Postseason Ironmen

July 5, 2015

We fans sitting in our recliners, watching our big screens, snacking it up, can hurt ourselves getting up too fast. A strained back from the quick movement of lifting your dead weight while holding your chip bowl is a common injury to many viewers. Having to explain the back issue to your buddies and coworkers is sometimes a slippery slope to tread. To lie or not to lie, I say embellish. Watching both the NBA and NHL playoffs is tiring as well.

I live in the Pacific Time Zone, and I benefit from early start times and go to bed before 11 pm. Poor East coasters are well into the wee hours watching their teams, God forbidding overtime. I can't imagine eating hot wings and sliders at 10 pm, whereas the three-hour time difference allows us to digest bar food before hitting the sack. That's enough whining about playoff sports when you should feel so lucky if your team is still playing.

Watching the last survivors of both playoffs series amazes me every year. The NBA is now using the best of seven formats for all the rounds, whereas the NHL has for a long time. The physicality is getting fiercer, and the amount of reportable concussions is increasing, and the collisions are at faster speeds. What's worse? I have no idea since I am in my recliner. I would generally say the NHL is more physically demanding, but after watching LeBron James and the Cavaliers force their will on the Warriors by using size, I am not going to side either way. The seasons are long already, and the energy meter gets cranked up to a frenzy when the playoffs start up. The body can be trained for peak performance, but nothing can help an athlete with freak collisions, loss of footing, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. So, when watching your games on the couch, be careful, these series can go on for weeks. The amount of injuries of fans celebrating is embarrassingly high with the emergency room on game night as a testament.