Avoiding, (or not), Sports Spoilers

I’m not going to tell you who my team is, because I’d rather you just remember that I don’t want to hear about NFL until Tuesday. Sunday, I found out about “Game Rewind,” an online video streaming package from nfl.com that allows you to watch your favorite team or all teams a day after the game is played. For a season pass, I paid $35, which compared to buying Direct TV or whatever is a huge savings. It’s been hard living in Australia, South Korea, and now Iowa during eight of the last ten football seaons. NFL is my favorite league to watch, but I really only care to watch if it is my team playing.

Part of the obvious reason Game Rewind is so much cheaper than Direct TV is because you have to wait a day to watch. My plan was announcing on Facebook that I won’t be on social media Sunday or Monday, and for people to please not tell me about what happens. That part wasn’t too hard, though a friend did text me after the game, which in and of itself could be a giveaway even without me asking Rachel to read the text for me to check for spoilers.

The hardest aspect of this plan, I knew, would be Monday at work. Not many people at church Sunday nights (children’s church) know what team I root for, so I’m okay there (I think). So, that leaves work. I made two signs, one on a sheet of paper and another on a scrap piece I taped to my (insert team)’s coffee mug. I showed these signs to people I have talked NFL about as they walked in the doors.

That lasted all of a couple hours.

Around 9am, someone I hadn’t remembered telling about my team blurted the team’s name. That’s it, just said the name, but the way he said it seemed to give away the results. I didn’t know for sure for sure, so I wiped my brow and moved on. Then, an hour later, I came out of the bathroom to a Fed Ex guy entering the building who roots for the same team. I waved my arms, ran for the door and pleaded “No NFL, No (insert team). I recorded the game. Don’t say anything.” To which he sighed and shook his head, but in the kind of way that said he was disappointed about the game, mumbling something about the backup quarterback.

Cringe.

As he walked out, he said even more, using “disappointing…” in his mumble. He’s not the only one who didn’t get it, but I still held onto the hunch that he might have been referring to a quarterback being injured.

Then the UPS guy comes in, and as he enters one of the businesses here, agrees not to say anything, but then asks what my team is. I say I’d rather not say, and an employee blurts out the team. I went in to then explain to her why I wanted the secret, and in the process more people walked by, overhearing the conversation.

An hour later, one of the snoopers into that conversation walks by my desk and blurts, “Tough loss, man.”

So much for that. I suppose it will still be better to watch the game than to get my fix from recap articles and stat lines, but it still took the wind out of my sails. Hopefully, people will remember not to say anything next week and beyond.

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