Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
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Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#2Sports are so prevalent that if you're not interested, it must be an affect :)
I can watch some sports for a while (basketball and football), but after a couple hours it gets pretty boring, plus I've probably had some beers so the combination tends to make me sleepy. It was exciting when I was in college and rooting for my team at the stadium and all that, but how people connect with teams outside of such a setting has never really made sense to me. I'm from Pittsburgh, a city that loves their team, but it just doesn't connect with me for whatever reason. I'd prefer if they win, sure. But that's about all.
And there is a lot of new info to keep on top of, every day. It strikes me as somewhat of a serious commitment to be into sports, and though I like sports a bit, that commitment isn't worth it to me. As I said, I can watch a game alright (or really more like half to 3/4 of a game), but knowing which players are good, who's having a good season, who is the new coach, etc, it's just way too much uninteresting information. Like learning times tables again, or something.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#3In summary, you should try liking things that a lot of other people like because you might like them yourself and it will help you make conversation with those that also like them.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#4In summary, you should try liking things that a lot of other people like because you might like them yourself and it will help you make conversation with those that also like them.
My father has been a sales guy for a long time, and he got into playing golf for this reason. He never liked watching sports, which if you're in sales is a bit of a handicap. He doesn't even know the rules of a football game. So the golf gave him something in that space to talk with others about, without having to keep on top of sports news.
Plus it's OK if you suck at golf, everyone you're playing with sucks too. And if they don't suck, you make them look even better. And you get to walk around on a (usually) nicely manicured bit of grass on a (hopefully) sunny day.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#5Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring. Especially when you see what a comically capitalized affair the whole thing is.
Also, this part from the article is kind of silly:
The machoness and absence of women in the highest levels of most professional sports bothers me deeply.
Most sports are built rather heavily around the design constraints of the human body. For what is effectively organized physical conflict, the genetics favor males heavily.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#6Sports are so prevalent that if you're not interested, it must be an affect :) I can watch some sports for a while (basketball and football), but after a couple hours it gets pretty boring, plus I've probably had some beers so the combination tends to make me sleepy. It was exciting when I was in college and rooting for my team at the stadium and all that, but how people connect with teams outside of such a setting h…
It helps a lot if you have a friend who's really passionate about the sport; you can leech off of their passion until you develop some of your own.
When I started dating the woman who would later be my wife, I would occasionally watch hockey games with her; she is from Detroit and grew up an ardent, passionate fan of the Red Wings. After a few games of her explaining the rules and strategy, telling me about the fantastic teamwork between Datsyuk and Zetterburg, and relating the history of the team with regards to their regional rivals, I got in to it on my own time. We aren't able to watch many Wings games now that we live in California, but we've got tickets to watch them play the Sharks in a couple weeks.
The parent post is pretty spot on; you can really choose how much effort you want to put in to being a sports fan. You don't need to know who's having a good season or which players are the best if you don't want to; even just casually browsing the sports page a couple times a week to see the standings and the outcome of the latest game is enough to be able to hold a conversation about it with somebody else.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#7Obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1480/
You can watch sports, or you can participate in the watching of sports. One requires real interest in the event while the other merely requires interest in who's nearby. People are different. I'm into some sports and can't stand others. But I like being social with friends, both F2F and online.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#8In summary, you should try liking things that a lot of other people like because you might like them yourself and it will help you make conversation with those that also like them.
My father has been a sales guy for a long time, and he got into playing golf for this reason. He never liked watching sports, which if you're in sales is a bit of a handicap. He doesn't even know the rules of a football game. So the golf gave him something in that space to talk with others about, without having to keep on top of sports news. Plus it's OK if you suck at golf, everyone you're playing with sucks too. An…
I'm not sure how this works.
"Hey, who's your pick in the superbowl?" "I like to golf!"
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#9Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring. Especially when you see what a comically capitalized affair the whole thing is. Also, this part from the article is kind of silly: The machoness and absence of women in the highest levels of most professional sports bothers me deepl…
I find it the opposite, and I played in high school too, but since I know the mechanics of everything it makes it a lot more interesting. For instance most people only get the gist of the game, whereas for me actually seeing what formations the offense is running and what coverage scheme the defense is using on a particular play makes it 100x more interesting than if I didn't know any of that stuff like the average viewer.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#10I'm not a huge sports fan. I go to a couple baseball games a year, but I no longer watch any of the games on tv. I only watch the Super Bowl for the ads. The morning radio show I listen to is technically a "sports" show. It's pretty light on the actual sports and is mostly just stupidity, which I prefer in the morning (on the way home it's mostly NPR or music).
Anyways, I glean enough sports info from the show to hold conversations with people who are really into sports. Being able to socialize with all types of people is a good trait to have.