Obsessed: The Addiction of Sports

With the Super Bowl fast approaching it is time to reflect on the football season that has seemingly once again been whisked quickly in and out of our lives. Football is a sport that has a large and passionate fan base, but with passion can also come struggle.

While entertaining and meaningful to many, sports can have an impact other than fun. Sports can also distract people from their lives and duties. Students in particular can see their work suffer due to sports.

People dedicate much of their time to sports, sometimes even whole days. One high school student from Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, senior William Derry, certainly feels the impact of sports on his life.

“On a Sunday I’ll wake up around eight or nine, I’ll watch countdown from about ten to twelve and I’m not going to do work during those times. I’m going to prepare for the game, you know when I was younger I used to go out to get pizza or maybe we’ll throw around the football before the game starts,” Derry said.

“So we’re talking my entire Sunday, besides going to church from maybe eleven to one, is dedicated to watching football. So I would say my Sundays [are] taken over by football.”

William Derry is certainly not alone. The rise in fantasy football, in particular, has caused an even greater impact on workers and students. In fact, in 2015 an estimated sixteen billion dollars were lost to companies due to inefficient working hours as a result of time spent of fantasy sports. This is according to a study done by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Micah Henry is also a senior at Science Leadership Academy (SLA). Henry is an avid fan of fantasy sports and not only lets them affect his work, but also his mood.

“You know I had these benchmarks due and like, I don’t know, fantasy football, I lost on Monday night because like you know [Carolina Panthers tight end] Greg Olsen got this touchdown,” Henry said.

“Messed up my whole week because I was winning on Sunday night and on Monday night I lost. I didn’t do any homework because I was watching football all night, so I went to bed late.”

While not everyone is affected directly by sports, other can be affected due to their relations with people who become obsessed. Parents need to continually remind their kids to focus their work and often become responsible for the success of their children in this respect.

Meanwhile students often see their friends fall prey to the addiction of football. Joseff Fillamor is a senior at SLA who does not follow or even enjoy traditional sports. However, his friends become obsessed.

“Yeah, I don’t really watch football that much, but whenever I wanna chill with my friends or something they just wanna watch football instead of going out and doing something. Like whenever I wanna go up to the park to skate they’ll just be like ‘uh yeah I’m watching football tonight, it’s sunday’ and I’m just like damn” Fillamor said.

The lesson to be learned here is not that football can cause a toxic environment or that you should quit watching altogether. The lesson is that football, like all things, needs to be taken in moderation. It is when you let it run your life that you can get in trouble.