When I was a little kid, all the old men sat on the lawn on Sunday on those lawn chairs with the fiberglass straps, drank beer from steel cans, and talked about the most popular sports in the country. They never talked about pro football, basketball, soccer, or golf. They talked about boxing, horse racing, college football, and hockey.

The popularity of sports waxes and wanes. When Bill Russell won all those titles with the Celtics, the Boston Garden was empty half the time. The boxing matches sold out, though. Hell. the wrestling matches were sold out. Ted Williams played his last game at Fenway in front of thousands of fans disguised as seats. I can guarantee that ESPN will look very different in 2025 than it did in 2015. If it’s still on TV.

MMA is more popular than boxing now. Football has reached its high water mark, and it’s beginning its inevitable decline. Baseball is, well, it’s baseball. It’s just there. They’re playing hockey in Florida, but that doesn’t make it vital. We need a new sport to take up residence on the back page of the New York Post. Well, maybe not new; resurrected is more like it.

We need jousting.

[Hat tip to Knuckledraggin]