Thread: Profesional sports, why do people get so excited?

Originally Posted by 32t

Why do sports excite people in so many ways?

Because the teams actually hire people to get the fans excited

Not everyone gets excited. Personally I cannot stand watching sport, particularly professional sport. I do watch it sometimes when there is no other option, but I much prefer to learn results from the news after the event. Sport is for doing, not watching.

James.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Because the teams actually hire people to get the fans excited

I am sorry, I got distracted, who won and what sport are we talking about?

I won, it was the rock, paper, scissors championship.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Because the teams actually hire people to get the fans excited

Hey, works for me. Like my Dad used to always say, "Son, I'm old, I ain't dead."

My favorite sport is archery. I like to stand still and not have any thoughts. I suppose I am being a hypocrite. I entered a tournement a couple of years ago and won $10. At that time did I give up my amature status? It cost me $20 to enter! LOL For me archery is a very hard thing to watch. I have shot with world class individuals and when it is their turn I ignore them. I am doing my own thing the best I can.

I have watched Juan Pablo Montoya in racing. The first race I ever drove was one weekend after he competed at Road America. He won the pole position with an average of 145 mph. I said I would be happy to do half that. The next weekend dang if I didn't qualify my Opel Manta at 72.5. I have felt a conection ever since.

My connection with these people is that they do what I enjoy doing myself. Not that they are employed in my town, state, or country.

Tim

Watching sports on TV is only slightly better than watching grass grow, unless it's a sport that you frequently watch live or seriously compete in yourself.

Several years back when I lived in the other Long Beach (in SoCal), we had a AAA baseball team. Tickets were cheaper than going to the movie and the games were a great way to spend a summer's evening. Same with auto racing. The Long Beach Grand Prix was an annual event and I used to get to see it live every year. During that time and that time ONLY was when I could enjoy watching baseball or auto racing on TV without dying of boredom. After moving away and not actually seeing a sport live I can't be bothered to watch anything other than the game highlights.

The 20 Sundays from late Sept to early Feb are the best days of the year. I don't understand the hating on pro athletes get for making big money. They are the best in the world at what they do, have dangerous jobs, and short careers. There are what 1600 professional football players (american) I bet if you looked at their average salaries versus the average of the top 1600 CEOs or actors in the world the football plates would make a pittance in comparison. I watch football, almost any auto race outside of NASCAR and some championship games of other sports. I simply enjoy watching greatness, like looking a a famous work of art or hearing a great piece of music. Rooting for a team is a wy to connect even more with a single sport and connect with other fans. I've only ever gotten into one serious argument about sports and that's because a drunk at a bar said Derek Jeter doesn't deserve to wear pinstripes and Lou Gehrig was the greatest Yankee. I don't follow baseball closely but I felt I needed to calmly explain to him why he was an idiot, he disagreed at which point an argument ensued. I would never dream of physically assaulting someone over sports but a heated exchange is healthy and I find them to be enjoyable.

I just find it puzzling and slightly perverted that people get paid a butt load of money and 'dedicate' (or waste) their fittest years, health (lots of injuries) just so that other people can have a distraction from their 40 hour a week desk job.

I get it if you enjoy actively doing something like a sport or any other hobby, but the whole idolising thing is foreign to me. I don't look up to people for what they do but for who they are. If someone's entire existence revolves around them throwing a baseball or kicking a football really well, playing guitar very skilfully or running really fast I cannot for the world admire them for it to the extent that seems normal for many people. I'm not a fan of anything or anyone, I just like some things they do. Which on my end is slightly hypocritical, since I do not consider their human qualities. But it's hard to judge those if they are a non-issue.

For instance the whole Tiger Woods affair (and humiliation of athletes in all sports scandals really) disgust me. All the decent people agreeing that someone else is a bastard, how convenient.

I've really had it up to here with the entire role-model thing, letting fans down, and other sentiments of inadequacy some people project on others just to make them feel like one of 'the decent people'. Note that I have noting against genuinely decent people, I just have it in for the hypocritical decent ones.

That being said, I do enjoy watching the odd game of football/soccer or ice hockey. And boxing, but mainly for the puzzling grotesqueness of people beating each other up for other people's entertainment, and calling it talent and self-fulfillment plus being admired for achieving this. Mind-bogglingly fascinating.

Originally Posted by jdto

That said, generalizing all sports fanatics as morons or idiots would be like saying all men who take care of their skin and own a bunch of shaving products are girlymen.

.............and?