Zuri Berry: Now watch this, or don’t

A coworker of mine, an avid sports fan, called over to Brian Hamilton, our sports editor who sits next to me, and asked whether he watched college football.

“Yeah,” he said incredulously. “It’s where all the passion is.”

Our coworker’s lips formed a wry smile.

“Good,” he said, ready to discuss the upcoming Alabama-Florida game. “At least one of the sports guys watches college football.”

Brian looked at me. The joke had already registered.

I guess I don’t fit into the mold of the every day sports writer. I just don’t watch everything. It’s a problem I’ve always known about and never cared to fix. When I was at the Sports Journalism Institute a couple of years ago, I was getting reamed on the tests because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to what was happening in the world of professional tennis. On one memorable test, I failed because I didn’t know whether a racehorse was a filly or a colt.

Turn’s out 2007 Belmont winner Rags to Riches is (or was) a filly — and I still don’t care.

I am sympathetic to “normal” sports fans who watch everything. It’s just it can get a little tiresome. Take for instance, when I’m out publicly, whether in a bar or some other establishment in Grass Valley or Nevada City. There’s bound to be somebody who asks me what happened in some game. If it’s after a work day, there’s a pretty good chance I know. If not, the probability of an answer that involves a score or time or place of some sort drops to like one in a million. Give or take.

It’s not that I’m not interested at all, I’m just guarding my brain off from overexposure to toxic material. The unfortunate part about being a sports writer, journalist or analyst (or as ESPN likes to call them, experts) is that you’re not always watching for fun. Most of the time, you’re really studying what you’re seeing out on the field, court or course. It requires an analytical eye and is a buzz kill for those watching with you.

And yet, I’m always down to turn on the 49ers game or catch the Warriors when they’re on national TV. I’ll even watch the hapless Raiders, which have caused a 200 percent increase in fist shaking this season at my apartment. (What’s a game without friends?)

But for the Giants, whom I dearly love, and the Kings or A’s, I’ll wait till the next day and read about it in the newspaper. No sense wasting my energy on teams that either don’t care about winning, are pretending to rebuild or generally lack any personality.

If it’s not in the major three sports at a professional level, you may not even be able to get me to read about it unless there’s some controversy involved. I’m much more interested, and plugged in, to what’s going on around here.

I’d like to think that my focus is directed at things that really matter to me or are good storylines. That seems to mesh well with “normal” sports fans, but I’m quick to cut a game off if it’s just boring. That’s where the normal fans and I differ. More or less, I fade in and out of any televised game like most folks do but won’t admit. Although I do have this uncanny ability to catch the best games (Boise State’s Statue of Liberty, Texas Tech over Texas, etc.).

So my coworker asked me what I think of the upcoming Alabama-Florida game. My response was nonplus. I’ve probably caught glances of each team on SportsCenter but in all honesty, I know more about the offensive line at Nevada Union than I do about the entire state of Alabama, let alone its football team.

“I don’t watch college football,” I said, while thinking of a witty response to the anticipated confusion.

My response, summarized and expanded: With 117 teams at the Division I level, a gang of others at D-II and D-III, I think I’ll focus on the group of 32. Besides, why waste time with this other stuff when I need to be tracking my fantasy football teams?

Zuri Berry is a sports writer for The Union. His column appears Wednesdays. You can also read his blog online at TheUnion.com/blogs/sports. Contact him via e-mail at zberry@theunion.com or call 477-4244.