I don't "get" sports fans

Beats the hell out of me. I'd rather be actually in the game than watching others play.

Something tells me you're the slightly pretentious nerd who wouldn't get it no matter how many times I explained.

You could try, though.

I'm in the same boat as Patrick. I don't get the emotional fervor over watching a bunch of strangers compete. I have friends I've asked about it, and they tell me if their team loses a football game, it takes them three days to come out of the funk it put them in. One guy wouldn't go to school til Wednesday if his team lost. Me: "Baseball too?" "No, they play baseball every day." It's like someone explaining a new religion to me.

Don't be that person, Ripoll. You're going through the kind of formative years now, establishing your identity as a person and trying to ingest film and culture and stuff. I've seen you start to try and become a hardcore cinephile and all that, but balance is important. Sports is something that requires a little faith and suspension of disbelief, just like film. The fans, like some for movies, ruin it for me too but don't judge with too wide a blanket because I think you'll miss out on some great and vital stuff if you try too hard to be one thing. You can function as a pretty badass guy and still be a sports fan.

A lot of sports fans don't get why we'd obsess over films. A lot of gearheads don't understand why so and so has interest in whatever he/she enjoys.

Sports are not my thing, at all, but I can understand why people enjoy it. I have to admit I like watching people beat the shit out of each other though, so some sporting events work for me.

People like conflict is really all it is. They used to have chariot racing and gladiators, then jousting and the like and now its just more formalized and less deadly. Its also a way to vicariously be a part of the action by associating yourself with a team, you more keenly feel the highs and the lows when you can work it into a good Us vs Them mentality because it makes you feel like you had some hand in the outcome thanks of your support.

Aww, that's kinda sweet.

It fills the need to associate with a group. If the team wins, then the fans feel that they are part of that success. They aren’t. It’s just an artificial ego boost for people who need that sort of thing.

It also fills human’s inborn need for violence. Someone can feel like they are going to war without having to kill or be killed. I like my violence from movies, without the team bullshit.

If you’ve ever observed the sports fan in it’s natural habitat (the sports bar, any random living room or a tail-gate party) you’ll notice that they flip out when the opposing team breaks any rule and aren’t caught. If, on the other hand their team breaks a rule then they say “If the referee didn’t see it, it didn’t happen.” Justice is a meaningless concept in cases like this. They also show absolute rage when a trained athlete on their team drops a ball, see Stanhope, “Die Laughing”.

One observation: sports fans are little different than Trekkies. They wear goofy, colorful clothes with insignias on them so that the whole world will know where their interests lie (Starfleet uniform at a comic convention vs. one of those team color painted fucks in the stands). They speak their own language (Klingon vs. meaningless statistics). They associate themselves with the labor of others as if they were an actual participant.

This kind of behavior can also be noticed at political conventions. Most Democrats and Republicans I talk to are more interested in their team winning than actually improving their country. They vote for the same mopes over and over again. That’s why Republicans have been winning in the last decade. They tap into that team spirit better than the Democrats.

The people who I’ve talked to who support McCain say something like: “I know McCain is like Bush, but I don’t know what it is, but I don’t trust Obama.” Maybe he just isn’t wearing their colors.

I do “get” sports fans. It’s just natural human behavior applied to a game.

But it's completely true.

It did sound condescending. Sorry. That was only partially my intent. I also didn't mean to suggest that sports fans were racist. Considering how many players are black, Hispanic, etc. that would be a ludicrous position. My point was that it is blind group behavior.

In every sporting event, somebody wins. (well except for fruity soccer ties) Think of how dreadful your local newspaper would be without an entire section devoted to people who win.

Life is crappy. Seriously. 9 times out of 10 something's happening that sucks. Sports is the ultimate diversion from that.

Hey man, Hockey town when your team is in the play offs in Western Canada is a big deal. The overwhelming amount of excitement by seemingly anybody will infect ya, sports fan or not. That's where Bandwagon fans come from, and maybe even grow into big sports buffs.

I don't agree with the violence thing, but Thomas is right in that all humans want to be part of a group. We all have a need to belong, we just find different outlets for it. I think sports is an easy outlet because you don't have to do anything but root for a team. Of course there are hard core fans that can spout of player stats for the past 50 years, but even the most newbie fan can feel welcome at a sports bar and get a sense of pride when their favorite team wins. I'm a casual sports watcher, but I can start a conversation with just about anyone in the world just by asking what their favorite sport is. It's a universal language. Whereas trying to talk to someone about an art house film Ive just seen is near impossible.

I think people generally get into sports via family or school. I don't know anyone who started becoming a sports fan as an adult, but it can happen. And as someone who plays sports a lot (I'm on several different softball and volleyball teams), there is nothing like putting your trust in other people to work for a common goal. Sports is a great equalizer. No matter what race, class, gender you are, when you are out on the field or court that shit doesn't matter. You are one team working together and honestly its one of the greatest feelings of I've ever experienced. I have bonds with high school teammates that are stronger and deeper than I have with blood relatives. I can't imagine living without sports.

I guess I'm on both sides of the fence here, I'm a huge film buff/ nerd and a big sports fan, Colts Football, Pacer & IU Basketball and Dodgers baseball. For sports it's more of a life style here in Indiana. (Pretty much how college football is in the south.) While sports are a hobbie, I see my film side to be a life style. Sure I wear a jersey when I go out to watch games, I scream and yell when my teams are doing well, and I get pissed when they don't. For myself it's more of a stress release. On sunday its football, where I can get away from everything. From sunday night through saturday night I'm on campus.

How about the nature of sport: competition.

Like playing chess, or monopoly, or anything else that takes strategy, skill, or plain luck, sports fill peoples needs for competition.

People by nature are competitive. I think there is a basic need in people to feel they are better than someone else, in many respects. I think that's the point. Playing sports fills this need. Think about it: what do you do, Patrick, what do you compete in, that gives you a feeling that you're better than someone else?

People who either can't play anymore, or those that never got to play, enjoy sports. It's fills the need to think you are better than someone else. Maybe that's the problem, deep down inside, with those people who are devastated when their team loses. They can't handle the fact that someone is better than them.

I have a guy in my office like that: he ducked out on our trip to go see Cloverfield the night the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs last year. He was upset for days, like his team died or something; went through all the stages of coping with death.

I'm a fan of all sports, but I've never been like that. All sports fans are not alike.

The basic conceit is you're not merely watching, you're participating. When you watch a particularly good sporting event, you make associations, with teams, with individual athletes, and when they do well, it feels as if you did well. Nuts, right? Except, it's exactly the same with film.

I don't see as neat a separation between observer and performer as you appear to believe exists in sport, and, since this is a movie forum, that shouldn't surprise you in the least, as film functions rather similarly. When a character goes through a particularly gut wrenching sequence, I don't squirm because they're going through something awful, I squirm because it feels as if I am.

While I imagine it's possible to appreciate a film, or sporting event, in purely technical terms—like looking in wonder over the construction of a particularly impressive long take in, say, Children of Men—without that association they would both lose something intangible, yet integral to the experience.

Yeah, I'm not going to malign someone for enjoying watching balls fly over their head like a retard.

(thank you, Doug Stanhope)

Does competing for attention count? I kid, I kid.

Then there would be more room for local and international news that is usually not reported on. Dreadful.


The fans aren’t better than someone else. The players are. Play cards, get a Playstation, do something. Sports fills another need: to live vicariously through someone else and to associate yourself with one group as opposed to another.

Similar to what MoNkaholic said, movies fill that need to live through someone else’s eyes. That’s why movies where the good guys win do better. People feel good when their “team” wins. If you want to know why certain movies do better at the box office--there’s your answer. That’s why fans throw a shit fit when Devin or someone else doesn’t give “their” movie a glowing review. He’s not totally on Batman’s team and that makes them feel bad.

No offense, but that's a piss poor attitude to have.

I think there's also something to be said for the sense of unpredictability. When you see a film or a play or watch a TV show, you're watching something that's scripted -- you may not know how it ends, but the outcome has been determined long ago. With a sporting event, all the practice and preparation in the world will only tell you who should win, not who will win. No matter how bad a season the Bucs are having -- and believe me, I've lived through some dreadful ones -- in those few minutes before kickoff, there's that excitement that they may just pull this off. There's the growing excitement when it looks like they might just do it. And there's either the euphoria when it actually happens -- or the heartbreak where one mistake, one bounce, one play brings it all crumbling down.

Juliet's never going to wake up in time to tell Romeo she's okay, but the Giants just might beat the Patriots.

Is competitiveness really that big a thing over in the US? I mean we have alpha males and shit over here, but I've never seen people get that competitive about anything.

Part of my general amusement with Sports fans is that even on a 'supporting your local team' level it's faulty due to the way the transfer market makes most professional sports teams abandon anyone from their local area.

Competitiveness is healthy. It makes us strive, makes us achieve more than we ever would under ordinary circumstances. It's the required ingredient for success.

I was lucky enough to grow up watching Magic Johnson lead fast-breaks, Larry Bird hit buzzer-beaters, and Michael Jordan fly. The art is in the playing; like great jazz. Seeing such a athlete/ artist challenged in the battles of competition, doing something spectacuar to become victorious- one of life's pure pleasures.

That's the thing - sports allow you to truly invest yourself in something, to care. The fact that the outcome doesn't truly matter makes it safe to commit yourself wholly to the team and players you like. In a society that glorifies worthless media whores on reality shows, sports are a reality show where the competitors have a true talent.

Nonsense. A newspaper does not have a limit on the number of pages. If they deemed those items important (and profitable) they'd add pages for them. In reality, you'd likely get LESS of the truly important news if sports weren't covered, as I suspect the profits from sports fans subsidize some of the other pages.

I agree, and I hate those people. Perhaps they need more sports in their life, so they can leave the rah-rah behavior behind when it comes to important decisions.

I'm surprised.

Europe has (and some might argue the UK) some of the most fanatical and worst examples of sports fans in the world. Often it seems like another outlet for pent up nationalism.

I think it's very hard to defend or explain why a passion of yours is important. Sports to me has a sort of intangible side to it where it helps you connect with people. If you go to a bar to watch a game, and there's another group of people wearing your team's colors, you're best friends for the next four hours. My best friend and I have been to almost every major South Florida sporting event for the past decade and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. There's something special about being to say "I was at that game". Of course I have absolutely zero to do with the team playing other than I'm from the city they represent, but if you can come to learn the nuances of sports you start to see that it is in fact an art and a meticulously planned medium.

I think Football sort of soaks up a lot of peoples competiveness and nationalism, especially in Britain.

Sports act as a cultural touchstone in communities. I'm from Syracuse which houses a University with a fine athletic tradition... and which houses very little of anything else. So SU sports form that common bond not just with the fan and the team but between fans. And when something out of the ordinary happens (the lacrosse team wins its annual championship, the basketball teams progress far in a tournament, the football team wins a game) it's something that the community can get excited about... and not just fans.

Then there's the search for excellence. When you see an excellent film, you know it. You've just witnessed something truly inspiring. And then the guy next to you thinks it was absolute drivel. Excellence in the arts is a subjective thing. Excellence in athletics is objective. People can (and do... oh how they do) debate the overall value of a player or merits of a team, but you can't argue with a Mariano Rivera cutter. You can't argue with a Barry Sanders run or a Randy Moss route. You can't argue with Carmelo Anthony's 15 footer (this refers to a jump shot taken approximately 15 feet from the basket). Sport offers one of the few opportunities for witnessing undoubted excellence.

Then there's the drama. And not the manufactured drama of the Olympics. Real drama. Athletes pushing themselves to the limits of endurance. Perforamance under pressure. Playing while hurt. Comebacks. Underdogs. Cinderella stories. Quests for perfection. Plucky rookies and crafty veterans. Records breaking. Barriers breaking. Strategy. Teamwork. There's a reason why sports make such a common backdrop for movies.

And sports are about tradition. A connection to the past. At least it is when you're a Yankee fan.

And athletes on a team are not strangers. Not to the fan. When you follow a sports team you get to know the players. You watch a baseball team for 162 games and you find out more about them than is, quite honestly, healthy. You follow their stories in the newspaper and you get to know them. There comes a time when people on your team become first names whle everyone else in the league become last names. (To me, the Yankees are Derek, Mo, Jorge, Robby, Hideki and ARod. The Red Sox are Shithead, Asshat, Herpes and Big Papi). So when your team loses, it's disappointing. I've never lost a day's work because of that disappointment but I'd be fibbing if I said I've never lost sleep.

Not even competitive in life? You're never gonna go anywhere if you aren't.

I love (American) football and baseball, I played those sports as a kid and it's Sunday tradition to get together with the family and watch the Giants play. If you don't understand why people get into sports at this point, you never will.

I'm not a competitive person at all either and I'm doing fine in life. The idea that to get by you have to assert your dominance over your contemporaries is pretty fucking ridiculous.

OK, but you competed with someone else for your job right? Did you ever work harder to prove you could do something better than someone else? That's being competitive.

Bullshit!

I disagree. I, like Patrick, didn't enjoy sports as a whole most of my life. At some point I started watching more, whether it was to be a part of a larger community of people or to have something to do with my friends. Nowadays I find myself able to appreciate the nuances of a well played game.

Maybe it's also because I grew up playing sports on a highly competitive level that I gained an appreciation for them as a whole and still carry that with me.

Good luck dating.

Girls don't like guys who are into sports. They like guys that only pay attention to them and write poetry under the changing leaves of the Autumn season.

Seriously. I don't see how anyone can say they aren't competitive, even if it's not in sports. It's just natural, and I don't know how you can avoid all forms of competition for your entire life.

You aren't being serious, right? Women are the craziest sports fans, because they actually want to fuck the players.

Yeah, Patrick, your chances of banging some generic girl who wears a stranger's name on the back of an unflattering jersey and spends every Sunday getting drunk in a bar just plummeted.

People for whom competition doesn't help: competitive nerds.

Where I work, you don't really compete in that sense. You're assessed at interview against a bunch of criteria and whoever scores the most gets the job, it's a ridiculously automated way of doing things but it means you're competing more than anything else against your self.

Everyone competes with everyone else in some way or manner. Saying you're not competitive means you've never tried to win at anything? Cards, board games, video games? Video games, Thom Marshall??!!

And as for the fans: fans can make a difference, or else there would be no such thing as home court advantage. There is an advantage to playing in front of people cheering for you, at every level from amateur to professional sports.

There are fans, and there are fanatics.

Spike is as competitive as a mother fucker. And as we all know, mother fuckers are the most competitive type of person.

BTW, I was at a bar last night surrounded by Dodgers fans. I know officially hate the Dodgers, and sports fan dudes are worst on a dance floor, because they will literally stand like a wall of wolves. The problem is that makes women defensive, which changes the whole attitude of the place. When all the women are watching their asses, and you've got a line of portly fellows, I left by 12:30. Cinema is about creating empathy, which makes it inherently more intellectually worthwhile than sports. Then again, I can't think of a romantic comedy that is less predictable than a sports game.

Huh ... you do realize that the moment your scores are compared against others and the highest one is rewarded, you've just competed against your co-workers right?

You've obviously never witnessed me playing videogames. I get more amusement out of complete inability to kill people more than anything else. And how is dating competitive, I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I was competing against another guy for a girls affections. Once again it's more like you're competing with yourself (ie trying to desperately not let onto how nerdy you are and how crippled you are emotionally)

But there's no human interaction involved whatsoever, you don't even see the other people going for the job.