I guess it's not taping games anymore. I guess it's DVR'ng games, or maybe it's just recording games. Technology has made taping games much better... and also much worse. The reason it's better is because digitally recording games is much easier. The technology of digitally recording the games allows for more easily adding the additional time in case of overtime, and you can tape two games at once, or tape a game while watching another important game. More importantly, there is no danger of taping over your wedding video.
This article however, is more about how technology makes recording games much worse, because people have trouble following proper taped game etiquette. Getting in touch with people is far easier than ever before, which makes avoiding the outcomes of games more difficult than ever. A few years ago, I went to a college football game where my team lost a rivalry game they weren't supposed to lose. I think I had 3 phone calls, 6 text messages, and 10 facebook posts from friends enjoying a good laugh at me, all before I made it back to my car. Now I was at that game, but most of these people calling or messaging me didn't know that. As soon as the game went final, they were armed with their technological devices, ready to rub it in.
So, all devices need to be turned off during taped games. People who get as crazy as me about finding out the outcome of a game before your ready have all learned this the hard way. If I know someone is calling me, I am making assumptions about what happened in the game, even without answering it, just based on who called. I hope no major emergencies happen while I'm recording a game, or I'm in trouble.
The worst part of recording a game, is knowing someone already knows the outcome. Their facial expressions, their tone, and their comments, are all things that make me think they are spilling the beans. People will give away things about the game without realizing it, and I'll give you my worst instance of this case. Two years ago, my wife (then girlfriend) asked me to go to a movie with her Saturday night. Normally, this would be no big deal, but this particular movie happened to be about the eternal struggle between teenage werewolves and vampires. I was to buy the tickets when I got off of work that day, and we would watch the movie that night. There was a problem. We live in a town with one movie theater, and the teenage vampire-werewolf movie was sold out for that night. I called Shannon with the terrible news, and she said that it was no problem, but to go ahead and buy the tickets for the next available showing. But there was a problem, and it was a big problem. The next available showing was Sunday at 1:00, the same time as the Redskins and Cowboys game. I thought of mentioning this, and then I thought better of it, knowing we recently had a DVR system installed. We had some friends staying in town this weekend; friends who were not interested in whether the vampire or werewolf got the girl. They chose to stay at my house to watch the Redskins and Cowboys game. Knowing that I get signals whenever I know someone knows the results of a game, the people staying at my house were given strict instructions, that we would call when the movie was over, and they would watch the remainder of the game at a local sports bar.
The plan seemed bulletproof. None of the people staying to watch the game were big pro football fans, so I was confident the instructions would go off without a hitch. The movie ended, and I can't remember whether the vampires or werewolves won. As promised, we called with plenty of time that we would be coming home. I had Shannon walk in the door before me as a last-second precaution, just in case the freinds were still watching the game. They were. I was not happy. I yelled from outside the door that I was not happy. I could hear the explanation offered; that it was the last two minutes of the game, and they didn't want to miss it. They had no idea how much information they just told me.
By knowing there were only two minutes left, and that they did not want to leave, I knew it was a close game. After all, if there was a 30-point difference in the score, the fact that there were only two minutes left wouldn't make much of a difference. This also let me know that when I was watching the game, I didn't need to get too panicked if we went down a couple of scores, or too excited if we went up a couple of scores. This made the first 58 minutes of the game much less exciting. I watched it anyway. The score went up and down a few times, and finally I got to the two-minute warning, with the Redskins driving the ball down the field, less than one touchdown down to the Cowboys. This was the point I could finally get excited again. The first play after the timeout, Jason Campbell threw an interception to Dallas, and the game was over. As far as my excitement about the game was involved, I got one play out of it.
If you want to avoid ruining your friends day, make sure never to talk to someone about a game unless you are sure they got to watch it live. Wait for that person to call you, or check their facebook status to see if they are commenting on the inevitable poor performance of the officials of that game. With that being said, I'm recording the ACC tournament game at 7 pm tomorrow night, so don't tell me about it! If you have similar extreme measures of avoiding contact during games, or have your own story about someone ruining your recorded games, tell me about it in the comments.
Wonder who those assholes are that ruined that game? Shameful!
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