Hurd By The Bay

Here’s how the bad start to a day turns good: You find yourself, hours after oversleeping, jamming to the riffs of Van Halen’s debut album --- aptly named “Van Halen” — as your boys alternately take a swing at the baseball with their Wii remote controls and then turn those controls into makeshift guitars.

This was my Sunday afternoon, and I bring it up because it got me thinking about the way most of the folks I know spend non-summer Sundays in this country. It’s the same way most folks spend it, I imagine.

See if this scenario rings a bell: You find your favorite (name your favorite player/team) jersey, make sure your remote control is handy, load up on chips, maybe even add a six pack of your favorite cold beverage to the list, and you sit and watch football. All day.

Hey, good for you. I’ve got nothing against a Sunday afternoon spent watching guys oversized, overly fast men running around trying to kill each other. The NFL has become our national pastime, our non-church gathering if you will, and there’s a lot that’s good about that.

But what I find interesting is just how much fun we’re missing when we devote one entire day on a weekend devoted entirely to football. This may be a West Coast thing, because games start so early (10 a.m.) and run all afternoon. But even in the East, where games start at 1 p.m., you wonder if our obsession with the NFL has obscured our need to use one of our free days per week to bond with folks.

Like family, for instance.

This may not apply to you. Perhaps your family is one that bonds through a devotion to their favorite team. That said, there is so much more that fathers, mothers and children could be doing on a Sunday afternoon besides watching football. Maybe a walk in the park.

Maybe a drive somewhere. Maybe some quality time with our children rocking out to our favorite rock album as a kid.

Now, I realize skipping a Sunday of football might be an easier thing for me. The Raiders and the 49ers have been embarrassing themselves for several years now, so when those of us out here decide to do something else, we're often not missing much.

The point is, it might be worth your time one or two Sunday’s a year to turn the game off. Amazing how many children you see outside playing on a Sunday. Once in a while, perhaps we ought to turn the game off and join them.