I think professional sports are the closest we have to real-life dramas, tragedies, or even comedies, and they have profound life lessons.
I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. I grew up when they were a dynasty in the 90s, and at the time it seemed like going to the Super Bowl is something they were supposed to do every year. I cried after some tough losses.
Sometimes I get into other local teams when they are doing well, and I've even tried to be interested in other football teams, but there's no team like the Cowboys for me. I can't feel the extreme joy nor anger or sadness when watching other teams. The best I can drum up is a "that's nice". It is actually easier watching other teams because I feel like I have much less invested.
I didn't have to cultivate this interest, there is nothing logical about it. I realize this. Realizing this random illogical love in my life has helped me to look at a lot of things differently, like politics and parties. Ignoring those indirect effects (always realize when you are a homer about something) there is a great advantage if you can reach this level of interest:
Once they stopped being dominant in the 90s, the Cowboys for years have been a team that look really good on paper, people pick them to win, and then they disappoint, often times in rage inducing ways. Being slightly younger, naive, and a homer, I'd always buy in. It didn't take until the last few years that I got their gimmick and as a passionate fan am sorry to say I didn't watch a number of games last year and/or turned them off at halftime.
This year, they were picked buy experts to be very mediocre. The first game seemed to prove this. I turned if off after the 1st quarter as the 49ers were beating the hell out of them. Same old Cowboys. I couldn't help but to watch week 2 and a win over the hapless Titans. Then they went down 21-0 in week 3 against the Rams and I turned the TV off. Thankfully, my interest and a friend goaded me into turning the TV back on to watch them come all the way back and win. Week after week for the rest of the year they did this: fell behind and seemed destined for a loss, only to fight back and pull themselves to victory. And I, conditioned as I was to expect failure, continued to turn the TV off at moments, only to turn it back on and catch the comeback.
This culminated in their wild card game against Detroit. At one point they went down 14-0. Same old Cowboys. Click. Then somewhere they found fight in them and with the benefit of a very questionable call were driving for a winning touchdown at the end of the game. Now I've seen this before. Flashbacks to January of 2008 when Jerry Jones put championship game tickets in the lockers of his players before they played the Giants, a team they had beaten twice already. But the Giants (who would win the Super Bowl) came to play, and at the end of the game Tony Romo found himself driving his team down for an apparent game winning touchdown. That time it wasn't meant to be. He threw and interception which was one of those plays which thus far has defined his legacy.
Here he was in the Detroit game in a very similar situation. This time, though, he pulled it off. When he got knocked down as he threw that winning touchdown, the crowed erupted, and face down, he slammed his hands on the ground out of joy. Romo is a passionate guy, but I've never seen him like this. He knows he is running out of time, and he wants to win. As a long-suffering fan, the joy was just as great.
The Boys ended up losing in Green Bay the next week, but I've though often about why I care about football so much and if I should. I like to be in control of my life. When you love a sports team, you are at the mercy of ownership, good or bad, players, bad breaks (sometimes literally), referees, etc. Why put yourself through all that emotion when you can't do anything about it?
But really, that's life. Because as much as we'd like to think otherwise (especially the folks here which are smart, hard-working, independent, and often successful), there are a lot of things you just don't have control over in life. You can't control whether a competitor does or doesn't come along at the right time, you can't control whether a drunk driver blindsides you, you can't control who you meet or run into. Sports is like that, and sometimes it is good to take a step back, realize you can't control everything, and enjoy the ride. Sometimes you'll feel rage or sadness, but in that rare instance when a team, your team, proves everyone wrong, when it rewrites the script, when it does what it isn't supposed to do and wins, there isn't a feeling like like it. And when you see athletes who have worked their entire lives to get to a point and they finally achieve it, it is a rare feeling of empathy and pride that you can feel for a complete stranger. I saw it with Dirk Nowitzki when he won a title in 2011, and I hope to see it for Tony Romo one day as well.
Hell, for people doing startups, or just living, athletes are the perfect sources of inspiration. The pressures they face, the pride, the struggle, the doubt, all is so similar. I've personally never been a Kobe Bryant fan, but last summer I read some articles about his work ethic, determination, and attitude, and I both respected him and it inspired me to better myself.
Sports are incredibly valuable learning tools, aside from just the avenues they open up with others. And that really can't be overstated. I see too many computer-literate people shutting themselves off from others and culture. If you can't or don't connect with the majority of the population, what makes you think you can build something which will change the world? Granted, sports is just one of many avenues to connect with others, but it is a massive one, and one with lots of benefits.
Finally, if you can't just fall in love with a team, there are other things to appreciate about sports. In baseball and basketball, I often get more interested in the process of building teams than watching teams play. There's magic in watching good GMs outwit everyone else and put together the right collection of players. There's magic in watching people like Billy Beane apply a rigorous methodological approach to try to build something (The Oakland As and Moneyball). If you can't love a team for love of sport, love it from that kind of logical angle. Maybe you'll end up loving the team for completely illogical reasons.
I've said enough, maybe too much. I needed to unload those thoughts somewhere. Hope they help someone.