Why does anyone care about watching sports?

[Kathryn]

Cowboy stadium ROCKS!

Me and my husband outside Cowboy Stadium

In the VIP suite - look how close we were to the action!

Thought some of you guys might like this - pretty close shot, huh?

So close we could have reached out and touched them!

 

[ninerbuff]

Real fans never die....when I die I wanna be cremated and my ashes spread in the end zone of cowboy stadium.

Lol, I'd just go for the empty seats that are blocked off at Candlestick park. Can't believe they still haven't fixed that since the Giants went to play at AT&T. That would be section 23.

 

[Magic Man]

I like to think of myself as a person that has heavily adopted "to each their own." But I am going to step outside of that for a second to ask, how can anyone give a crap about watching sports, especially the most popular ones such as basketball, football, etc.?

Basically its a ball moving around a field. Sure there is strategy, but that strategy still boils down to how best to move a ball around a field. In what ways is this exciting or interesting at all? Oh woopy doo dah, the 20th dunk this game. Glad to see something different. I guess there is the thrill of your team winning, but...

Why do people care who wins or have any team preference whatsoever? Most players just get traded around, so to prefer the home team or the team one grew up loving is a completely arbitrary bias. I think the fact that there is a correlation between the home team doing poorly and spousal abuse in that area going up pretty much sums up the mindest of the people that care the most.

And lastly, why do people it consider it weird for somebody, especially a guy, to not be into sports? The next time somebody asks me if I saw the game, or who my favorite team is, and they display any sort of dismay when I say I don't really care at all, do I have the right to tell them just how stupid their past time is? And how I would rather be doing something intellectually stimulating and/or interactive? (Which would include actually PLAYING sports)

Like i said, "to each their own." I respect anybody's love of watching sports, but I can't help myself from thinking they must be a bit dumb for it.

When I was younger I wasn't into sports. Around age 11-12, I started playing tennis, and then started watching it. That was the only sport I followed at all until I was about 19, when I got into watching soccer. Even at that point, I didn't get all the fuss about football. I had a customer where I worked who came in regularly and tried to talk football with me, and I had to keep telling him that I just didn't care. Then my home team, the Baltimore Ravens, got into the playoffs and were doing really well. The whole city came together. We were announcing the score of their games at halftime at the grocery store where I worked. I got caught up in it and watched their last playoff game and the Superbowl, which they won.

Now, as you say loving a certain team is indeed completely arbitrary. I liked Andre Agassi when I started watching tennis, so he became my player to root for. I liked the coach of Manchester United when I first started watching soccer, so they became my team. The Ravens and Capitals are my teams because of where I live. But it doesn't matter. The point is just to pick one and go with it.

The reason for watching sports is to get highs and lows. It's not much different from having friends. With a friend, when they get a new great job, or buy a new house or have a baby or whatever, it gives you a sort of high because you care about them, and you like to see them happy. When they get laid off or have a relative die or whatever, you go through the low with them because you dislike seeing them unhappy. The lows are no fun, but they make the highs that much better. It works the same way with teams. When they win or do well, it gives you a high, just like when your friend has a baby. When they lose, it gives you a low.

There is also the factor of being part of something. When the Ravens won the Superbowl, the whole city was into it. Almost everyone you talked to was in a better-than-usual mood because of the success of the team. Look at what winning the Superbowl did for New Orleans.

If you just look at it as "moving a ball around a field", then yes, it seems kind of stupid, but no more so than "putting cards on a table" or "pressing buttons and watching different stuff happen on a screen" or "watching people who pretend to be other people". Looking at it that way misses the whole idea.

Another point is that you can contrast sports with movies and books. In movies and books, the stories tend to be predictable. Sports are unpredictable. When you sit down to watch a game, it can have any possible outcome. Seeing the huge underdog win in real life is better than seeing a movie about it because it actually happened. When I sit down to watch, say, a romantic comedy, I know what's going to happen, even though it might be entertaining in the meantime. When I sit down to watch a hockey game, I genuinely don't know what's going to happen.

As for people thinking others are weird for not being into sports, I can't imagine that's a general thing. I imagine it's more that you notice people thinking that's weird more than you notice people not caring one way or the other, and so it seems more prevalent than it actually is. I don't think it's weird for someone to not like sports, even if it's a guy. In my experience most people don't think that's weird.

And you might want to change the last line of your post next time. You can't say "To each his own, but you're dumb for liking that". Especially since no one is dumb for liking sports. It's not your thing, and that's fine. It gives other people a way to get the emotional ups and downs they might not normally get in their daily life.

 

[Magic Man]

Are (1) Nationalism, (2) sports fandom and (3) religious identity just different manifestations of the same psychological impulses?

I would say so. The sports/religion comparison is a very apt one. The biggest difference I see is that with sports most people realize that ultimately it's meaningless. It's just a game as opposed to "the answers to everything". Some people take it way too seriously, of course, but not nearly as many as take religion way too seriously.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I enjoy Morgan Freeman as an actor. He has a set of qualities that he generally carries with him between movies. I wouldn't particularly say I am a Morgan Freeman fan, nor do I debate his merits against other people in a debate about good actors.

But for a similar reason, I can understand people enjoying certain star athletes. They are the pinnacle of their profession.

A team, on the other hand, changes over time. Players come and go, coaches come and go, and sometimes even owners come and go. It's a business. Rather than being a lifelong fan of Morgan Freeman, it would be like being a lifelong fan of a production company like, say, Lion's Gate, even as employee turnover occurs.

... or Disney? I know several Disney fans.

I think a good analogy is patriotism: people tend to support one country, or at least what it represents, through changes in government and national highs and lows. In fact, these changes are largely irrelevant, because patriotism is more about the "spirit" of a country than who happens to be in power at the time.

I think that sports teams can be similar: to a large extent, people don't cheer for a team so much because they like the individual athletes, but because they feel the team represents them in some way... either as being the team of "their" city or by giving the fan something else that they identify with.

There are times when I think, perhaps being a fan of team would make more sense. For instance, there's that coach Joe Paterno, who has been coach of his team for like 50 years or something, and he has all sorts of records. If someone were a fan of him and his work, and is a fan of the sport in general, I think it would make sense to follow his accomplishments and cheer for his football team.

Basically, what it comes down to is that for some reason, the level of invested emotion and excitement in a sports team is unrivaled compared to most other types of passive hobbies.

Really? I find that people can get worked up about just about anything. For instance, there are probably fewer symphony fans than baseball fans, but symphony buffs will be just as polarized about whether they love or hate Mahler as baseball fans are about whether they love or hate the Yankees.

Real fans never die....when I die I wanna be cremated and my ashes spread in the end zone of cowboy stadium.

I've got a nice spot picked out on the hill overlooking corner 9 at Mosport International Raceway.

 

[ninerbuff]

Hey just look at some "crusades" televangelists rallies..........some of the people there get very worked up during preaching! Waving their hands in the air, singing, etc. And what do they get out of it............a rich televangelist.

 

[Magic Man]

Really? I find that people can get worked up about just about anything. For instance, there are probably fewer symphony fans than baseball fans, but symphony buffs will be just as polarized about whether they love or hate Mahler as baseball fans are about whether they love or hate the Yankees.

While that's true, I think symphony fans would have a better reason to dislike a certain composer. I'm sure some of them just have a bias against some composers, but it's not the same as being a fan of a team and hating the star of another team. For instance, I'm a Capitals fan, so I hate Sidney Crosby. I readily admit he's a very good player, and I wouldn't mind having him on my team, but I hate him because he's a Penguin. I don't think that applies to symphony fans. I'd think they'd generally dislike Mahler based on their reaction to his music.

 

[jacksonstewart]

I am very crazy to watch sports. I had great interest in basketball.

 

[Kathryn]

Basketball is great fun to watch! Especially live.

 

[Walkntune]

My question is not how anyone can watch sports but how can they watch the Wwe wrestleing smackdown crap.

 

[blackout]

Cowboy stadium ROCKS!


Me and my husband outside Cowboy Stadium


In the VIP suite - look how close we were to the action!

Thought some of you guys might like this - pretty close shot, huh?


So close we could have reached out and touched them!

Some of us gals too Kathryn!

Screw the football.

But I'd go just to see those Grown Up Cheerleaders up front and center! :drool:

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Some of us gals too Kathryn!

Screw the football.

But I'd go just to see those Grown Up Cheerleaders up front and center! :drool:

It just sickens me the way you objectify women!

 

[blackout]

It just sickens me the way you objectify women!

I'll bet it does...

 

[Kathryn]

Yep, I have to admit, those women are SMOKIN'!

 

[Sgloom]

i didnt like sports growing up, but ive grown to enjoy them more now. im not hardcore into watching them, but i can watch a football or basketball game with some friends and enjoy it on occasion. My brother in law is a huge colts fan, my sister is a giants fan, they both have there reasons for liking those teams. most people at my work are into sports and i can carry a casual conversation about it, but im not so into it that i can discuss individual player stats or anything like that.
i went to a Lakers game last year, it was alot of fun... when i was younger i never saw the appeal, but its fun to get into it once in awhile.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

Not sure I said this already but I think we need more sports and less war. Don't like that country....well instead of bombing them how bout a few games of football to declare the winner. I know..it sounds kind of silly but I much rather watch sports then watch the news about war.

I'm both a Colts fan and a B-More Ravens fan. The old Colts used to be here in B-More but I still have love for them..but now I'm a B-More fan...(almost made it to the Superbowl this year if it weren't for a dropped passed in the in zone)..Dang it. But I will be rooting for New England since they are in my division.....

Again, I know some of this stuff sounds silly but sports can be a good thing. If more and more kids were active and we were teaching them how to make better food choices then childhood obesity would not be what it is. Then again...if we were opening up kids to the idea of playing a sport and letting them choose that sport then maybe that would prevent them from standing on the street corner and getting into situations they shouldn't belong in.

My three weren't the athletic type but more like the academic type. They wanted to play musical instruments for orchestra.....but just like me....they love football in the snow and mud with their friends. I approved because I could supervise and it kept them off the streets.

 

[Koldo]

Not sure I said this already but I think we need more sports and less war. Don't like that country....well instead of bombing them how bout a few games of football to declare the winner. I know..it sounds kind of silly but I much rather watch sports then watch the news about war.

And then we would have to go to war either way to decide what football we should play.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

And then we would have to go to war either way to decide what football we should play.

As long as it isn't soccer.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn...wake me up when they stop kicking it back and forth between each team.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

And then we would have to go to war either way to decide what football we should play.

We can compromise..meet in the middle and choose rugby....

Although....I do like my American Football....:sad:

 

[Koldo]

As long as it isn't soccer.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn...wake me up when they stop kicking it back and forth between each team.

Sure. WAKE UP!

We can compromise..meet in the middle and choose rugby....

Although....I do like my American Football....:sad:

Unacceptable.
Sir, we shall meet on the battlefield!