For sports fans, the weekend is a cornucopia of wonderful games to watch. This is particularly true in the fall with its traditional pattern of College Football on Saturday and NFL Football on Sunday and Monday. As the parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend of a sports fan, this can be a challenge. It must be true that some games are more important to watch than others but it’s hard to know which is which. As a sports fan, the power of habit and hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars get in the way of remembering to take a break from sports and do something with your parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend. To aid all of us in this, and just because it’s fun, I’m going to write a weekly post highlighting a single game that is ideal for skipping. Use this to help tell yourself or someone else: “Do not watch this game!”
Monday, 8:30 p.m. ET, NFL Football, Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins. It’s on ESPN but do not watch this game!
This is the perfect weekend to take Monday off. For the first time ever, this Sunday’s slate of football games is going to start at 9:30 a.m. ET. That’s right! The game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions is one of three this year in London and as part of its ongoing experiment in England, the NFL decided to start the game at a more normal football time. By football, I mean both soccer and American football. This will put the game up directly against English Premier League soccer games and in an early afternoon slot more familiar to football in the United States. The upshot of this is that, if you’re living with a die-hard football fan, Sunday could be a real marathon of football.
The easiest thing to do would be to advise against watching the Sunday night game. That game looks to be an entertaining one between the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints. I wouldn’t suggest skipping it, particularly if you enjoy making themed food according to the teams involved. Mmmm cheese curds and gumbo! Plus, Game Five of the World Series is on Sunday night. No, instead, I say just roll with the punches on Sunday and then plan a sports-free day on Monday.
The Monday Night game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins is probably going to be pretty dull anyhow. Dallas is playing better than it’s played in years and Washington is a complete mess. The Redskins are going to be starting their third quarterback of the year on Monday and they just lost one of their top three defensive players for the year with a torn pectoral muscle. Dallas is favored by ten points, the most points of any team this weekend. The opening paragraphs of the ESPN preview of the game even struggle to create any drama:
The Dallas Cowboys are rolling to a degree that is even surprising owner Jerry Jones thanks to the productivity of DeMarco Murray and Tony Romo.
Their next opponent, the Washington Redskins, isn’t even sure who will start at quarterback.
If ESPN, the network covering the game, can’t muster up any more enthusiasm, you shouldn’t bother watching. This game is going to look like a bad Godzilla film if instead of destroying Japanese towns, Godzilla had declared himself eligible for the NFL draft, had been selected by the Cowboys, and then dismantled the Redskins on national television.
Alternate: If you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of one of these two teams, then this isn’t a good game to skip. Instead, skip the CBS early game at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon between the Seattle Seahawks and the Carolina Panthers. Both these teams were great last year. This year they’re just fine and that’s just going to be a let down.