I see a lot of people on here say sports is stupid, or a waste of time, etc. Why do you think this?
I made a post once in response to Adam, I'll just post it here again to start the discussion:
Adam, on 02 Aug 2015 - 2:31 PM, said:
I never really understood why sports fans get so riled up while watching a game. If you don't have money placed on a team, or you aren't playing, what's all the excitement about? What does a team you fancy do for you, other than possibly make you money.
It's a good question. Everyone has their passion, right? I believe you put a lot of time into your car, correct? "But that's not the same thing, I actually use my car." Good point, let's see if I can argue it.
I went to my first Mets game when I was two years old, so I've been around sports my whole life. When I lived in the city I used to go to opening day every year. It became a part of my identity. When you invest a lot of time into something, regardless of what it is, it becomes important to you. And if something is important to you, it exites you. You are invested. If the Mets make the playoffs, I'm very happy. If they don't, I'm not. If they win an important game, it puts me in a great mood. If they lose, it bums me out.
"Well, okay, you were born into that culture so it makes sense. But what about people who didn't grow up immersed in sports?" My dad was never really into football very much. We watched Mets and Knicks games, but I don't think we ever watched football, so I had to pick that up on my own. I picked the Patriots (combination of my dad being a Bills fan and they had just won the superbowl in '01). They've been very good since then, which has been nice since my other teams have been pretty bad. But one of the main things that made me such an intense fan even though I wasn't raised into it has been the adversity. People hate the Patriots, because of the scandals and because of their dominance. It's really quite interesting how even though we are a great team, we go into almost every playoff game as a sort of underdog, because of how much everyone hates us, which only really makes us love the team that much more.
"Okay, so you like sports, it's important to you, but why does it matter so much to you people? Why is it such a big deal?" I think sports is so prevalent because it's a tremendous opportunity to bond with people. Whole cities, countries, and even continents can be brought together by sports. I went to a Boston bar in the middle of Manhattan to watch the superbowl this year, and the energy was unbelievable. Hundreds of people with the same emotions flowing through each other is an incredibly powerful feeling. Many people follow sports, it's a great icebreaker when you're meeting new people. It's a common theme, and brings quick and easy discussions to fans. I could meet someone new, who might be a big football fan like myself, and we could talk for an hour without knowing anything about each other, and build on that and become friends.
Soccer, for example, especially in poorer countries, can literally be the most important thing in their lives. Their country is run down, but playing the game can make them forget about that for a while. And especially if their national team is good, it can provide an immense amount of pride that they otherwise might not have.
Is sports a silly thing to get so worked up about? Maybe. Could we be using our time and energy on more important things? Probably. But just like some people like to talk about their cars, or their videogames, or their artwork, we like to talk about sports.
