Anchorage Daily News

Most of the time, whether driving or at home, I'll have the Anchorage classical music station on. I like the soothing sound of violins playing in the background. I don't know much about classical music but recently I've taken a liking to the ambiance it creates. It's relaxing.

My music tastes have changed as I've grown older. For years, I would crank classic rock until my ears bled. Then I went through a country music phase.

Other of my tastes are changing as I move along in my forties. Sports doesn't do it much for me anymore. It all seems so meaningless. Why would anyone care who leads the league in rushing, or what team will get which free agent, or who the Detroit Lions will pick in the fifth round?

I love the way some of these sports talk radio show hosts get worked up about a stat, or a game, or a call in a game like it really matters in the big picture of things.

The other day I heard one host go on and on about Philly quarterback Donovan McNabb not understanding that a game can end in tie. So what if McNabb didn't know a rule. One talk show host, with great somberness in his voice, proclaimed Mr. McNabb's legacy tarnished. I am sure Donovan will be just fine with his $115 million dollar contract.

One sport I do still enjoy is college football. The pageantry, intensity, school pride and purity of it all. Everyone hates that there is no playoff in college football. I would like to see a limited one. But having no playoff heightens the significance and importance of a regular season game like no other sport.

College football is very different from the NFL. I use to live and die by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Now I barely check the score. The whole league just bores me.

Yet so many Americans are rabid NFL fans. For some, it's their identity. They brag about their team in ways that make you think they own them: "My Cowboys are on this week. I am so excited!"

Most Cowboy fans have never even been to Dallas. I think you should have to have at least visited a town before you can use the word "my" in front of its team. No, an hour layover at the airport doesn't count.

I hate Dallas Cowboy fans. When I use the word hate, I use it passionately, understanding fully its meaning, and meaning it in the most literal sense.

The only professional sport I can still stomach now and then is Major League Baseball. I just love the sport of baseball but the majors have become less about the game and more about the high-dollar athlete and their free-agency contracts.

It use to be players would stay with teams their whole career in baseball. Then players started getting traded every few years and then it graduated to just about every year.

These days your baseball team at the end of the year could look very different than it did at the beginning of the season.

My distaste for sports could not be any stronger than it is with the NBA. In the NBA, the players don't care or even try. It is an awful product for fans.

I go to a couple of NBA games a year with my nephews. When I was their age I remember loving the games. It had to be a vastly different league back then. Maybe I've changed.

I guess it's typical that as you grow older your ways change.

I like some of the changes. I enjoy just relaxing with friends now more than ever before.

I also don't seem to care what people think about me as much. That can work against you. I am less cordial, tolerant and accommodating now for those who like to blather on endlessly.

But not caring as much about what people think frees you up to be more honest and straightforward.

All in all, I kind of like this growing older thing. Really, what choice do I have other than to just roll with it?

Dan Fagan is a radio talk show host on KFQD, 750 AM. E-mail Dan at faganreport@me.com.

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