I didn’t have any plans a couple of Sundays ago. We planned on having some friends over the Saturday before to grill and hang out, so I assumed I would spend the next day napping and watching sports.

Then I got a fateful phone call.

Well, it wasn’t fateful, but it was intriguing. The fine folks over at the York Daily Record wanted me to come out and cover an event for the paper.

Sure, I said. A little freelance money never hurt anyone. Plus, I could take part in a little bit of history.

They wanted me to cover the state’s first legal mixed martial arts event. I was going to get paid to see guys beat the snot out of each other. I love this country.

Even though some of my wrestling brethren have moved into MMA territory, I have never really gotten into the sport. I appreciate the success it has had, but just never cleared time to watch.

I would always check to see how the wrestlers did when I read a story because I can certainly see why wrestlers take on the MMA challenge. When wrestlers do well, I feel a little bit of pride as if I had something to do with their success.

Most of us have this kind of kinship, and the guys going into MMA are fulfilling some fantasies us older guys have harbored for years. Like one of the fighters with a wrestling background told me, he could not believe he didn’t have to worry about bringing his opponent to the mat safely when he got the guy up in the air.

There is a flip side, however. I asked one of the other guys, didn’t we start wrestling so we didn’t have to worry about getting punched and kicked? He laughed as if that he had ruminated over that thought more than a few times.

Wrestling for six minutes is tough enough, adding kicks and punches – with padded gloves – into the mix doesn’t make it any easier. I admire the work put in by the guys going at it last Sunday.

I didn’t need long to get a little hooked on the sport. And, yes, it is a sport. Don’t let anyone hang onto John McCain’s characterization of MMA as “human cockfighting” any longer.

In the long run, what took place resembled backyard brawls which every kid has with his brothers and friends more than any kind of blood sport. In fact, the list of what you cannot do is much longer than the list of what you can do. I wish my four older brothers had that kind of list when I was growing up.

Maybe that is what is fueling this MMA excitement locally and across the country. Maybe all the really successful guys grew up with big brothers like I did, and this is their revenge.

If that’s the case, I wish the sport had taken off when I was in good enough shape to take advantage of things. Because no matter how much I feared getting punched, I could enjoy the opportunity to pay someone back for all my years as the little brother without the fear of getting into trouble.

The next event in York is in July. Maybe I should start training now.