The question was why do people enjoy sports, not why do people think sports are a productive use of their time.
I like to watch sports. I have never been good at playing sports; I’m very uncoordinated. I am not fat. I get a vicarious thrill.
But who is arguing that sitting around watching them all the time is a good thing? Personally I don’t think doing anything all the time is a good way to live your life. Not even working, reading, playing guitar, eating, watching TV, listening to opera,anything. Sometimes the fans of some of these activities seem to be the fattest and laziest.
A lot of it is defined goals. Personally I think the popularity of Video games is the same thing. There is a general vagueness to life, where people are driven to succeed, but it is increasingly difficult to figure out how exactly you are doing. But sports are a nice little time out of the real world where “we” can beat “you” without getting into philosophical reflection about what things really are. Watching sports things are clear and defined and fun.
I’m always amazed at the tunnel vision displayed by those types of responses (not the OP).
It’s almost as if they completely lack the ability to take their own experiences regarding some activity and project onto another person that same feeling but associated with a different activity.
I guess I shouldn’t be too critical of them because I don’t know what it’s like to have their brain, in which case I am kind of doing the same thing back at them. It’s possible they are truly lacking that capability.
When I was young football was my favorite sport. I loved the physical movement and action, bodies crashing into each other, diving to tackle someone that almost got away, jumping up to make catch - all of the physical movement and collisions intertwined with competition.
As an adult I still enjoy seeing those aspects, but I also really enjoy the chess-game nature of football.
This is the most grokkable answer to the question I have ever read. Thank you.
Maybe the point wasn’t clear. Reading, playing guitar, opera, etc. are not activities that are predicated on physical fitness. I’m talking about “participating” in one of the most basic and probably instinctual forms of human social interaction1 (actually playing sports) only vicariously–substituting the actual practice with proxy only.
I’m also talking about the almost obscene degree to which this happens with sports in particular. Can you deny that the Superbowl (as a broadcast, reason for gathering, etc.) is more than anything else the most exalted single celebration of consumption in American culture today after Christmas, a celebration which for so many means foremost drinking a lot, eating a lot, and reverentially analyzing advertisements telling us to buy? Haven’t you ever been forced, in order to get into a stadium, to go through a maze of tail-gaters set up around their vehicles, who spend more time getting drunk in the parking lot than actually watching the game? These examples are not some kind of fringe cultural phenomenon–it’s mainstream culture. Can you seriously find any parallel to this behavior involving reading or listening to opera?
1Indeed, many many behaviorists don’t consider any animal activity to be truly “play” in the common sense–even kittens playing with strings. That is all inborn and vital preparation for survival skills such as hunting.
What about watching a sport precludes you from trying it?
I love the action, the excitement of waiting to see if my team will score, or prevent the other side from doing so. The movement, and the whole rivalry thing is exciting.
It can get really tense watching and you’re on pins and needles during a close game. It’s also fun to join in with other fans and cheer and root for your team.
I’m mostly a hockey fan, (Penguins!) and I’ll watch football, but only if the Steelers are playing. I love hockey – I love the fast pace of it. Unlike football or baseball, it’s not one team is up at bat, or one side has the ball now. Both sides are going back and forth, and anything could happen at any moment. And I’ll admit it: I like a good hockey fight.
And I like taking a side, and dressing up in black and gold, wearing my Kris Letang jersey, and yelling LET’S GO PENS!!! and screaming along with my fellow Pens fans.
…as opposed to, say, sitting in front of our computers posting messages here? 
(Seriously, when my wife and friends think of me wasting my time, this is what they bring up.)
I was about to say something like that, but this is said so much better. But there are only two sports that I enjoy watching: baseball and curling. They are both dismissed by some as too slow, but I think that’s why I enjoy them. I used to like football, but there is too much hitting and not enough finesse. Same with hockey (especially since they started using the “blue line trap” that killed the end-to-end rushes). And, in the case of curling, there is also women’s curling which is fun for a different reason. My wife loves baseball for similar reasons. And she commented yesterday that for three hours she doesn’t have to think about the world’s problems, which echos the above quote.
I can throw out a few pop-psych reasons.
- It appeals to our competitive instincts. Are there any games you play? Do you want to win?
- It can be spectacular. Sometimes I’m left wondering “How the hell is that possible”.
- People form an emotional attachment with teams and players, so care about their success and failures.
- It can tap and re-enforce feelings of patriotism.
- Following a team can bring people together.
- It can be unpredictable.
- It can be tactically rich, and therefore intellectually stimulating to watch. For example, I used to find tennis unwatchable, just two people knocking a ball back and forth until one made a mistake. Now I see it as two players using highly honed skills and clever shot selection to manoeuvre their opponent around the court. Often the mistakes come when one player is forced to go for a very difficult shot or lose the rally.
- It can fuel people’s fantasies. Most people have probably imagined themselves scoring that goal at one time or another.
The world of sport is not very rational, it depends on the collective illusion that where a ball goes actually matters, but that is true of many things that make life worth living. It is rational for people to watch sport if they enjoy doing so.
I can also give you lots of reasons to dislike sport, such as overpaid, egotistical stars, obsessed, one-eyed fans, disputes over referee decisions and rampant commercialism.
There’s definitely something tribal at play, as someone mentioned. For me, anyway. I love sports, playing and watching. And I enjoy any well-played, interesting game. But I HAVE to watch the Phillies (and Eagles, and Flyers, and Sixers). There are fleeting moments where it hits me as a bit silly, having such emotional investment in a group of millionaires who don’t even know me. But then I think of the real joy I have had from sports over the years and come back to my senses.
My son is just back from college this weekend, and he and I went to Citizen’s Bank Park yesterday to watch the Phils blank the Braves. It was a chance to chat and cheer and just soak it all in. Man, that was fun.
There is some interesting research on how being affiliated with a team that has won helps our self-esteem, if only briefly.
Like you, I am not a sports fan, but there are lots of good answers in this thread: getting away from one’s ordinary life with all its worries, having a clearly defined goal and winners and losers (as opposed to the fuzziness of real life), being part of a group larger than oneself, etc. It almost makes me want to become a fan. 
I missed the Indians game last night so I got up early today so I could listen to the archive of the audio of the game before today’s game came on
For me, every season is a fun adventure. It’s definitely like a soap opera where the actors are real and there is super-human skill going on.
I also do like the sense of camaraderie among fans (although increasingly hard to find with Indians fans) and the happy family memories it brings, having grown up in a sports family.
Do any of you who don’t like sports like to watch people play video games? Or watch poll results get tallied over a time, or even watch what is Trending on Twitter? Watching sports is sort of like that.
In addition the many good posts above …
People like to be critics. If you’ve ever watched Olympic skating & thought to yourself, “that’s a 9.5”, you’ve done it.
You’ve been a critic (or call it a judge) of something you actually have no hope of doing. Which is empowering. I can’t play baseball, I can’t umpire it, but I sure can critique it. And in my little mental world, my word is Law. Folks eat that up.
Another similar but not identical take …
It’s fun to see the close play and decide for yourself whether it was in or out, fair or foul, safe or out. Then comes the agreement or not with the officials and the commentators. Heck, I think half the reason the NFL went to coach’s appeals & official replays was not to ensure the best factually right outcome, but to maximize the drama. The networks sure play each challenge up that way.
Another thought …
Sport has clear objectives, clear rules, and pretty close to perfect law enforcement. And excellent visibility into what really happened, complete with replays. Would that the rest of our world was like that.
When many grow up, they spend a hell of a lot of time playing sports. I played baseball every summer day when I was a kid… I still can feel the rush of chasing down a fly ball. The smell of the glove. The feel of a ball settling in the webbing as you snag a fly ball after a long run. The feel of connecting a bat dead center on a fastball.
In a way, watching a game takes you back to childhood feelings and memories. It is an echo of your carefree childhood days.
Moving thread from IMHO to The Game Room.
You might as well ask:
Why do people go to the movies?
Why do people watch Survivor?
Why do people watch American Idol?
Why do people watch CSI?
Personally watch things that really happen, other than something that another person has written, and others have interpreted with direction and acting.