Opinion: Have dynasty teams sucked the fun out of sports?
By Channing Flatt—
Sports Editor
No matter what sport, college or professional, I turn on I just can’t get excited anymore. From Alabama’s stranglehold on the college football title race to Golden State’s luxury tax exhausting all-star lineup I just end up asking myself what’s the point. No longer are the days where I can root for the underdog in a David vs. Goliath championship matchup, mainly because in most cases the two teams playing in the championship face off nearly every year. The wild world of sports used to be unpredictable, but now I found myself rooting for team that won’t win the championship for consecutive times in however many years.
Ratings for sporting events have been down across the board and many sports opinions, like this one, will offer up reasons why. Whether the blame be put on millennials who don’t like anything, offseason drama or even the current president, many sports personalities are pointing fingers at all the wrong reasons. No one wants to watch sports because it isn’t really fun anymore. The mystery is over, the fun is gone. Nearly every season follows the same narrative from the preseason to the championship game. Which leaves people like me less likely to follow the season at all.
I in no way mean for this article to discredit the work that most championship teams have done in recent years. Winning a championship is no easy task for any team and respect is due when it is deserved but it doesn’t help when most championship teams are beyond unlikeable.
The New England Patriots have been accused of cheating multiple times on their way to their five Super bowl wins. The three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors led the NBA in technical fouls and ejections last year. And Alabama has a head coach that upon a simple google search pulls up such articles like “Nick Saban is a terrible Human being,” “Nick Saban is a scowl,” and “Nick Saban as a person=S*#t.” These teams may be the best but respecting, let alone liking them, seems nearly impossible at times.
Rooting for your favorite team used to be fun knowing that when they put together a solid squad they had a legitimate shot at winning it all. When the Dallas Mavericks took down Lebron’s Miami Heat in 2011 they did what most thought was impossible. When they prevailed however, such an upset became rarer and rarer. In the six seasons afterwards, the only team to win a championship that wasn’t named the Golden State Warriors or led by Lebron James were the San Antonio Spurs. The diversity in championship teams has been absent in many sports across the professional and college landscapes and it makes me hesitant to even keep up at this point.
Sports should be as fun to watch, but when the top team in the division, Conference or even nation roll through every team in their path until they may be tested by their championship counterpart isn’t entertaining and shouldn’t be the case. I don’t know of a way to fix what I see as a problem, or if it is even a problem in most fans’ eyes. As someone who dreads band wagon fans and isn’t a fan of professional sport leagues in general, I found myself loving the wild world of sports less and less each year.
As someone who loves sports I find myself falling out of love every year. With no end in sight as the dynasty teams continue to add to their already impressive resumes, I can only watch and root for the team I dislike the least.
