Sport at the very top level, played by gladiators at the peak of their powers, is a captivating spectacle.
The US Open tennis was a great example. During the semi-final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, my wife came into the living room to discover why I was whooping like a banshee.
Even though my eyes were closing during Monday night's final and I needed to be up at the crack of dawn, I pressed on, intoxicated by the quality of the talent on display and the developing battle between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
I would suggest that last week's England v Wales charity match at Pride Park for the John Hartson Foundation perhaps lacked some of the 'watchability' that made the tennis so unmissable.
It was a real pleasure to play in the game that ended in a 6-0 England win and showcased the foundation's work in raising the awareness of testicular cancer - a condition John battled through after being diagnosed in 2009 having ignored a lump for four years.
On the pitch, our success was largely down to the fact that Steve McManaman and Stan Collymore oozed class in midfield and Dion Dublin and Chris Sutton provided nothing short of rock-solid security at the heart of the defence.
Before the game, I was having a chat with Harry Redknapp in the dressing room. Part of the conversation involved me explaining how famous Idris Elba was. It became clear 'The Wire' had passed 'Arry by and he was obviously watching football while 'Luther' was on.
Joe Calzaghe had only been down four times in his career - until he met Dan
Once we'd asserted that Mr Elba was A-list, attention turned elsewhere and the question of "where do you want to play, Dan?" was asked. What I should have said was "anywhere but right or left-back, boss" but what came out was "anywhere, boss".
In 30 years of playing the beautiful game, I have never filled in at full-back and, as Lee Dixon regularly testifies, "it's a lot more difficult than it looks". It helped that Dion Dublin was pulling the strings at centre-half but I did feel a little lost on occasions. That's the excuse I'm using for the two horrendous back-passes I produced that almost let the opposition in and have kept the Football Focus office amused for the last week.
I managed to get 70 minutes in and my greatest contribution came within a few minutes of replacing Cousin Elba. Joe 'The Backheel' Calzaghe was marauding down the left wing and as the ball ricocheted around our box I heard the voice of Dublin say "you've got to deal with him, Dan". I decided to shepherd the ball out of play but Calzaghe was having none of it and opted for some illegal manhandling.
Natural instinct took over and I found myself head-locking the boxing legend and dragging him to the floor with me. Upon regaining my composure, I realised that this wasn't perhaps the wisest course of action. I know that Big Joe could have floored me with a single paw to the chin but I think he was intimidated by my incredibly muscular frame and reach advantage!
During the second half, McManaman was encouraging me to get forward at every opportunity but such was the lack of expectation from the ITV4 director that on the one occasion I made a Cafu-esque run and got the ball, he decided the viewers would rather watch Ian Wright sipping an isotonic drink on the bench!
My wife texted me afterwards to say she was very proud, my dad rang to tell me he'd missed it and my mates got in contact to inform me how slow and rubbish I was. The post-match discussion revolved around Dave Beasant's terrible decision to save Hartson's penalty. Beasant was ostracised by his team-mates and even Redknapp had a little dig at the big stopper before telling the rest of us the we "played triffic".
The great news was that 1000s of people came along to support, loads of money was raised for charity and hopefully awareness was raised about the importance of checking your testicles and taking speedy action if you find anything.
In terms of the show, this week we are back to our normal time of 1215 BST and you'll be able to hear from Leonardo on big spending PSG, Uwe Rosler on Brentford, Gabby Agbonlahor on being Villa's longest serving player at just 24 and - fresh from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Gary Oldman on Millwall.
We'll also preview the first Old Firm game of the season and take a look at Paul McGrath's new single. We'll also be talking to Rio Ferdinand on Friday so now is the time to get in any questions for him. I'm sure he has plenty to say as usual.
Any questions or comments fire away in the comments section and you can find me on Twitter: twitter.com/danwalkerbbc
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2011/09/england_v_wales_-_john_hartson.html
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