Turning 50 this year, and will rarely - if ever - turn on a pro sports game for entertainment. Exceptions would be the superbowl as our family cooks chili and watches mainly for the ads and the halftime, and now I’m watching the Hawks in the Cup finals as my daughter is a big fan (at least the games that are on a channel I get. Fucking Versus?!) But you couldn’t pay me to watch a baseball game on TV or in person.
The only sports I’ll regularly watch on TV are golf and MMA.
But I’ll happily engage in just about any pick-up game going.
An older guy on the bus tried to strike up a conversation about the local baseball team, and I grinned sheepishly and told him I’m not a sports fan. He said, “Oh, then I bet you’re into computers, right?”
Er, guilty as charged. I think he might be onto something.
One of my favorite lines I read recently was from - I think - a Richard Stark “Parker” novel. In one scene he walked into a bar, and described the guys discussing sports as (paraphrase) “celebrating and regretting other people’s successes and failures.”
I’m sure it is not entirely fair or universally applicable, but when someone is going on and on about some athlete or team’s accomplishments, a part of me often wonders “So have YOU done anything lately?”
Motorcycle riding, camping, sailing, fishing, hiking, sure! Organized, high priced, commercially endorsed, overpaid athletes on steroids epitomizing the greed and wealth of the few, not so much.
but what do I know?
This would be us. My husband is not a huge sports fan at all. I, however, adore both pro and college football, college basketball and the Indy Racing League. Nascar is okay. And I’m insufferable during the Iditarod.
Just for the record, hubby is almost 42, and I’m almost 46.
Yeah I did. In it you say that you just mindless agree with whatever they’re saying about sports. Just say you don’t watch sports. We that watch sports don’t care that you don’t watch. We’re not going to give you a swirlie or something.
I was going to post that all you guys who don’t like sports are all closeted homosexuals but y’all don’t know me well enough to know that I would only be making a silly remark for the fun of it.
As it is, I am pretty much the only member of my cadre who enjoys sports and I do so because of the wargame aspect not the sweaty rah-rah aspect of it.
I’m a 40 yr old male, not much into sports either.
The only thing that interests me sports wise is hockey but I’m only a playoff fan, and only a Ottawa Senators fan. Once their out so am I. I think its more of an attraction to being part of the cities spirit than the actually sport, Elgin st becomes quite the party.
I’ve noticed though other guys like me that aren’t interested in sports so much typically had the same interests either when they were kids our as an adult. As a kid I was into drawing, comic books, dungeons & dragons. Typically interested in nerd stuff. Now my main interests is art , music, reading, building models etc.
I was enrolled in sports as a kid and enjoyed playing organized hockey and baseball but never really stuck with me as an adult , I’d rather be painting on canvas or playing bass guitar. I do enjoy cycling though, but not hard core about it.
I get strange looks as well when I have to say, “sorry not really into sports” I can almost recognize what the reactionary look means to my statement “what you a fag?”
Exactly. Sports are social lubricants, for men; an instant ice-breaker. Sort of like talking about the weather - it’s a way of signalling friendliness and nonaggression.
Even if you’re not into sports - not that there’s anything wrong with that - it’s useful to have a nodding acquaintance with the headlines. Like Oakminster said upthread - just listen to about 20 minutes of ESPN and you’ll be good.
It’s a funny thing - I am into sports (except for those boring exercises in complete pointlessness known as golf and NASCAR), but I don’t give a hoot in hades for pop culture - never seen *American Idol *or *Dancing With The Stars *or Survivor, and don’t listen to Top 40 radio. (I once waited on a small woman who I was later told was Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez of TLC. I had no earthly idea who she was.) But I’ve never heard anyone strike up a conversation with “So, who do you think’s going to win Dancing?”, the way men do with “So, who do you like in the NBA Championships?”
My feelings for sports run from indifferent to hostile; the latter flaring up when something is preempted when a game runs long. I also find crowd noise aggravating. I did enjoy soccer as a boy, but not enough to play anything as an adult; and watching other people play is as fun as watching grass grow.
Maybe not but the point people are making is that in some cases it leaves little else to talk about in a small talk situation. Personally I don’t find that an issue as there is always other stuff to about, or maybe people in the UK are less sports obsessed than you USians. Dunnon.
I dunno, I always thought a bunch of grown men in tight clothing slamming into each other and fighting over who gets to play with/fondle/etc a …ball… was rather “gay”, to use the common vernacular
40 Yr old male here, not interested in the least in sports, and like Der Trihs, can be actually hostile to televised sports, i find them the epitome of boredom
Now, if you could integrate actual weaponry into the game, then I might watch…
Skeet-Golf, a batter in baseball not dropping the bat when he runs the bases, instead using it to club opposing team members that get in his way, add arm-mounted chainsaws to turn basketball into Mutilation-Ball, and put explosives inside the football, either a container of nitroglycerine, or a timed explosive…
The real hilarious irony is that I have a close family member who is male and gay. He’s a sports fanatic, is ridiculously athletic and was always quite naturally skilled at pretty much every sport. While here I am, hetero, with no interest and little talent.
To me, spectator sports are just another realm of geekiness, one that I’m not into (as another poster said, I vary from indifferent to hostile) but for some reason is more socially acceptable than any other.
Fortunately, not being anything close to a “real” man, I seem to have escaped the requirement. When people ask me what sports I like, I just say “politics,” and change the subject.
Same. Male, over 50, absolutely zero interest in sports. Not even the Olympics. Some things you simply cannot help knowing, such as Tiger Woods is a golfer, and the World Cup is every four years, but otherwise I have no sports knowledge whatsoever. It is the one area in which my knowledge is completely deficient, and I have no desire to improve it.
This mystifies me too. I’m in medical school, which leaves time for little else in life, and it amazes me how many of my classmates keep up with all their home teams, some with college teams as well. Even some of these surgeons who practically live in the OR 24/7/365 seem to come in every day talking about who won which game and who made such a great play and who’s getting traded where and who’s a free agent, etc. It seems like it would be a full-time job just to keep up with all this stuff.
Did you actually read anything posted?
