I hate sportsball
I know it’s a cope. My dad loved sportsball. L.O.V.E.D it. It was common for men of his generation to have this dream: to have their sons become rich and famous. Playing hockey, soccer or tennis. To them it was such a given career-path. You get to do what you like the most, play sportsball. You get very well payed. You will be popular among girls and an attractive recruit when the sportsball career is over.
In Sweden before the 70’s it wasn’t possible to become a professional athlete. Till then, all major soccer clubs, outside the big cities, where located close to a large industrial plant. The clubs and the industries made agreements so that players on paper where employed by the industries, when in reality they played sportsball all day. They still didn’t get rich doing it. But this changed, and we got S-tier athletes in the 70s like:
- Björn Borg
- Frank Andersson
- Salming
- Ricky
- Stenmark
- Gunde
Had my dad been born just a couple of years later, he could have been one of them. He was born too early, and I was born with a silver sportsball in the cradle. Boomers like he, thought it was near impossible to, not, become a professional athlete.
I hated it. I cried when he tried to teach me how to skate. I was an embarrassing faggot in his sportsball world. Had he been my age, he would have bullied me in the schoolyard.
Everyone, including me, knew what I would become. We had a fucking video store, at the peak of VHS. Movieboxes and nintendo rentals. I helped out there on weekends, i could keep the counter and all. I convinced them to sell magic the gathering packs. There where pinball machines and magazines. I got like 10 moneys and a magazine for each day I was there helping out.
My dad also bought buildings, apartment buildings. He built houses. I think he built at least three houses from scratch. All side hustles, his day job was as manager at the county laundry. He gave us a good life. He was a good man.
Dad was always busy, and when he wasn’t, he was watching that stupid fucking TV.
Always: sportsball.