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Bill's Holiday Wish List: No Sports For Christmas

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Santa roots for Buffalo.  (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
Santa roots for Buffalo. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

“Concussion’s” crashing Christmas, and the movie’s not alone.
No matter if you’re old or young, or maybe partly grown,
You can’t but help to notice sports, for everywhere you’ll see
The basketball, the football, and the hockey on TV.
And everywhere there’s baseball talk, although nobody’s playing…
There’s chat of deals and signings, of Pete Rose, of course, just saying…

You may be tense from shopping, clutching hard your little list,
Concerned that there’s a nephew or an uncle that you’ve missed,
But sports? They couldn’t care less that you’ve other stuff to do…
Relentless, they keep coming hard, and coming right at you.
They’re on the TV, as I said, and on your laptop, too,

And some of you have radios, and I’m quite glad you do.
The sports are on your iPhone and as podcasts they appear,
They’re in the very air we breathe. They’re there, and also here.
On fields and in the stadia and in the other places
Where games are played you’ll see the fans who’ve painted all their faces.
And even when you’re elsewhere, far away from goofy stuff,
Escaping sports is either quite impossible or tough.
For athletes are endorsing things wherever we may look,
So dress in this and shave with that and buy this athlete’s book…
Hey, Peyton knows insurance
Shaq knows how to ease your back
No athlete with an agent need at any moment lack
A splendid opportunity to overfill the poke,

By celebrating Pepsi, Gatorade, or good old Coke.
Nor should I overlook the many overwrought reports
That talking heads talk over as they chew up all the sports.
My point? We can’t escape them. Games are everywhere, it seems,
Not only when we’re wide awake, but also in our dreams.
It’s not that I’m complaining, I know where the bread is buttered,
But there are times I wish the world of games was not so cluttered…
I know. That sounds like heresy, not what you want to hear…
I’ll shut up now and sleep, perhaps, then rally, never fear!
A new year looms, the calendar of games waits to be seen.
No doubt I’ll get my second wind when we get to ’16.

Looking for more "poetry" from Littlefield? Check out Rhymes With Bill.

This segment aired on December 19, 2015.

Headshot of Bill Littlefield

Bill Littlefield Host, Only A Game
Bill Littlefield was the host of Only A Game from 1993 until 2018.

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