Internet and sports go hand-in-hand

Romer Bautista, staff

My life changed the day that my parents decided to get an Internet connection in our home, and no, I’m not talking about the copious amount of porn that was now at my fingertips. I’m talking about my life as a sports fan. With the introduction of the Internet came a whole new realm of the sports world that I was unaware was even possible.

First, let me say that I was born and raised in Winnipeg, and let’s face it, the local sports scene hasn’t been the greatest in the past 20 years. The Winnipeg Jets were great, but they flew south more than a decade ago. The Manitoba Moose and the Winnipeg Goldeyes are minor-league teams, plain and simple. And as much as I love them, there is only so much of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers that I can take.

So, with no local team to give my allegiance to, I had to become a fan of teams outside city limits: the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL for obvious reasons, the Toronto Raptors in the NBA because of their Canadian connection and the Green Bay Packers in the NFL because of the remarkable play of Brett Favre. And with the Internet available 24-7, I could now follow my favourite teams on a daily basis like never before. The latest free-agent signings, who my teams were looking at drafting, and other insider team news were now available with the click of a mouse; prior to the Internet, I would have never been able to access that type of information.

Sure, there was tons of NHL news on television, but I wasn’t one to sit through half an hour of Maple Leafs coverage to see and hear 30 seconds about the Coyotes, if they even decided to show Phoenix highlights. And despite being the only Canadian team in the NBA, the Raptors were never a high priority for any media outlet. And while Sundays during the season were saturated with NFL coverage, there were six other days of the week and seven other months of the year that were crucial in the NFL that I didn’t know much about. The Internet gave me my needed sports fix like no other.

The Internet continued to get bigger and more complex. I was soon introduced to fantasy sports and I was hooked. Checking my fantasy teams became a staple of my daily routine and helped my knowledge and appreciation for sports and athletes grow. No longer was I just following the players on my favourite teams; I, like everyone else who was playing fantasy sports, began following players from every team. Because of fantasy sports, the likes of Jose Calderon, Charlie Garner and Shawn Marion gained significance in everyday life. Their underrated play was no longer going unnoticed.

And now, with YouTube.com and other forms of streaming video, the Internet has made life for a sports fan even better. Daily highlights are available online if I happen to miss them the night before. American networks such as ESPN, whose television content was once unavailable to Canadians without satellite dishes, now has shows available for viewing online. But what’s even better is that with the Internet, all of sport’s greatest (and worst) moments can now be watched by someone, like myself, who didn’t witness them the first time around. Things like the 1987 bench-clearing brawl between Team Canada and the USSR at the World Hockey Junior Championships, Secretariat’s 31-length win in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, or highlights of Len Bias before his tragic death.

So, while the Internet can be blamed for society’s sedentary lifestyle, people being desensitized to death and violence, and Two Girls, One Cup, it cannot be blamed for hurting the world of sports. Sports have evolved into an integral part of our lives, and it would not have been possible without the Internet.