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.
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.
In that world, there would be cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!
Thanks for the interesting link too!
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.
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.
Get thee to a nunnery.
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.
I’ve given your kind of fun many chances. It’s boring.
Stand by to hand over your union card, dude.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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). 