We're (Still) Not Sports Fans

Note: The title of this post is taken from one that I wrote in November, 2011.

The only time that DW and I watch sports seems to be when women are playing: we watched the final match of the Canadian women's soccer team against Sweden (it was the only competition that I allowed myself to watch of the 2021 Olympics) and we watch the Canadian women's hockey team whenever they play a final match.

But this Saturday, we watched the final match of the U.S. Open women's singles, against England's Emma Raducanu and Canada's Leylah Fernandez. We're not sports fans and we never follow tennis, but here we were.

DW searched all of our streaming services to find where we could watch the match, without success. The only way we could do it was to stream it from TSN, and we didn't have a subscription.

Until Saturday.

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day for the both of us. Neither of us had slept well: DW had awoken a few times and I had trouble drifting off to sleep in the first place. We had a very lazy morning, not even getting out of bed until almost 9:00.

"Let's cycle to Manotick," DW suggested. Just that evening before, I had completed my usual 40K ride to Kars and back, via Manotick. It's not a taxing ride for me but winds gusting from the northwest make the last half of the ride brutal.

I set no speed record and was tired when I pulled into the driveway. 

But I agreed to go for this Saturday-morning ride to Manotick because it's only 20K, round trip, and we were going to stop for breakfast in this small village.

When we returned home, I decided to change straight into shorts and a t-shirt to mow our lawns. Because I've been sick for the past couple of weeks, with Lyme disease, and before that, we were camping up in Killarney, our grass had gone almost a month without mowing. Thankfully, the heat and lack of rain meant that only the weeds had gotten out of control, but this weekend it was more than overdue for cutting.

When I had finished mowing the lawn, I was finished for the day. I was tired and didn't have the strength or desire to do anything else. DW was also tired, and decided that she wanted to watch the final match of the Women's U.S. Open.

Only, we couldn't get it without getting a subscription to TSN.

"Let's find a sports bar and watch it there," DW suggested.

"I'm too tired to go out," I said, "and I'm still not comfortable being indoors at a bar."

DW looked into the price of a one-month subscription. It was $19.99. "We could subscribe for a month," she said, "and it would be cheaper that going to a sports bar, anyway."

That's what we did.

Watching the match reminded me of a time that we took DW's dad to an Ottawa Senator's game, when they were playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'd watch, and if the Sens performed a good play and scored a goal, I'd cheer. But I'd also cheer if the Leafs scored. I'd let out a gasp if a goal was missed, regardless of the team that missed the shot.

At one point in the match, one of the fans who was sitting in front of me turned around and asked me, "Whose side are you on?"

"Neither," I said. "I'm just enjoying the plays."

The same thing happened with Saturday's tennis match. Even though my heart told me that I should be rooting for Fernandez, I cheered whenever there was a good volley, no matter who gained the point or advantage. I don't even fully understand the rules to tennis, so all I was doing was watching two young women play their hearts out, giving it all they had.

And even though I felt sorry for Fernandez when she lost, I felt happy for Raducanu. She was strong throughout the match and deserved her victory.

I now have nearly a full month of TSN. I'm pretty sure it'll never be streamed again.

Still, cheaper than going to a sports bar.