Which (relatively) popular sport(s) do you dislike?

The Game Room
1

I say “relatively” popular because, aside from what ESPN may claim, cup stacking competitions is NOT a sport in my eyes.

That being said I can find moments of entertainment in almost all sports, given certain factors like being really bored, etc.

I geniunly like a few sports and follow them for fun, mainly Tennis then Soccer followed by Golf.

However, the one sport I cannot seem to like, regardless of how hard I try is Football (NFL).

It is so paused and slow and seems to lack much talent (besides being a quarter back) that I just do not understand why it´s such a phenomenon in the US.

I can only manage to watch about 5 minutes of it IN the Super Bowl, and I watch that only for the much hyped commercials.

So, which sport(s) do you dislike and why?

2

Baseball and Cricket just don’t cut it for me.

Sorry folks, it just takes to darn long for anything to happen.

3

I loathe…seriously, actively loathe…hockey.

Which gets me looked at funny, here in Canada. >_>

4

I find basketball incredibly dull.

Which is odd because I love baseball.

But then, NASCAR is the definition of dull.

5

As a spectator? Pretty much all of them.

6

Lacrosse

I don’t even really have a good reason why. I just think it’s boring.

7

I’m with you, Paintcharge. Basketball? There’s nothing there. It’s the most deadly dull game since . . . I’ll take rock-paper-scissors.

Baseball’s my game. College football, I like me some. It’s all just a place holder until the baseball season rolls back around.

8

I can watch playoffs and finals in pretty much any sport and find it exciting.
Football, baseball, tennis, golf, nascar, hockey.
But the worst has to be basketball. Watching two teams creep up to 75+ points over 4 periods staying within 2-10 points of eachother bores me to tears. All that’s really worth watching is the final two minutes of the game. And then the final 30 seconds become 30 minutes of foul-freethrows-foul-freethrows-timeout-foul-freethrows-timeout…zzzzzz.

9

All of them except women’s volleyball. And I’d rather watch my wife eat breakfast in her jammies than watch that.

Which is not to say there’s anything wrong with my wife eating breakfast in her jammies. The degree of cuties Kim exudes while slurping down cheerios is evidence of a beneficient god.

10

Pretty much all of them except hockey. The reason I like hockey is because its constant action. Teams only get 1 time out per game and since subbing is done on the fly, there is less down time when play has been stopped by a ref.

Baseball on the other hand…doesnt even use a clock so there’s a ton of standing around between plays. And I absolutely lose my mind when the same batter hits 10 foul balls in a riw.

Football is more down time than actual sport. It seems like the two big strategies are to either stand there for as long as possible to run down the clock, or call time out as much as possible to keep it from running out. And I could honestly say I might enjoy football more if teams didn’t punt on every 4th down and if they would actually go for 2 extra points once in a blue moon.

Basketball has a similar problem, where the whole strategy is based around fouling or calling time out…which makes the last minute of the half last forever…

11

Looks like I’m 180 degrees from most posters so far: baseball is painfully boring to me, whereas basketball beats out any other spectator sport handily IMHO.

My problem with baseball is that it is entirely on rails. Every decision is pre-made for the players based on the situation, with no room for creativity. The only question is whether the individuals can execute their particular piece of the scripted play.

In basketball there’s a lot more room for creativity, both by individual players and by teams. There are scripted plays as well, and some teams are very impressive in their ability to execute the script, but on the very next possession you’re just as likely to see an improvisational move leading to an open pass to a cutting player that completely catches you by surprise as a spectator.

One great thing that basketball has that most popular sports don’t is that you can watch a player’s emotion transform the game. A team can be down 12-16 points, and a player comes in off the bench, dives for a loose ball, gets all fired up, and you can actually watch the emotion spread through the team, fire them up, and lead to a scoring run. It’s a thrilling and dramatic display you don’t get from baseball.

While I can agree that the end-of-game foul-a-thon is not an ideal finish for a close game, I can’t bring myself to give credit to the baseball fans on this point, because the entire baseball game is played at that pace. Scratch, scratch, spit, adjust pants, adjust hat, practice swing, practice swing, glance at first base, scratch, shake head, adjust hat, nod head…ooh, the pitch, finally some action? Nope, foul ball, start the process over again. At least the last minute basketball foul-a-thons occur in situations that have a decent chance of ending in an exciting last-second play.

Of course, YMMV.

12

The only one I like is mixed martial arts. Everything else bores the crap out of me. Luckily I married a man who feels the same way.

13

If it isn’t baseball, I don’t care about it at all.

If it’s at the professional level, and not baseball, I actively loathe it.

14

Off to The Game Room!

15

Golf. I hate golf, and not just because it’s boring or any other aesthetic reason. I hate golf for ideological reasons - golf courses ruin the environment around here, just so rich folks can live on the links. I hate them, and the game too.

16

The state of pro boxing in the United States is pathetic. I loved the amateur boxing in the Olympics, but I haven’t seen a good pro fight in a long time.

17

I’m a red-blooded American male sports fan, and I hate the NFL. I played the game, followed it as a kid, but can’t stand it now. It exists only to sell beer and pickup trucks. 80% of the game consists of guys standing around during TV timeouts, between plays, and watching injured guys get attended to.

I was listening to the radio the other day and one commentator said “Who can ever forget last year’s Super Bowl!” and it took me five minutes of serious thought before I could recall who played in it.

Oh, I forgot to mention the penalties. Seems like 50% of all plays have one. 80% if it’s a kick return.

18

I can’t stand MMA. It’s great in theory, but everytime I watch it seems like two guys laying on the ground trying to break guard for the whole match.

I like literally every other popular sport.

19

Baseball: Pitch. Adjust cup. Spit. Look around. Adjust cup again. Pitch. Repeat.

Soccer: A bunch of guys chasing a ball around a very large field, and almost never scoring.

NASCAR: Cars driving in an oval. Repeatedly. Woo.

Golf: Yawn.

All of them are deadly boring to me. I’m not a big sports fan at all (I’ll watch hockey or football if there’s nothing else to do), but the above are just so boring that I can’t stand watching for more than a couple of minutes. Basketball is almost as bad.

20

Basketball, mostly because it keeps becoming increasingly illegal to play defense as time goes on. As I’ve said before, any sport where it’s not uncommon for both teams to have scores of 100+ when the primary scoring increment is two, clearly has some fundamental issues that need to be addressed. (To those preparing to suggest that I watch NCAA basketball instead: the only reason the scores there are any lower is because the players are worse; if I wanted that, I’d watch my 10-year-old cousin’s rec league.)

Soccer. Same problem, but in reverse. Two hours of running about on a humongous field, both teams failing to accomplish anything as often as not, does not an interesting contest make. In expressing this in the past, I’ve been accused of taking the “typical American” stance on this, and grumbles inevitably ensue about how there are aspects to the game that aren’t about scoring that I should learn to appreciate. Well, I know there are, and I do. But there are also the aspects of the game that ARE about scoring – those being scoring, and, of course, winning – and seeing as the former is the only way to achieve the latter, I think it’s a fairly integral component. When it regularly fails to occur, then, it’s fair to say that’s indicative of a problem.

Finally, NASCAR. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with it, and I don’t have any suggestions for improvement, I just don’t find stock car racing very compelling. Drive fast, don’t crash and die, drive faster, repeat…if that’s your thing, more power to you.