Control: Football Is More Real Than Fiction

Daniel Trump
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Football is happening. Football destroys typical fiction. Real life is brutal, unfair, and full of painful drama. Fiction has a happy ending, but football doesn’t. 31 of 32 teams will end the year unhappy. Football is happening this fall. I want the Chicago Bears to play more effectively. I want to enjoy watching football this year. I don’ t want to miss many games. I know, I know; Warhammer 40k tournaments are often on Sundays. I will miss some games.

I can live with that. I don’t understand this paradox/irony. Why don’t I work out like crazy? Why don’t I work out much, if I like football? I don’t understand. Football is based on being in insanely great shape and hitting each other. I don’t do either well.

The “good guys” aren’t guaranteed victory in football. My beloved Chicago Bears were 3–13 last year. I don’t have any guaranteed win the way I do in fiction. Fiction doesn’t reflect reality very well; there aren’t many 3–13 seasons in real-world fiction. If there is, the team wins the championship the following year.

The concern with football is that I want to get into shape. I, Dalton Lewis, weigh 280 pounds. I’d like to weigh 180 pounds, and I’d like to spend a year losing the weight. I’m staying steady at 280, but I haven’t been losing the weight the way that I should. I should be in decent shape in order to function more effectively and not die in my 40’s.

Why? Why don’t we work out? Why do we hit each other at full force, fighting over a ball? I don’t know, but I know that football — American football — is an incredible sport. I know that I need to work out. I need to take life and seize it, grabbing every opportunity to do great in life.

Why do we expect our team to always win? Fiction lies to us, and I’m one of the people responsible. I don’t have many unhappy endings in my books, and that’s a copout. I need to have more unhappiness and misery and boring real life problems in my stories.

I watch football. I want to watch more football this year. Some years I watch a lot of football, but some years I don’t watch as much. Last year the Chicago Bears went 3–13. Some years your team goes 3–13. That happens in real life. Nothing can be done about that; nothing can be done to make you win everything in real life.

I hate fiction. In fiction everyone knows what to say. Everyone is talented and hardworking and successful. Awkward silences aren’t common. Life is full of drama and hate and slow, sluggish days in which one tries hard to work to pay the bills.

Thanks, and take care, friends.

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Daniel Trump

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Daniel Trump wrote the slasher/horror epic Impressions of Suburbia. Buying it is the way he makes money for his writing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RPXPQPC

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