Notes from my Knapsack 1-29-2026
Jeff Gill
Sports and our body politic, active or not
___
Having the Winter Olympics start before the Super Bowl seems odd, but so does noting the latter is happening in February. Meanwhile, we're only two weeks and change away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.
As sports guys go, I'm not much of one. I watch more than I should, less than most. I played some football, was manager for high school basketball (a nice short cut to get three varsity letters), but I've never been that athletic.
NFL rules about kickoffs today make sense, except I don't understand them; something about reducing injury which is quite creditable, but there's a "landing zone" which I could look up, but haven't. And when the ball goes where for extra points…
Even though I'm from Indiana, I'll admit to looking past basketball for the most part to baseball, which I played in youth league forms to no good end. My church league softball years are behind me, and probably always were. Designated hitters and infield fly rules, though, I don't get. I knew enough about obscure rules to be amused and prescient when they introduced a character named Tom Wambsgans in "Succession."
When we get into March Madness, which lapses into April before it ends, I'll likely have a bracket online somewhere. I have opened accounts at ESPN and CBS Sports and elsewhere; I probably won't find my user name and password making me do it all over again. Yeah, I pick my mascots as much as by my knowledge of the players or coaches (I do know where Gonzaga is located, which puts me ahead of some).
All these sports, and yet we're all getting out of shape, eating too much, and needing some kind of magic pill to lose weight. I'm sure wiser people than I have pointed out this irony, but here deep in the winter of 2026, it feels particularly sharp. We need to go bundle up and take a walk, not cocoon up and double our television time… but will I watch all the curling I can find, to be perfectly honest with you. It's soothing, pleasant, understandable even when I don't quite understand it.
Thwack. I just like how the rocks sound when they hit. Whooosh, plock, thwack.
All of which makes sports another form of passive entertainment, again not a unique thought on my part. What I wonder about is how we can turn this into something useful, beyond the usual "connect your TV to a treadmill" idea. Fans of pickle ball like to talk about how they're a fitness movement with a social benefit, and I salute them for how they're downright evangelical about their sport. The LCCC has a Pathfinders group that takes hikes a couple times each month in different locations. What I think we might benefit from is some kind of creative interweaving of, say, NCAA brackets and power walking, but I'm afraid we'd just end up with people striding down paths while looking at the Olympics app on their phones.
My own winter fitness routine tends to be walking while listening to podcasts on my ear buds, but my tendency is to political subjects, a sport of a different sort. It does keep the heart pumping these days; the politics, I mean. Audiobooks are an option for some; they don't work for me, but I hear plenty of good things from my spouse about them as an adjunct to exercise.
Walking isn't a sport, but it is activity. You can watch plenty of sports and not be active. My goal this year is to increase my activity, and that might require watching less sporting events. Odd, isn't it?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's trying to keep moving this winter. Tell him how you stay physically active at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Sports and our body politic, active or not
___
Having the Winter Olympics start before the Super Bowl seems odd, but so does noting the latter is happening in February. Meanwhile, we're only two weeks and change away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.
As sports guys go, I'm not much of one. I watch more than I should, less than most. I played some football, was manager for high school basketball (a nice short cut to get three varsity letters), but I've never been that athletic.
NFL rules about kickoffs today make sense, except I don't understand them; something about reducing injury which is quite creditable, but there's a "landing zone" which I could look up, but haven't. And when the ball goes where for extra points…
Even though I'm from Indiana, I'll admit to looking past basketball for the most part to baseball, which I played in youth league forms to no good end. My church league softball years are behind me, and probably always were. Designated hitters and infield fly rules, though, I don't get. I knew enough about obscure rules to be amused and prescient when they introduced a character named Tom Wambsgans in "Succession."
When we get into March Madness, which lapses into April before it ends, I'll likely have a bracket online somewhere. I have opened accounts at ESPN and CBS Sports and elsewhere; I probably won't find my user name and password making me do it all over again. Yeah, I pick my mascots as much as by my knowledge of the players or coaches (I do know where Gonzaga is located, which puts me ahead of some).
All these sports, and yet we're all getting out of shape, eating too much, and needing some kind of magic pill to lose weight. I'm sure wiser people than I have pointed out this irony, but here deep in the winter of 2026, it feels particularly sharp. We need to go bundle up and take a walk, not cocoon up and double our television time… but will I watch all the curling I can find, to be perfectly honest with you. It's soothing, pleasant, understandable even when I don't quite understand it.
Thwack. I just like how the rocks sound when they hit. Whooosh, plock, thwack.
All of which makes sports another form of passive entertainment, again not a unique thought on my part. What I wonder about is how we can turn this into something useful, beyond the usual "connect your TV to a treadmill" idea. Fans of pickle ball like to talk about how they're a fitness movement with a social benefit, and I salute them for how they're downright evangelical about their sport. The LCCC has a Pathfinders group that takes hikes a couple times each month in different locations. What I think we might benefit from is some kind of creative interweaving of, say, NCAA brackets and power walking, but I'm afraid we'd just end up with people striding down paths while looking at the Olympics app on their phones.
My own winter fitness routine tends to be walking while listening to podcasts on my ear buds, but my tendency is to political subjects, a sport of a different sort. It does keep the heart pumping these days; the politics, I mean. Audiobooks are an option for some; they don't work for me, but I hear plenty of good things from my spouse about them as an adjunct to exercise.
Walking isn't a sport, but it is activity. You can watch plenty of sports and not be active. My goal this year is to increase my activity, and that might require watching less sporting events. Odd, isn't it?
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's trying to keep moving this winter. Tell him how you stay physically active at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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