Confession time--I am male, and have 0 interest in sports

[statsman1982]

And I mean, any sports. Name a sport--I don't give a shit. I don't hate sports, I just genuinely fail to see the attraction. I find it genuinely puzzling that what are essentially schoolyard games somehow ingrain themselves into human culture and become more than just games. As a kid, my dad never watched sports. He always read novels or listened to music. I was never taken to a ball game, nor did I ever play any sports as a kid. I've generally felt this same amazement of the hold that sports have over people for my entire life.

Right now, the only sport that's even slightly on my radar is college football, mostly because it seems that everyone will either talk about school or about football. It's basically inescapable, so I do pick up some tidbits here and there. Right now, I know who our coach is, and who we're playing next week. That's it. I couldn't name a player, or assistant coach, on our team with a gun to my head.

One thing about college football that irks me is that these players are supposed to be students first, right? Yeah, right. Talk to any one of us who has had one in our class, and see how much studying is going on between games. I can't believe some people actually believe that these athletes have academics on their minds over football. They're there to play ball. Period. And that should be okay! They shouldn't have to go on with this charade that they're really interested in being students. I say, let them work as full-time football players for the university, and remove the student requirement. Hell, that's practically what happens with many of them. They get a university studies degree (i.e., just collect 120 hours by taking random classes), and then come and get a second degree because they actually want to find a job.

It seems this has turned into a mini rant about college football, but that's not really what I intended. My purpose in starting this is just to say "out-loud" that I have 0 interest in any sports, and see if there's anyone out there in Dope land with a similar "affliction." Here in Football Land, saying you just couldn't care less about your school's team is just a little bit frowned upon. I needed to get it off my chest.

Thanks.

[Alpha Twit]

My purpose in starting this is just to say "out-loud" that I have 0 interest in any sports, and see if there's anyone out there in Dope land with a similar "affliction." Here in Football Land, saying you just couldn't care less about your school's team is just a little bit frowned upon. I needed to get it off my chest.

I'm going to agree with you at least 95%. Living here in the hinterlands, you basically have to care about Husker football. If you don't then you're viewed as a Communist or alien. With that being said, feigning interest in sports has been a good social mechanism for me. It's gotten me out and I've made some very good friends. Even though I don't really care that much about the games proper, I love being part of the community and tailgating crowd at Husker games. As a result, I have generated some slight but real interest in the game.

Add in some interest in certain motorsports (noticeably rally driving) and I barely get my guy certification.

[statsman1982]

My purpose in starting this is just to say "out-loud" that I have 0 interest in any sports, and see if there's anyone out there in Dope land with a similar "affliction." Here in Football Land, saying you just couldn't care less about your school's team is just a little bit frowned upon. I needed to get it off my chest.

I'm going to agree with you at least 95%. Living here in the hinterlands, you basically have to care about Husker football. If you don't then you're viewed as a Communist or alien. With that being said, feigning interest in sports has been a good social mechanism for me. It's gotten me out and I've made some very good friends. Even though I don't really care that much about the games proper, I love being part of the community and tailgating crowd at Husker games. As a result, I have generated some slight but real interest in the game.

Add in some interest in certain motorsports (noticeably rally driving) and I barely get my guy certification.


Yeah, I've resigned myself to the fact that if I want any friends, I need to feign interest. I did that last night, in fact, at a friend's birthday party. He's into betting, so he had a whole list of the college games last night and was ticking off the games he'd won money on.

In another life, I was a radio DJ in a small town, and one of our duties was to produce sports broadcasts for all the high school teams in the area. After 6 years of that, I learned enough of the lingo and rules to blend in to a sports-loving crowd. Even now, I can blend in fairly well, but it is exhausting sometimes because the games are so boring to me.

[Kyla]

When I saw the thread title, my first reaction was "so?" but then I actually read the OP. I feel your pain. I go to a Big Ten university and have no interest in its athletic endeavors. I don't usually go around proclaiming this, but on occasion it comes up that I have never been to a football game or something like that, and people are just in disbelief. One friend of mine actually became angry with me. I am not kidding - he started challenging me and all of my reasons for not being interested. (Which don't come to much besides "I don't care", but he was not satisfied.)

However, I will note that a friend of mine in my program was a student athlete during our first year, which was his last year of NCAA eligibility. He was the captain of the basketball team and the only games I've watched our school participate in were when he and the team were competing in March Madness last year. (They got knocked out in the second round.) He took his academic success extremely seriously - he knew he was never going to be drafted into the NBA or anything - and I seriously have no idea how he managed to do both school and basketball at the same time. To top it off, he's one of the most genuinely kind people I've ever known. So, I don't know any other student athletes, but my experience with a limited sample size has been positive.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

Count me in. Growing up in Chicago in the 60s and 70s, I learned the futility of being a sports fan of any sort. Ever since then, I have had absolutely zero interest in any sports, unless you count women's jello wrestling.

[statsman1982]

When I saw the thread title, my first reaction was "so?" but then I actually read the OP. I feel your pain. I go to a Big Ten university and have no interest in its athletic endeavors. I don't usually go around proclaiming this, but on occasion it comes up that I have never been to a football game or something like that, and people are just in disbelief. One friend of mine actually became angry with me. I am not kidding - he started challenging me and all of my reasons for not being interested. (Which don't come to much besides "I don't care", but he was not satisfied.)

However, I will note that a friend of mine in my program was a student athlete during our first year, which was his last year of NCAA eligibility. He was the captain of the basketball team and the only games I've watched our school participate in were when he and the team were competing in March Madness last year. (They got knocked out in the second round.) He took his academic success extremely seriously - he knew he was never going to be drafted into the NBA or anything - and I seriously have no idea how he managed to do both school and basketball at the same time. To top it off, he's one of the most genuinely kind people I've ever known. So, I don't know any other student athletes, but my experience with a limited sample size has been positive.

In talking with a newly minted professor acquaintance of mine, I found out that in most colleges, the football program supports all the other sports programs, and that the other programs operate at a loss. At my university, I've heard, the seats in the basketball arena are rarely filled, even those reserved for season ticket holders. Football is king here. So maybe, if that's the general way college sports goes, the students not playing football are made more aware by their coaches that this is about has high as most of them are ever going to get. The basketball players I've met are usually pretty nice, but the football players act as if rules of civilized society don't apply to them. A couple of our football players several years ago were arrested and charged with burglary even.

People who played baseball and golf were always good students too, maybe because they garner even less attention than basketball players.

[elfkin477]

I understand, statsman1982. I'm female and have 0 interest in shoes. In fact, if the world were designed so it was possible to be barefoot 100% of the time, I'd be happier. Other women gush over how they're so happy they found the perfect shoes, and how you can never have too many, and it's awesome if they match an outfit you wear once a year max, and I'm left standing there thinking "what are you talking about? how can you possibly care so much about something whose primary purpose is to protect your feet from sharp objects and animal scat?" It sort of makes you feel like an outsider to not get something so commonly admired by your own gender, doesn't it?

[Koxinga]

I'm indifferent enough to homegrown sports, but try being an American in a part of the world that follows "futbol." If your society simply has to have these masturbatory aggression outlets by jingoistic proxy, I think actually going to war makes more sense than wrapping your national pride in that kind of stupidity.

[Superhal]

It's the same reason that athletes endorse products for men while models endorse products for women: the viewer wants to be them or be with them. If you have no desire for either, that's fine, but that's like saying you don't believe in evolution.

[ralph124c]

I feel the same. I just don't get excited about football.
Here in Boston, every day there is something about NE Patriots QB Tom Brady..his new contract, his car accident, his wife Giselle, their baby, what the baby wore..etc., etc.
I mean, I can understand a geniune fan's interest, but all this Brady stuff simply leaves me scratching my head and wondering...:smack:

[BMalion]

I agree, I am male, 49 and care nothing for sports, never have.

What funny is that a professioal football player is a pal of mine, we've had dinner at each other's houses (my definition of "pal") swell family.

However, I did like to watch the olympic kayak racing as a child I remember.

[CalMeacham]

I'm in the non-sports camp, as well. I really couldn't care less about any professional sport. I don't watch baseball or football. I don't watch the Superbowl. Or the Olympics.

I do like participating in sports - I've played on baseball teams when i was a kid, and on into grad school. Also organized team sports like softball, soccer, water polo, and ultimate frisbee. And i like solo sports like cycling, swimming, and skiing. But I don't like watching even the ones I enjoy or television, or even in person.

[Fir na tine]

Never have understood why everyone gets so excited. I'll watch the Superbowl for the commercials. If the World Series goes to 7 games, I might watch the 7th, unless I can cut the lawn - which is more interesting.

When friends talk sports I usually ask, "is that the game with the round ball, the pointy ball or the sharp pointed sticks?".

[Lanzy]

I don't like Team Sports. Not a one and I don't watch any, not even for the commercials. In fact if there is a ball in it, I don't watch it, even bowling and golf which I guess and not team sports. Hmm? Maybe I will just say I don't watch sports involving a ball of some kind.

Pretty much everthing I watch is fighting of some kind; boxing, wrestling, MMA, kickboxing, etc.

Don't get me too wrong, I play sports, bowl, golf, basketball, softball almost anything, but I don't like watching other people do them.

[campp]

Count me in.

We had a similar thread a few months ago. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=565742)

[Thudlow Boink]

A man with zero interest in sports, I can believe—but a statsman with zero interest in sports? :)One thing about college football that irks me is that these players are supposed to be students first, right? Yeah, right. Talk to any one of us who has had one in our class, and see how much studying is going on between games. I can't believe some people actually believe that these athletes have academics on their minds over football. They're there to play ball. Period. And that should be okay! They shouldn't have to go on with this charade that they're really interested in being students. I say, let them work as full-time football players for the university, and remove the student requirement. Hell, that's practically what happens with many of them. I think college football (and basketball) should be similar to college baseball: an option for players with or without pro aspirations who actually want a college education, but not a necessary stepping stone to a pro career, and not Big Business.

[robby]

And I mean, any sports. Name a sport--I don't give a shit. I don't hate sports, I just genuinely fail to see the attraction. I find it genuinely puzzling that what are essentially schoolyard games somehow ingrain themselves into human culture and become more than just games. As a kid, my dad never watched sports. He always read novels or listened to music. I was never taken to a ball game, nor did I ever play any sports as a kid. I've generally felt this same amazement of the hold that sports have over people for my entire life...Up until eight years ago or so, I would have agreed with just about everything in your post. My father (and later, my stepfather) never watched sports. Both did encourage me to play some team sports (T-ball, elementary school flag football, and Little League), but each time I played, it was a miserable experience for me. I was terrible, and my teammates made sure I knew it. I never played each of these sports for more than a season. (Much later, in high school, I did have moderate success as a competitive swimmer.)

Anyway, professional sports were a complete bore to me. I could never get into it, and was pretty well isolated in conversation with other guys because of it. College sports weren't any better. It wasn't helped by the fact that my college football team was pretty bad (but the Rice Marching Owl Band (MOB) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_Owl_Band) was a great show. We used to say, "OK, the game starts at noon, so we'll get there by 1 p.m. to catch the MOB, and be out of there by 2 p.m. at the latest." ;) )

March madness was a complete snore for me--and still is.

When I moved to New England as an adult, and the Patriots later won their first Superbowl, I still really didn't care at that point. I don't even remember watching the game.

But something changed for me around 2002. After the Patriots won their first Superbowl, my wife started watching most of their games, so I started watching them, too. To my surprise, once I learned the players and the game better, I actually started to enjoy watching football. I started catching more games, and got even more into it. When TiVo-type boxes came out, and I could rewind the action for things I'd missed, it helped even more.

Now I never miss a Patriots game. Go figure. I never would have guessed that I'd get so much into a sport.

I still can't get into baseball, basketball, hockey, or soccer, though. We sometimes get free tickets and go to a local minor league baseball game about once a year, but just for the hot dogs and beer. Watching the game itself is like watching paint dry, IMHO.

I feel the same. I just don't get excited about football.
Here in Boston, every day there is something about NE Patriots QB Tom Brady..his new contract, his car accident, his wife Giselle, their baby, what the baby wore..etc., etc.
I mean, I can understand a geniune fan's interest, but all this Brady stuff simply leaves me scratching my head and wondering...:smack:See above. Tom Brady is awesome. Plus, he's a real rags-to-riches story. He was a backup quarterback in college who never became the starter. In the NFL, he was a sixth-round draft pick who started his first season as the 4th-string quarterback. That first season, he completed 1 of 3 passes for a grand total of 6 yards. The next season he had advanced to the #2 position, but still languished in the background until Drew Bledsoe (the starting QB) got injured, at which point Brady took over and took the team on to win its first Superbowl.

P.S. I didn't learn any of this until a couple of years after the fact. ;)

[Cumberdale]

I feel exactly the same. I would much rather go outside and do something than sit and watch any sporting event. I haven't been to a super bowl party in years, but I'd usually end up in the kitchen talking with whoever was there and spent no time watching the game.

I do enjoy going out and inline skating, bike riding, walking and the like but can't sit and watch others do it.

The one thing I used to like about the super bowl when I lived in the DFW area was when the Cowboys were in during the 90's, the bike trails were practically deserted on the day of the game. It was awesome.

[Mk VII]

Hell, I have zero interest in watching 'other people' doing sports.

[CandidGamera]

Amen, brother.

[Student Driver]

I'm not a sports fan, but I think too often saying it is akin to saying "Oh, I never watch TV." I get the feeling that there's a bit of sneak bragging going on when people say it in certain circumstances-- their tastes are too sophisticated for sports-- despite the fact that I actually don't care about sports either. Not that I'm charging anyone here with that, since it's actually the topic of the thread. It's when it's said at parties or art galleries or local shows or whatever. I helmed my university's philosophy club for a while, and it was almost like the club's shibboleth. The participants were too busy thinking deep things to deign to notice eww... sports.

I honestly think I'm missing out on something of some cultural and social relevance, and it's my own loss. Kind of the same feeling I get when I admit not really listening to country or jazz, or not watching Bollywood films.

[Bob Ducca]

I just genuinely fail to see the attraction. I find it genuinely puzzling that what are essentially schoolyard games somehow ingrain themselves into human culture and become more than just games.

I've heard that our obsession with sports has something to do with our primitive hunter/gatherer tribal nature. Our clan going up against your clan to see who's the best and that sort of thing.

[Anaamika]

I'm a girl and a guy that is too much into sports is absolutely a dealbreaker.

I am into some girly things, and not some others. Shopping for example. SHopping is a necessary chore, not a joy.

[Freudian Slit]

I'm indifferent enough to homegrown sports, but try being an American in a part of the world that follows "futbol." If your society simply has to have these masturbatory aggression outlets by jingoistic proxy, I think actually going to war makes more sense than wrapping your national pride in that kind of stupidity.

I think I'd be the asshole back then (years and years ago when going to war against neighboring tribes was in) whining about why should the warriors get all the perks and was war really necessary. :D

[Kyla]

In talking with a newly minted professor acquaintance of mine, I found out that in most colleges, the football program supports all the other sports programs, and that the other programs operate at a loss. At my university, I've heard, the seats in the basketball arena are rarely filled, even those reserved for season ticket holders.

Ha, that's probably especially true at my university. A few years ago the basketball team was discovered to have broken a whole bunch of NCAA eligibility rules back in the 1990s. As a result, they had to do all kinds of things to make up for it, which hobbled the team for the next several years. They still haven't really come back from that, I guess.

[PhiloVance]

My experience is just the opposite of Robby; was very into sports as a kid, played for years (not much good but loved to play); watched sports on TV mostly football and baseball. Never much into basketball. Had favorite college teams, pro teams, etc. Then I soured on sports about the time of the Baseball strike in 1972. I thought at the time that this is supposed to be entertainment, not a business. Boy, how wrong I was. TV watching started to go downhill; today I watch if it's on at home which it isn't most of the time. If I go to a restaurant or a bar and the TV is on sports I will watch but mostly because it's on.

I still go to the occasional grand kids soccer, baseball or football game, but my interest in it is pretty much gone. I won't watch the professional version much, nor college. High school, as I said if a relative is playing.

Sports is pretty blah to me now.

[Chefguy]

I'm rapidly approaching zero. I still watch bits of March Madness, but pro basketball has become personality driven and uninteresting. Haven't watched a single football game in at least 20 years. Occasionally will watch boxing if someone like Manny Paquiao is fighting.

[Bryan Ekers]

I'll watch a highlight reel and be amused by the feats of skill, or the fluke shots, or the bloopers and such... but I can't say I much care what cities or countries the players represent.

Actually, in recent years I've started hoping the Montreal Canadiens will get to the finals of the Stanley Cup (since there are some positive economic effects) but lose (so we don't get a destructive celebratory riot).

[statsman1982]

A man with zero interest in sports, I can believe—but a statsman with zero interest in sports? :)

Ha, yeah, that's one thing that usually gives statisticians a tingle. That, and beer drinking, it seems. I went on a hike this summer with some statisticians from Florida, but I couldn't remember whether it was Florida State or University of Florida. When I see those two names side-by-side, all I see are two large schools, one of which has a kickass stats program. I don't see the apparently intense rivalry between them. I found out just how intense the rivalry was when I asked them how they liked University of Florida (turns out they were from Florida State :smack:) and they looked at me like I had pissed on their shoes.Whoops!

I will say that video games to me are what sports are to some people. I love them. I like talking about them, playing them, and even watching others play them (thanks, YouTube). Video gaming is much more popular than it used to be, but the lengths to which people will go to engage in that activity that are deemed socially acceptable aren't nearly what they are for sports.

Around here, there are offices that close early on game weekends. Students get excused absences for big road games (from some instructors, not me). When I was in high school, one of the assistant principals would take off work and travel to every Dallas Cowboys homegame, when the drive was ~14 hours round trip. Hell, my office mate went to LSU, and said they would close campus on some Fridays.

Imagine everything that sports fans do, but put it with video games. Tailgating for LAN parties ?:p Taking whole weekends off when a new WOW expansion pack comes out? Spending $1000 on a trip to E3? I bet a lot of us gamers would be called "immature" for engaging in "kid stuff." Oh, unless the game is Madden 2010:p

[EvilTOJ]

I'm a guy and I just can't watch them. They're slow and boring and I don't understand what's going on. And of course as I got older good luck trying to ask any male what was going on in the game (such as, what sport is this?) without getting snickering.

My coworker was going on about football season or whatnot starting (I don't remember what season it is) and he started using words that were incomprehensible. I stopped him before he went to far into it and said "I have no idea what you're talking about." so then he used his Women-Folk speak on me and I finally understood :D

I do like sports, but I tend to play ones that are self accomplishment oriented and not team sports.

[Maeglin]

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens_%28book%29) is a very good book on the relationship between play and culture generation. I read it in the context of some research I was doing on dueling, but IIRC there is some material applicable to sports, too.



Imagine everything that sports fans do, but put it with video games. Tailgating for LAN parties ?:p Taking whole weekends off when a new WOW expansion pack comes out? Spending $1000 on a trip to E3? I bet a lot of us gamers would be called "immature" for engaging in "kid stuff." Oh, unless the game is Madden 2010:p

We just need to go live in South Korea. I have no interest in going to a football game but I would absolutely watch a pro SC2 tournament on a big screen with thousands of other people. I try to imagine a world in which people come to work the next day marveling over an innovative mech build or really risky gambit at the water cooler instead of whatever it is they talk about.

[matt_mcl]

Every time the Canadiens make the playoffs, I know it's time to batten down the hatches and give up on going downtown any evening in the next several weeks, ad even then I know that the results of all playoff games will be brought to my attention by bellowing baboons stampeding up and down my quiet residential street, not to mention by newscasters treating it as though it were some sort of an event.

It's bizarre to me.

[dhkendall]

I think this is just one of the things that makes a Doper unique. This is probably the only place that the OP can post this and be preaching to the choir (heck, the only other message board I regularly hang out on, the Official Jeopardy Fan Board (http://boards.sonypictures.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=11) has a few sports nuts on it and "look" at me strange when I say I don't get/like sports.

I think this is just the jocks v. nerds dynamic after high school. Nerds will never understand sports, never did in high school, won't start now. Jocks will never get an orgasm from advanced trigonometry.

[Skald the Rhymer]

I can't quite say I have no interest in ANY sport. I boxed in high school and still like watching it; and if I walk into a room in which there is a tv showing women's tennis I won't necessarily change the channel, though that is probably just ogling. But I have negative interest in basketball and football.

[Thudlow Boink]

I think this is just the jocks v. nerds dynamic after high school. Nerds will never understand sports, never did in high school, won't start now.Is it the jocks or the nerds who play fantasy baseball, fantasy football, etc.? :)

[Acid Lamp]

30 year old male, I could care less as well. I enjoy going to a live game, but have no interest in televised games, following teams, or care who's beating who. Basketball isn't too bad locally unless it's the playoffs, but football season in the bane of my existence. TV, radio, everything is highjacked by the NFL for what seems like an eternity of boring analysis and armchair quarterbacking. ugh. I have no problem telling people that I don't know or care about it, but they always think i'm weird. Since that's par for course with me, it doesn't cause too much fuss.

[Walmarticus]

I'm absolutely astounded by how much perfectly normal people seem to care. Even a totally nerdy professor one day started talking about some game. Not just the game, but the intricacies of several specific team's players. I'm thinking it must take hours to memorize who lost to who, and who traded who.

And, does anyone thinks it's plausible that not knowing jack shit about sports will have a real impact on my future income?

[foolscap]

.................... I have had absolutely zero interest in any sports, unless you count women's jello wrestling.

TELL ME IT HAS ITS OWN NETWORK!!!! At long last a sport that I can enjoy.

[KennerTheGreat]

I'll watch a highlight reel and be amused by the feats of skill, or the fluke shots, or the bloopers and such... but I can't say I much care what cities or countries the players represent.

Actually, in recent years I've started hoping the Montreal Canadiens will get to the finals of the Stanley Cup (since there are some positive economic effects) but lose (so we don't get a destructive celebratory riot).

If they lose, won't Montreal be hit with a destructive angry riot, instead of a celebratory one?

[The Second Stone]

I could not have less interest in sports except that people I like to hang out with like to watch games and are really easy to talk to while doing so. For the last two years I have had a lodger who watches all Bay Area sports except the As, American League not being real baseball. So if there is nothing to do I'll sit and chat with him and ask about the details of what is going on. But I hadn't followed the Giants or any other baseball team since the early 70s and I forgot many of the detailed rules about tagging up, bunting, fouls, consulting with the pitcher, etc. Football and baseball have the potential to be a lawyer's paradise.

[alphaboi867]

...Students get excused absences for big road games (from some instructors, not me)...

I had several professors that made no secret of their displeasure at all the "allowances" they were "encouraged" to make for student-athletes (ie football players). The tenured ones were especially candid. Once sociology professor was more than willing to name or share "requests" made by athletic directors or administrators "in strict confidence" with his students. Always without naming the actual students involved, but he considered staff fair game. He bragged about the coachs had started actively warning athletes to never take a course or section he was teaching.

[The Hamster King]

I don't mind other people being interested in sports.

What I do mind is the automatic assumption by sports fans that everyone shares their interests.

[statsman1982]

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens_%28book%29) is a very good book on the relationship between play and culture generation. I read it in the context of some research I was doing on dueling, but IIRC there is some material applicable to sports, too.



Imagine everything that sports fans do, but put it with video games. Tailgating for LAN parties ?:p Taking whole weekends off when a new WOW expansion pack comes out? Spending $1000 on a trip to E3? I bet a lot of us gamers would be called "immature" for engaging in "kid stuff." Oh, unless the game is Madden 2010:p

We just need to go live in South Korea. I have no interest in going to a football game but I would absolutely watch a pro SC2 tournament on a big screen with thousands of other people. I try to imagine a world in which people come to work the next day marveling over an innovative mech build or really risky gambit at the water cooler instead of whatever it is they talk about.

In that world, there would be cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!

Thanks for the interesting link too!

[panache45]

I went to Ohio State for 7 years, and never went to a football game. Since then, I've lived in some very sports-obsessed cities, and am still indifferent about it.

I also don't care about drinking (especially beer), gambling or fine dining.

[Hello Again]

Most team sports don't interest me much; I really don't know much about them. I enjoy watching sports I know a bit about, but Equestrian sports are rarely on TV. :) I think that's like everything. Musicians usually enjoy musical performances more than non-musicians, &cetera.

When my husband took up hockey I learned a lot more about the game, I'm not an expert or anything, but I understand the basics of what's happening. Plus, after seeing what hockey looks like when newbs play it, I have a lot more appreciation for the skill level of a pro or good college player.

I recently found out that I have a second cousin who plays for the Montreal Canadiens. Most of my family is not very "sporty" so that's unusual! I actually don't know that side of the family well.

[gonzomax]

Get thee to a nunnery.

[ElvisL1ves]

All I can say is that you're all missing out on a hell of a lot of fun.

[Dante]

All I can say is that you're all missing out on a hell of a lot of fun.Your "fun" is not my "fun".

That's deep, I should put that in a fortune cookie.

[EvilTOJ]

All I can say is that you're all missing out on a hell of a lot of fun.

I've given your kind of fun many chances. It's boring.

[movingfinger]

Stand by to hand over your union card, dude.

[BigT]

Huh. I'm not sure where I fit. I've always been interested in the rules of sports, and, being in band in high school, I did develop the ability to enjoy individual games, but I never seek them out. The closest I can get is attending for social reasons, and even then I'm the guy who roots for who everyone else is rooting for, or just an arbitrary team. In fact, I used to tell people I always rooted for whoever was winning.

[OpalCat]

I'm a girl so I get a pass (yay!) on not liking sports, but for me it's deeper than just disinterest. See, I was raised by my mom, who is a sports fanatic. I grew up with basically sibling rivalry jealousy issues even though I was an only child: the other "child" hogging my mom's attention was sports. If there was a game on (and there always was) I was not to enter the room, try to ask a question, etc. I remember once I needed to get the scotch tape from the other side of the room and my mom made me crawl on the floor so I wouldn't walk between her and the tv. So I don't just not like sports. I DESPISE sports. I get an emotional gut reaction (literally, I feel it in my gut) just from hearing sports announcers talk.

My first husband didn't like sports either, which was great. My current husband does like them, but doesn't watch games very often. I watched the SuperBowl with him this year for the first time in my life and tried to enjoy it for his sake. He made margaritas, which helped.

[Chessic Sense]

As a kid, my dad never watched sports.

Boom.

This, more than anything else, is the reason for why you don't like sports. It's like hunting and fishing. It's an acquired taste. And as you get older, it's harder to acquire that taste. I'm sure you've come at it with an open mind before, but once you're an adult, your mind can't be open enough.

Ask all the Dopers that are also sports-loathers and I bet they'll tell you that their childhood household never watched sports. Then take all the people that like, say, baseball and football but not hockey, and I bet you their dads (or moms, sometimes) watched baseball and football but never hockey.

Trying to like sports as an adult is like trying to force yourself to fall in love. You can't love the person in the future because you don't love them now. And if you didn't love a sport as a kid, you won't love it now.

I think this is just one of the things that makes a Doper unique. This is probably the only place that the OP can post this and be preaching to the choir
...
I think this is just the jocks v. nerds dynamic after high school. Nerds will never understand sports, never did in high school, won't start now. Jocks will never get an orgasm from advanced trigonometry.

I don't think either part is true. First, I think there are a TON of guys that don't like sports. I don't find it to be a rare trait at all, in real life or on the internet. Second, I've never found there to be a big difference between jocks and nerds with respect to sports. I have noticed that nerds like baseball and jocks like football, but I've never found those interests to be exclusive of each other, and I don't think there are many nerds that shun sports entirely.

I like certain sports, but as long as I have "chess" in my username, you can pry my nerd card from my cold, dead hands.

[LurkMeister]

I don't mind other people being interested in sports.

What I do mind is the automatic assumption by sports fans that everyone shares their interests.

It's not just sports fans that assume everyone is interested in sports. Most of the cable/satellite providers have various sports packages that they not only use as a selling point for their service, but also constantly push at their current subscribers. I'm always getting emails and notices from DirecTV about the sports package of the season; tennis, football, baseball, etc. A few weeks ago when I had to talk to someone at their tech department several times about a problem I was having with my DVR, everyone I talked to concluded their call by asking me if I was interested in signing up for their NFL service. When I explained that I had no interest in sports of any kind, one of them confessed that neither was he, but he was required to suggest it to all the customers, and he wasn't happy about it either.

[robby]

...I have noticed that nerds like baseball and jocks like football...I've always pretty much been a nerd, and hate baseball. I used to be indifferent to football, but as I stated in my earlier post, I love watching the NFL now.

Heck, if anything, I'm getting more into it as time goes on. For the last few years, I only watched Patriot games. This past week, I actually watched both Monday Night Football games (until I fell asleep at midnight, anyway), and the Patriots weren't playing in either game.

I've found that after watching the whole rest of the league play the Pats over the last few years that I'm now familiar with most of the other teams, so watching two other teams play is also interesting (especially when the games involve watching the overhyped Jets and Chargers lose). ;)