While procrastinating writing this article, I was watching the Dallas Cowboys take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a classic NFC East rivalry showdown — two high-powered offenses facing off against stout defenses.
Watching Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott lead their respective teams down the field, I found myself picking up on some aspects of the game other than the focal point of the play. I was noticing how the offensive line slid its protection to pick up the pass rush, how wide receivers were getting off the line against different leverages to run their routes and how defenses assembled their coverages and shifted to account for star playmakers.
I felt like I was analyzing the game at a higher level than I could remember, even looking back on the NFL games I watched at the beginning of the season. To put it in simple, modern terms, I didn’t feel like a “casual” viewer anymore.
Even when watching basketball, a sport I’ve played my entire life, my viewing experience of Friday’s Golden State Warriors game against the Oklahoma City Thunder was different. My eyes weren’t just tracking the ball but also help-side defense, off-ball movement, play designs and even coach reactions from both benches.
The parts of the game I was now noticing while watching on my TV were all things I’ve learned before, through years of playing basketball. Even the aspects of the Cowboys-Eagles game were concepts I had been learning for months now in my personal effort to get my football knowledge on par with my basketball experience.
Undoubtedly, this shift in my viewing lens is due to the different purposes sports now serve in my life. Prior to coming to Cal, sports were simply a hobby of mine. I played them because it was fun to hoop with my friends and be part of a team; I watched them because they were popular, simple forms of entertainment that I could enjoy and devote myself to.
However, since the fall semester of my freshman year a little over a year ago, sports are now an integral part of my outlook on my future. They are at the forefront of my life currently, because I spend the vast majority of my extracurricular time writing about sports for The Daily Californian or commentating/broadcasting on Cal athletics for KALX 90.7 FM.
Writing and broadcasting are the main activities I do outside of school-related work, and they really drive my desire to approach sports more analytically. Watching games with this new, diversified perspective adds a layer of possibilities to my work that was previously nonexistent.
This perspective makes me feel like I can get more out of these simple games — they don’t just have to be straightforward concepts of putting the basketball in the hoop or moving the football down the field. There’s depth to the games beyond the box scores that I want to see in live time, intricacies that I yearn to learn about and discover.
It’s no stretch to say sports have changed from being an accessory or side plot in my day-to-day routine to now being at the center of my life, and I’m all for it. I’m hoping this is just the beginning.
Sports journalism is a career path that I’ve grown to appreciate and relentlessly aspire toward over the past couple of years. Even though it’s hard for me to simply watch a game as the wide-eyed, “throw ball far” kid from years prior, I will forever embrace the new perspective journalism has given me.
