By Kevin Murphy ’12

Photo by Justin Chando ’13/ The Lafayette

Watching sports is a beautiful event. You can watch with friends, or by yourself.  You can go to a loud sports bar or a quiet dive.  You can watch a game live and be apart of the action.  But which way is the best?  Lucky for you, I’m more than qualified to ramble about that very question.

I very much enjoy my time spent on the couch. It’s comfortable, allows for friends to join me in inane commentary, and perhaps most importantly, it allows me to listen to the game.  Commentary is an often-overlooked part of watching sports. Not only are the announcers (at least in theory) experts on the sport, but they are actually there.  They can bring details of the environment inside the arena or sounds coming from the court or field right into your living room while you remain seated comfortably on your couch.

Of course, there is nothing quite like being in the arena/stadium/dome.  The atmosphere of the parking lot tailgate as well as the experience of being surrounded by thousands of likeminded fans is unparalleled in the realm of sports viewing.

However, seats in the stands often leave much to be desired.  You can find yourself in the nosebleeds, unable to follow the action, or worse, you can find your view obstructed by a behemoth seated two rows in front of you.  Plus, you don’t get any commentary, so you are bound to miss some of the finer points of the game, regarding the status of injuries and the like.

The sports bar essentially combines components from the couch and live experience of watching a game.  You get the camaraderie and orneriness of watching the game with other fans, and you get the “made for TV” perspective that gives you all of the perfect angles and replays of the action that you could possibly want.  On the other hand, you rarely get the commentary, unless you are trying to be the poor sap squinting at the subtitles, which incidentally never seem to sync with the action.  You might be able to have a few beers at the bar, but in general the sports bar is more about being social than really watching the game.

So, if, say it is game 7 of the NBA finals, and the Knicks are tied with the Lakers with five minutes to go, I’d rather be watching anywhere but the bar.  So basically it comes down to picking the right environment for whatever game is at your disposal. The scouting report is above and now the choice is yours.