Am I the only hetero male in US who thinks watching the usual sports is overrated?
I sort of get the appeal - feats of strength, agility, strategy and what have you. Bloodless combat, unpredictable outcomes.
Still, it’s grown-up millionaires playing with a ball. Who cares, they are not that entertaining.
And team loyalty, what a waste! “We won the NBA this year” - no you didn’t, some tall guys who live in your town (for now) did. And they will happily sell themselves to the highest bidder. Or the owner will trade them. Why am I subsidizing the owners’ profits by paying extra taxes?
I think people like it because they were exposed to it at a young age and spent a lot of time early on playing or watching sports with their friends and family. Some people like it because they can gamble on it. Everyone has their interest, to each his own.
Personally, I’d rather go do stuff, than to watch other people do stuff and that goes for movies and tv shows as well. In a year, I may watch… 20 hours max of those types of entertainment and they are either because I’m spending time with my dad and he wants to watch something or I’m catching headlines to stay on top of pop and sports culture for conversation purposes.
Ok, I don’t follow American sports so i agree with some of your points on lack of loyalty. I don’t understand how a team can just up and leave to a new city if they get better tax breaks there. It’s strange and the whole thing just becomes a marketing scam.
As for normal sports one of the biggest reasons is escapism. For those 90 minutes people forget about all their problems in life and can just get lost. Some sports are also incredibly tribal in their support and that leads to a natural camaraderie b/w a set of fans.
Sport is also better than theatre." When i go watch Hamlet i enjoy it but i know how it ends, When i watch football it’s like Hamlet except i don’t know the ending". Some of the scripts that come out of sport are so unreal that you just shake your head in disbelief.
Also where else can 40+ year old men act like little kids and talk about true love. Can’t ever forget a banner i once saw by FC Celtic fans “_ Sent to me from heaven, Glasgow Celtic, You are my world _”. The people holding it must’ve been at least 60.
Absent combat sports, I’m totally with you naren. Here’s a line from one of my favorite movies:
Mickey Mantle? Is that what you’re upset about? Mickey Mantle makes $100,000 a year. How much does your father make? You don’t know? Well, see if your father can’t pay the rent go ask Mickey Mantle and see what he tells you. Mickey Mantle don’t care about you, so why should you care about him? Nobody cares.
It’s basically tribe mentality. 100,000 years ago, humans would gang up and beat the shit out of some other tribe. 3000 years ago, the Romans would throw people into a ring to beat and stab the shit out of each other. Today, we watch a bunch of 250 lb people in uniforms beat the shit out of each other on the football field. Or even when we watch movies, there must be a good guy and bad guy. Imagine a movie with just random explosions. This won’t work; there must be a plot involving shooting/punching/stabbing communists/terrorists/aliens/Mexicans. Or let’s talk about geopolitics - why did GW’s approval rating go to 85% after 9/11, before he even did anything? People like to be the good guy and fight some bad guy - even make believe bad guys. It’s the circle… the circle of liiiiife…
Preach on brother! I don’t give a sht these days either.
Private profits via government contibutions.
Worshipping felons, crooks, murderers, rapists, etc. What an idol to follow.
Commercialized…I used to love going to Wrigley on a sunny day to watch a ball game. Now it’s all this sideshow sponsorship product placement bullsht. Don’t even get me started on the jumbotrons.
Time. How people keep up with multiple sports teams in multiple sports is beyond me. I need to be out and about.
Fixed games. Don’t kid yourself. It’s about as fair as politics.
Contributions to society, zero. Just wasted dollars by all parties for no final product.
I knew this dude at my last job, he wakes up to sports radio on his alarm clock, listens to it when he gets ready for work, on his drive to work, while he’s working as a mechanic… at lunch, I’ll be eating lunch and he’ll ask if he can switch to espn on the tv, then listens to sports radio again, and on the way home, and watch espn till he basically goes to sleep. Weekends are for watching sports… like WTF?
Why someone would pay so much attention to people who doesn’t give a damn back blew my mind.
I watch sports because I truly appreciate the athleticism and skill. I admire great athletes and what they can do physically/mentally under pressure outside of their personalities/arrogance. However, I am more into fringe sports like track and field, tennis and soccer than the big 3 or 4 sports here in the US (football, basketball, baseball and hockey). It is amazing what the human body can do and that is why I watch.
Moreover, I also think humans have a need to be part of a community of similar people. For some, church fills this need, but for most it is sports or being a fan of a team where you are from, live etc. It amazes me how happy people become when “their team” wins or how people take it personally when “their team” loses even though they have absolutely no control over the outcome. The players don’t care about the fans - they just collect their dollars and change teams when they can make more money. Professional sports has milked this basic human need to the tune of billions of dollars a year in revenue, fan merchandise, ticket sales, tv etc. Amazing!
I was a little amped up when I chummed up that list. I don’t hate sports, I just don’t get how some folks watch, listen, and live them. There is so much more positive ways to contribute to society and paying to watch rich athletes compete with each other is just silly. I am a social sports watcher, nothing pisses me off more than the serious spectator expecting complete silence during one of the dozen crucial plays of the game.
I think 1,3 and 6 are limited to American sports. American sports are glitzy, paclaged, shiny products that have lost the elemental/ raw feel that makes sports so great. Sports worldwide have also become commercialized but have retained their elemental aspect.
Football clubs have their origins in the city they are from and draw their support from that reigon. They are intrinsically linked to those societies. For example Barcelona will always be from the reigon of Catalonia and serves as an outlet for it’s people. When Barcelona plays Madrid it has the history of the Catalonian independence claim and Spain’s refusal behind it. It still means something. You won’t be able to find that in a league model that follows the concept of ‘Franchises’.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say 2 is also a problem that is specifically linked with a country that follows the concept of student-athletes that are basically given an easier ride from school to college. Not many countries follow that model and if your going to make it in pro sports your going to do it on you’re own time. Seems like a better model for me.
I’m not surprised you are disillusioned by American sports. NBA, NFL are for the genetically abnormal. You and me are never going to be 6’5’’ + and 200 kgs. How can we relate to it? At least when i see a normal 5’10’’ dude killing it in football or a 5’5’’ midget becoming the best player in the world we can go and try their moves in the field and think yeah that could’ve been us no matter how farfetched that might be.
I only really appreciate sports that I have had the opportunity to play at a decent level myself. I don’t understand the people that religously follow a soccer team, especially one that they have no connection to whatsoever. My gf is from Leeds and proud of it, yet she supports Manchester United and is always going on about them. When asked why she likes them so much and what effect them hiring/firing Moyes has on her personally, she couldn’t answer.
No, you are not the only one. I also wonder how someone can spend so much time watching and listening to sports (listening to sports! That’s like doing something uninteresting blindfolded – double boring!). Actually, I take that back – I don’t care what they do on their free time if it entertains them; but for me, I wish they would just shut up about it at work or in social settings. I have zero interest in hearing about how Johnny So-and-So caught that awesome throw at the XX yard line or Albert Bustout hit that amazing triple.
The worst is hearing people that have nothing better to talk about (particularly salespeople) resort to the lowest common denominator and, upon hearing where you are from, ask you if you are a [fill in your hometown team] fan. Nothing gives me more pleasure than responding with a deadeye stare back and telling them point blank that I really don’t follow, or give a damn, about sports. It shuts down that conversation quickly as they scramble for some other topic to fellate me with.
The second worst is being asked about golf. Another thing I couldn’t care less about. I think the trick to sanity is to find others like yourself that are interested in more intellectual discussion items and talk with those people. The problem is that if you are like me, you probably look like someone who might be interested in sports (which is confusing to the sports watchers), and the types of people you’d probably have the best conversations with are probably more geeky-looking. Try making more friends in IT and stop being embarrassed about it. I’m serious about that.
Most people who care that much about sports (24/7, every sport, etc) have nothing else to care about. Sports are the new religion to pacify the masses.
Maybe it is worth realizing that these professional sports competitions are run for profit and have targeted marketing campaigns. If you care about sports, watch games with advertisements, and buy tickets or paraphernalia, the level 1 reason is that some dudes in suits in a conference room managed to convince you to do so. They have analyzed you, the consumer, and have given you a product that you will spend your time and money to follow.
I’m not saying that it is wrong to follow sports or indulge in other kinds of mass media entertainment. If it makes you happy, then whatever.