tim O'Hare 