I tend to appreciate excellence in sports.
I don't get invested in cheering for the "home team" or lose any sleep over who wins or loses. I used to (I remember once after the Red Sox lost to the Yankees, I wandered around town and ripped up flowers), but I can't even relate to that now or understand the mindset I was in.
I may mildly root for storylines; like especially if I'm high on marijuana, I like watching the great Tom Brady or the great LeBron James extend their legacy.
But I regard it as theatre.
Like even knowing it's cheesy and likely to be rigged ("influenced" if you will), there's still an undercurrent of real competition that's interesting to watch and try to wrap your mind around. I like watching the great warriors during the biggest moments.
It maybe all emanates from when I was a lad, when we would gamble baseball cards on pickup basketball games, home run derbies, etc.
So when the great Tiger Woods makes a putt to win the US Open, perhaps I feel like I've just done something to protect the Derek Jeter SP rookie card or what have you.
Basically what it comes down to is pro sports as we know them now are essentially "centralized".
With an inordinate amount of attention and money involved, you warp the incentives that would exist naturally when people play and compete with each other under normal circumstances.
And so now you don't get to the highest levels of most sports without doping, but even that aside it also means the league is constantly trying to finagle the most marketable outcomes.
So when the great Tom Brady famously comes back from a 28-3 fourth quarter deficit, you don't really know for sure that Matt Ryan isn't a company man who was helping from the other side.
Going forward // call me crazy ,, I think we'll eventually have competitive sports on the blockchain.
And you'll have infinite collections of niche leagues and formats that all appeal to smaller groups of people, no particular league ever getting so big that there's real concern about them being corrupted.
Maybe foul play would happen here and there, but it would be more like when someone cheats at board game night, like "uhh, that's pretty weird", rather than it's a totally rational thing based on the incentives in play.
With blogs and broadcasts on Steem, leagues would be mostly for fun with maybe some small reward from the people who are entertained by it. And now the "fans" can actually interact with the players, rather than just listen to announcers talk about them and be bombarded by the one-way street of it all.
It'll be a much more natural alignment of interests.
So there's nothing bad about competitive sports or even basking in someone's achievement imo. But right now that energy is being used in a way that benefits only a small handful of people, and it needs to be decentralized.
It'll be a gradual process but I'd love to see someone create the first sports league on Steemit. Maybe @steemsports can start blogging about it and help bring attention to them.
Sincerely,
Full Upvote for the Tom Brady pic and the well thought-out article.
Having worked with the NFL and NFL teams, I can assure you that the players/coaches are trying everything to win.
I won't vouch for the commissioner or head of officiating.
Hehe, I hear you.. thanks for stopping by, and thanks!!
Glad you liked the pic of the GOAT!! (and the article!)
I'd be interested to read if you have any good anecdotes about working with NFL personnel.
i really don't think that doping is fine in competitive sports. it's cheating! unless they changed the rules and allowed for it, where everyone gets a chance to do it, then sure that's fine. otherwise, it's an unfair advantage.
in any case, thanks for sharing. i'm not sure how competitive sports on the blockchain would work, but it sounds interesting to say the least.
Thanks for your reply.
I actually ninja edited and removed the sentence of doping being fine (only because I felt it was drifting off topic -- but I stand by it hehe).
I mean that it's fine as far as competitive integrity goes if everybody else is also doing it.
In a perfect world (with sports on the blockchain!) then I do think it makes sense to call people out for cheating, because few will attempt it.
But when there are fortunes on the line, I just don't think you can realistically expect that what you're watching isn't a bunch of people who are getting away with whatever the testing allows them to get away with.
It's still technically cheating, I suppose. But I don't like discrediting individuals when everyone they were up against was doing the same.
That said, we need to change the incentives in play so that people don't have a rational reason to abuse their body.
good points. reminded me of the movie "The Program"
i guess if everyone really was doing it, and not getting caught. you'd be falling behind if you didn't dope as well. still, just because everyone does it, doesn't mean you have to :p
well, what do i know, i'm not a professional athlete dedicating my whole life to a sport!
Hehe ya, it's a weird thing where it probably isn't "right" exactly, but it's kind of hard to judge them for their individual decisions
To me it's kind of "bear pooping in the woods territory" once you throw all the money out there .. if I was good enough at a sport to get the money, I don't really know for sure that I'd resist
I'll have to checkout that movie 😋
i think you'll like it. the reviews are not very good, but i think it's just anti-dope people driving it down :p
Hmm, I am intrigued by the idea.
How do you think this could become a reality?
I think just by doing it!!
Like the first Steemit sports league would probably be silly, if maybe fun and great as a proof of concept.
I think over time people would just be less engaged by television sports that they couldn't interact with directly, and it would shift more toward blockchain publishing (more incentive for better athletes and better bloggers etc to focus their energy here as momentum starts to shift).
But ya, for now I think just trying it for fun and excitement and getting the concept out there is the best way.
Starting the conversation - I like it.
The owners and tv studios truly make the most money from sports. It has become more of a company/ponzi type distribution than a free market ecosystem.
I like your idea of broadcasts acting like a Steemit blog. Viewers vote and send tips to players and coaches as the game is being played. Broadcasters receive reimbursement for their insights directly from the fans and are able to speak more freely and openly with their viewers.
Peerplays is looking more attractive to me now as a coin, haha.
Haha, nice!
Ya sports now is sooo far from a free-market environment. From the oligarchy in TV contracts down to even stadiums being built with tax money. It's really just all fueled by special interest, protectionist policy.
Free and open ftw!
Free and open ftw indeed!
I see your name around the sports contests all the time. Following you now and looking forward to more sports and philosophy.
Sweet! Followed you back haha
Ah I really like the idea of streams . Competetive sports in blockchain is indeed a superb idea hope we come to that point soon.
Ya for sure! I would play in or blog for a league, lol .. let's get more!
The blockchains already out there supporting the gambling industry will be very interesting over the coming months. Combine this with sports betting and we have a whole new ecosystem of moving around vast volumes of currency that is decentralized. Sure, you could with BTC now but its slow as hell and not acceptable for the fast nature of betting/gambling
Ya, I think something like Augur (or whichever similar thing proves to be best) will be the future of sports gambling!
And with a more decentralized sports environment in the kumbaya sort of world I'm talking about hehe, I think people will realize that if too much money is gambled on a league, duh, the people involved in the league will manipulate to outcomes and take the money. (Rather than now where there's so much faith that it's all on the up-and-up because people on tv are angels.)
It would be great to see someone create the first sports league on Steemit.
I agree! Personally I would love to help blog about it and help design rules. I don't have the skill set (camera work, etc) to broadcast games or any of that stuff.
Good thought. I agree, the NFL is fishy, let alone the rest of professional sports.
Haha ya .. that NBA ref Tim Donahue or whatever literally got caught fixing games for gambling reasons .. yet most people would still say it's nuts to question the integrity of these leagues! lol
Great theme!
nice story sir..very interesting
thanks!
Loved every part of your article!
Thanks for your sincerity!)
glad you liked it!!
Why shouldn't i?)
Dream about natural and decentralised system in competitive sports sounds great.
Hehe true