It may sound like I’m aging, old school, or simply stuck in the past, but sports aren’t what they used to be.

Take the college football overtime process for example. Each team now has one possession starting at the opponent’s 25-yard line. If the game is still tied, they play another overtime. If the game is still tied, they alternate with 2-point conversion tries until a team is victorious.

In my day, they just flipped a coin and scored.

In major league baseball, there’s now a pitch clock, the bases are larger, the shift is not allowed, and if a game goes into extra innings, a team starts with a player already standing at second base.

In my day, you just kept playing and they didn’t stop serving beer after seven innings.

An NFL extra point is now a 33-yard field goal starting from the 15-yard line – unless you decide to go for two, coaches have a limited number of challenges – unless not challengeable by rule, and instant replay could determine the outcome of a game – unless deemed not reviewable.

The NBA now has an In-Season tournament and a Play-in Game, the NHL took timeout to play in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off Championships, and when PGA golfers aren’t playing Majors – they are playing video games on the TGL (Tech-infused Golf League).

I’m not asking you to get off my lawn.

I’m simply asking you to explain the No Setup Zone or the Landing Zone on an NFL kickoff.

I remember a simpler time.

Credit via Facebook

• Remember when you could call Washington the Bullets, make fun of their best two players for being chunky, and it wasn’t considered fat-shaming or inappropriate.

• Remember when the term “load management” in the NBA was only used to refer to Wilt Chamberlain’s sexual appetite.

• Remember when baseball was “America’s Pastime.” Not Pickleball.

Credit via Wikipedia

• Remember when NFL kickers were just happy to get a touchback – not get touched back.

• Remember when finding a game on Hulu, Prime Video, Tubi, Peacock, Netflix, or Disney Plus – was as easy as ABC.

• Remember when cheating on a bicycle meant you were Lance Armstrong – not some 12-year-old kid riding up a hill on an E-bike.

• Remember when college NIL money was a literal term. Like, when I went to college, I had no money at all. Zero, zilch, nil, nada.

• Remember when you could do just a half-day of skiing at all the Colorado ski resorts – and it wasn’t just because you were stuck on I-70.

• Remember when a bad decision referred to the end of a boxing match – and not an NFL Rules Committee trying to figure out what to do with the kickoff.

• Remember when Draymond Green did more talking on the basketball court than on his weekly podcast.

• Speaking of podcasts. Remember when the only cast in the NBA was from a hard foul – and still no flagrant.

• Remember when Instagram was just how fast Michael Irvin, Lawrence Taylor, and Diego Maradona received their deliveries.

• Remember when your name had to be Dirk Nowitzki if you wanted to shoot a three-pointer, and you were seven feet tall.

• In fact, the three-point shot used to be reserved for “specialists,” like Steve Kerr, Tim Legler, and Kyle Korver. The NBA should try to remember the term specialist as Special List – meaning, not for EVERYONE.

(AP Photo/David Phillip)

• Remember when a Super Bowl halftime show didn’t have hidden messages that took weeks to figure out – and just a simple wardrobe malfunction.

• Ozempic seems popular these days, but do you remember when athletes use to take injections to try and get bigger – not smaller.

• Remember the joy you used to get from your favorite college team pulling out a nice win – and it had nothing to do with a moneyline, cover, or parlay.

Credit NBC News

• UFC has sure gotten huge. I remember when fighting in a cage was only exciting if Siegfried and Roy were in it.

• Seeing women fight in the ring is inspiring as well – although I remember a lot more mud in my day.

• Remember when the Big 12, Pac 12, and Big Ten had the appropriate number of teams.

Credit via Yahoo Sports

• Remember when AI stood for Allen Iverson. Not the tool you use to bet on pro basketball.

• Remember when the Tush Push didn’t get you a Super Bowl – but rather a call from Human Resources.

• Remember when an offensive line referred to football – and not jokes about load management, mud wrestling, or Human Resources.

It was a simpler time.

Now get off my lawn.

Images via nbcsports, Wikipedia, facebook, nbcnews, npr, yahoosports

Alan Tapley The Athletic Supporter

Alan Tapley is an educator, author, and blogger who has lived just outside of Boulder for the last twenty years.  His published work includes two novels, two children’s books, a series of cartoons in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and multiple sports related articles. His love for family and the state of Colorado is only matched by one thing, his passion for sports.  The first baseball game he ever attended was at Wrigley Field, before there were lights.  At the final Bronco game at the old Mile High, he allegedly cut out a piece of his seat in the South stands.  But regardless of being here for the Avalanche’s last Stanley Cup, the Rockies only World Series appearance, and all the Broncos’ Super Bowl Victories, his wife never fails to remind him that he wasn’t at the University of Colorado in 1990, like she was.  The year the Buffs football team won the National Championship