Have Sports Lost Their Variance?

I'm an avid sports fan. As a child, I read every boxscore of every game in the USA Today sports section. I listened to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon on a walkman every night calling St. Louis Cardinal games. I played 6 different sports, every single year growing up, and went on to play football in college. My life revolved around sports. And, to some extent, still does. After all, I am a immature boy man.

So, as I began to drift off to sleep just before the end of the first half of last night's snooze fest between YOUR New York Football Giants and Myra Kraft's New England Patriots, I started to worry about myself. What was happening to me? Had I lost my passion for the game that has given me so much? Why didn't I care if the Patriots could all of a sudden drive 98 yards against a Giants' defense that it couldn't do anything against the entire first half for a go ahead score and halftime lead? Perhaps because I've seen this scenario over and over and over again. Perhaps my subconscious knew that Perry Fewell's defense would change it's entire philosophy in the last 2 minutes of the half as all defenses seem to do. Maybe in the back of my mind, I knew New England would all of a sudden find a rhythm after 26 minutes of ineptitude.

Has pro football and sports in general become too predictable? Have they lost their variance? Have I seen all possible scenarios? Of course the game was going to come down to the final drive. Doesn't every game? It's as predictable as a college basketball team getting out to a big lead, then letting the trailing team back into it with a 14-2 run with 8 minutes left in the second half. It. Happens. Every. Time. Is it human nature? Do we naturally let up with the lead, and buckle down when behind?

Perhaps the modern athlete has simply evolved to the point where everyone is pretty much equal. There are outliers of course (I'm not looking at you Danny Woodhead), but in team-oriented sports, it's becoming much harder for one person to affect the game so completely. And it leads to predictability. Games follow one of a few pre-written scripts, and when I've read the story before, my mind can generally fill in the rest.

Of course, after I woke from my 3 minute snooze (feeling like a semi might be headed directly towards me) I remembered game 6 of the 2011 World Series. I quickly downed a 24 ounce can of Monster (absolutely zero calorie version man...) and I remembered the reason we all watch sports, the true reality TV. We want to see something great. We want to witness the amazing, the improbable, the unseen. And, we want to be a part of it. And, while I'm not sure that happened last night, at least I was there watching... just in case.