I do not understand professional sports.(football)

[Wcross]

I don't get it. Why do people get so attached to "their" team? Why do they spend money to buy "official" team jersey's? When the Tennessee Titans came to town, people I worked with spent thousands of dollars to buy the rights to buy tickets every year. (seat license?) People actually call radio stations to talk about the team and the game. I witnessed someone today at work getting so excited about a touchdown you would have thought he had done it.
Please explain why people get so excited. Is it because they have lost all hope for their own lives that they need to belong to "the team"?

[WannaBeGrumpy]

1. ASK MrsG about that...she's crazy...

I'm just addicted to baseball because I 've been immersed in it all my life!

[Arugula Latte]

2. I feel exactly the same as you. I don't get it.

People act as though the performance of this team (made up of men from all over the country who just happened to be drafted/bought by the owner or whatever) is a reflection of their own power and worth. As Jerry Seinfeld observed, the vast majority of players aren't from the city they're playing for, so, basically, fans are rooting for laundry (the uniform). I personally find the whole thing pathetic, depressing and pointless. I mean, who cares if such-and-such thyroid case kicked the ball through this post or shoved that ball into that basket. :boring: Not to mention the misogynistic atmospheres surrounding many teams.

Now, let me also say that many people I do love and respect DO care about this stuff, so go figure ...

[qnr]

3. I have no idea. n/t

[Generic Brad]

4. It merges physical skill with coordinated execution of chess like thinking

If you buy merchandise endorsed by your favorite chess master, then why not football? I still proudly wear my Bobby Fisher jersey.

[edbermac]

36. Bobby Fischer had a jersey??

Methinks you are a grandmaster of leg-pulls...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

5. GO BIG BLUE!!!!

My boys won today!

:bounce::bounce:

:rofl:

[hfojvt]

22. IBM has a team?

Whoda thunk it? Who did they beat? Honeywell? Hewlett Packard? Eastman Kodak (but doesn't everyone beat them these days)?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

32. Big Blue is the NYC Giants. They beat Atlanta 27-14.

[Katina]

6. because it's fun

and it's silly and it's frivolous. Aren't we allowed to have that in our lives?
You need to loosen up, relax, and let people just enjoy themselves. Of course sports it total escapism. Is that so wrong? :eyes:

[BlueJazz]

7. I think it's an Insecure thing. The most "Sport Nut" town I've....

...ever seen is Minneapolis.
Christ...I mean, they are Eat-up with it...
In fact..Dig this..When I worked for Kodak in Minneapolis, the stations would
preempt MAJOR prime time shows (Like House, Law and Order, CSI) to show
a Fucking High School football game.
I'd go to work the next day and say something about it and people couldn't
understand why I thought it was weird.

Strange People....and Sick with Sports...because they have no identity of their own...

[BlueJazz]

9. I might add that for all the intelligent people in that town...

..I don't believe there are 10 men in the town that are not Pussies.
If you have no balls of your own, you have to borrow some from a Sport Team..

[hfojvt]

23. you mean in Minneapolis

or all of Twintown?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. I don't get it

and I hate that

1) It's considered un-American not to be all excited about professional sports
2) People who can't be bothered to vote on vital issues will riot if their team loses the Super Bowl...or wins the Super Bowel.
3) Children, especially boys, are actively urged to become pro sports fans, and woe on any boy who isn't interested
4) Hennepin County (Minneapolis) just added a sales tax surcharge to fund a new stadium for the Twins, without consulting the voters, but Minneapolis is cutting back on its library system. Advocates blathered on about the Twins as part of the "quality of life," but meanwhile, the libraries, parks, schools, and transit systems are strapped for money.
5) An entire section of the newspaper is devoted to sports, from world championships down to high school teams, more than to any other single topic
6) Athletes are considered heroes

Wake up, people. The players and the owners don't give a damn about you. They can (and have) pack up and move to another city if your city government doesn't pamper them enough. I bet the owners are laughing at the rubes who pay big bucks to watch grown men play games and even more to buy team paraphernalia.

[BlueJazz]

10. Did you read my little tirade about Minneapolis? # 7, 9

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Yes, but there are actually more than ten good men there

The DUers are pretty cool.

The city is infested with a lot of amiable but dumb types, though.

[BlueJazz]

16. Of Course and I loved the town but that "One Thing" truly....

...was strange for me. (the obsession with Sports)

[Wcross]

11. College football is even funnier.

Tennessee has a huge following in the state. The majority of the people wearing U.T. apparel couldn't even spell college and have never attended. It's always "we" when they are winning and "they" on an off year.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Back when I was in grad school, the Yale alumni magazine received a

letter from some banker in Chicago who criticized Yale for its strict admissions standards, which included high grade and test score requirements for athletes. He said that he was ashamed to have attended Yale because Northwestern and other Big Ten schools had better football teams. :crazy:

[Bill McBlueState]

13. It's a chance to get excited about something

I'm sure there are things you really enjoy that I'll never understand, and that's fine with me. We all have our own interests. :)

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. I don't understand rabid, life-or-death fandom

I don't understand people who paint their faces in their team's colors and go "HOO HOO HOO HOO!" and "YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!" when a teevee camera's pointed at them. (I also don't understand why the teevee fucks indulge these whackos, but that's teevee for ya.)

I don't understand people who decorate their homes and fill their closets with their team's paraphernalia. I do understand wearing a team jacket and/or cap; I'm on my second Dodgers jacket (wore out one about 20 years ago) and I have seven Dodgers caps. That's just flying one's colors; no different than a bumper sticker.

I don't understand every damned game being an "event" to the media and many of the fans.

I don't understand any sport that thinks it needs cheerleaders.

I don't understand mania in general. I don't understand a lot of things. I just love baseball.

[ComerPerro]

18. I was really rooting for you guys against NY

[pokerfan]

42. Well, now you're just talking crazy.

I don't understand any sport that thinks it needs cheerleaders.

I enjoy sports because it's trivial and it's unscripted (hopefully) drama. I am primarily a fan of my university from which I graduate 24 years ago. Someone elsewhere in this thread said you can no longer be a fan after thirty years so I guess I only have six years left.

For me, football is king. The NFL has things running really well these days. Parity means anyone can win. No major scandals. NBA is pretty far down on my list.

CFB
NFL
CBB (especially March Madness)
MLB playoffs

And the Olympics every few years.

[ComerPerro]

17. Why do you follow politics?

Why do you get attatched to "your" party? Why do you spend money on candidates? Why give such a following that you have such little power or control over, on people who pretty much don't know or care that you are alive?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

25. Because politics actually benefits the country?

Call me an elitist if you want, but voting is just slightly more important than sports.

:eyes:

[ComerPerro]

35. But, in the scheme of things, you have no more control over

the results of an election than a sports fan has over the progress of his team.

You're just a spectator, like it or not.

And it doesn't matter how much you phone bank or canvass or protest or volunteer. You still have very minimal impact.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

38. As an individual I have minimal impact.

Without each individual, however, there would be no impact at all. We are but drops of water in the ocean, it is true, but never forget that without the individual drops, there would be no ocean in the first place.

[ComerPerro]

40. just like sports fans

[GreenTea]

19. Just continue to pretend and pontificate and get

that look......

[Evoman]

20. There are enough things I don't get...sometimes I feel

like I'm living on the wrong planet. I have never sat through one sports game..I don't care about things like that at all. Lol..but then I also don't understand funerals, weddings, religion, jewelry, cars {as a hobby}, patriotism or most "traditions" so maybe I'm just missing some part of my brain.

[gr8dane_daddy]

21. Because it's fun and it makes me happy....

just because you want to be a stick in the mud doesn't mean sports fans can't have fun.

[benny05]

24. I get it

But I don't directly spend money on it. I figure the products the TV advertises, some of which I buy, pays for the sport.

[rug]

26. It's a social lubricant.

[LostinVA]

27. I don't get it either

What I really don't get is why people go bonkers over college teams when:

1.) It's not their college -- they never went there, and

2.) They graduated like 30 years ago -- wtf???

[newportdadde]

28. Same could be said for those who follow politics.

Look at all those posts at DU with people so caught up with politics they get to the point of being physically ill etc etc with Bush.

Plenty of sports fans would think the same things about people who follow politics, the rallies, the protests, the money for candidates etc.

Both areas have hardcore followers.

[Arugula Latte]

30. But, as someone pointed out above -- politics affects lives in real ways.

Think about the people who have DIED because of the Bush administration, in Iraq and elsewhere. Think of the environmental degradation, the massive tax cuts for the wealthy that mean poor people have to go without basic services, etc. etc. etc. Surely you can see the difference between life and death policies and some games where people dress up in certain colors?

[ComerPerro]

37. but its not like you are involved, so why pretend?

Protest, phone bank, door-to-door all you want, you still won't have much influence on elections.

And even when you do, it is only when you are part of an already large group (fans).

And even then, you have no say on what goes on "on the field", all you can do is sit back as a spectator during votes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. THE TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!

That's why...


Go Packers!!! :hi:

[datasuspect]

31. dead kennedys song contextualizes it somewhat

"Terminal Preppie"

I go to college
That makes me so cool
I live in a dorm
And show off by the pool

I join the right clubs
Just to build an impression
I block out thinking
It won't get me ahead

My ambition in life
Is to look good on paper
All I want is a slot
In some big corporation

John Belushi's my hero
I lampoon and I ape him
My news of the world
Comes from Sports Illustrated

I'm proud of my trophies
Like my empty beer cans
Stacked in rows up the wall
To impress all my friends

No, I'm not here to learn
I just want to get drunk
And major in business
And be taught how to fuck

Win! Win!
I always play to win
Wanna fit in like a cog
In the faceless machine


I'm a terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal terminal
terminal terminal terminal terminal

I want a wife with tits
Who just smiles all the time
In my centerfold world
Filled with Springsteen and wine

Some day I'll have power
Some day I'll have boats
A tract in some suburb
With Thanksgivings to host


I'm a terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie
terminal terminal terminal preppie

[livetohike]

33. Long time Steelers fan here and

I look at football viewing as one of my hobbies. I am not safe to be around when I am watching the game :-). The emotional highs and lows are like riding a roller coaster.

Everybody has their drug - this is mine.

[PVnRT]

34. Why do people get so attached to "their" band?

Or "their" city? Or "their" whatever? There are rabid people with their own "causes" for everything, why is sports singled out? Try discussing mainstream music with an indie kid sometime and see what happens.

[skygazer]

41. Well, there are differences here

A band generally consists of the same members. A "cause" tends to be about a constant thing.

I understand why people enjoy a game - it's fun and exciting to watch, there's an appreciation for the skill and athleticism involved, etc. I think what the OP is wondering about, and certainly what I've never clearly understood, is why people get so attached to a specific team. Why not just enjoy the game, no matter who is playing?

Example - my SO is a Raiders fan (and not a real happy one right now). He's been a Raiders fan for 30 years. Now in that time, the players, coaches, all the personnel have changed and probably the majority of players were never from Oakland anyway. So what is it about that particular team that generates loyalty? Enjoyment of the game, easy to see. Team loyalty - harder to figure out.

And it's not necessarily a put-down to be unable to understand - there are some real defensive posts in here and I don't think most of us are trying to be snide or nasty about it. We just don't get it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. Because they have nothing worthwhile to live for?

I never understood it, either. I can see being excited by a game and watching it, even paying money to go see it in person (I'm on the list for Packers season tickets! Maybe by 2060 I'll be in!).

But the buying of Jerseys, t-shirts, team-logo-printed shit (jackets, mugs, plates, wall hangings, bumperstickers, etc. etc. etc.) and the self-identification with a particular team ("My team lost! I suck!" or "Your team lost last week, your city (or state) sucks and you suck! HA HA HA HA!!!!!").

:shrug: