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Do you like or hate watching sport?

Are you a sport spectator

  • I love watching sport.

    Votes: 10 16.4%

  • A watch a bit.

    Votes: 19 31.1%

  • I think it's a complete waste of time, and I can't understand why people do it.

    Votes: 32 52.5%
  • Total voters
    61
No, not in the slightest bit interested in sports. I occasionally like to do/play some sports activities, such as squash, tennis, cycling or swimming, but I'm not interested in following them as a spectator - though I did go to a couple of football (soccer) matches when I was younger.

My partner spends hours watching sports on TV. This is not for me. I use the TV as a source of information, to learn, and there is nothing (or little) to be learned from watching sports on TV, so I don't see the point.
 
Primarily i am obsessed with watching football however i look far too deeply into things and this spoils my enjoyment of most sports i watch or attempt to watch.

For example football. I will watch anything from high profile Premier League games in England to two pub teams knocking a ball about on a saturday morning. I have a love / hate relationship with football due to the money involved at the top end and the attitude and application of most players. It isn't the same game i fell in love with as a kid. Footballers now are obsessed with twitter and are basically narcissists with no brains IMO. Not all but enough to make me lump them all into one pot together indiscriminately.

Footballers at the top end can 'earn' a million pounds A MONTH just from kicking a ball about for 90 minutes each time yet they don't actually produce anything of any great quality by and large and are mediocre. The World Cup in Russia just gone was enjoyable but it just highlighted that the world of football now is mediocre.

If somebody offered me a million pounds a month and i couldn't produce the regular quality on the pitch that my income suggested should be the case then at the very least i'd come off the pitch at the end of each game literally having sweated blood.

Footballers don't work hard enough, they don't have the mentality that comes from battling true adversity on a regular basis and they often don't produce what they are paid to do.

This is why i admire tennis players. I don't like watching Tennis but when a tennis player takes to the court it's him / her alone. If they don't perform then they can't hide behind 10 other players and still get paid and get the plaudits. If a tennis player isn't dedicated, committed and 100% at it every game then they won't get very far. Unlike footballers, they are fully accountable for their own careers.

I detest Formula 1 motor racing. If they all have the same cars in terms of capability then i'd be ok with it but how is it possible to determine who is the best driver when one driver has a ferrari and the other has a Ford Focus. It's ludicrous in terms of competitiveness.

Snooker is boring as hell. I admire the skill involved but it's drab to watch. Cricket is the same.

Cycling and Athletics has lost my trust as i now look at any cyclist or athlete and presume they've taken something so that's not good for me to watch.

Rugby is aesthetic carnage. I do wish that footballers had the mentality and desire to win at all costs as rugby players do but ruby players often are glorified thugs and at least in football, players only pretend they've been whacked in he face whereas in rugby they actually are. Not civilized whatsoever.

Boxing is perhaps the sport i hate the most. Not only for the desperately embarrassing preening and pre-fight posing and posturing but essentially i am expected to sit down and watch two human beings knock the crap out of one another and enjoy it. Ain't gonna happen. It's immature and barbaric even allowing for the fact that both parties agree to it.

If two random blokes start arguing then fighting in the street it's seen as violent behaviour but if two blokes do it in a ring and it's organised then it's somehow now great sport. Bizarre IMO.

So by and large i don't watch any sports other than football for a variety of deeper reasons than simply not liking it. I watch football almost exclusively but even then it divides me as there are so many aspects of the game and of footballers that i despise.
 
Skids said:
Boxing is perhaps the sport I hate the most. Not only for the desperately embarrassing preening and pre-fight posing and posturing but essentially I am expected to sit down and watch two human beings knock the crap out of one another and enjoy it. Ain't gonna happen. It's immature and barbaric even allowing for the fact that both parties agree to it.

If two random blokes start arguing then fighting in the street it's seen as violent behaviour but if two blokes do it in a ring and it's organised then it's somehow now great sport. Bizarre IMO.
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In any other walk of life someone who goes around declaring "I am the greatest" would be regarded as an arrogant sh1t ... yet if that same person bashes people in the head for a living he's regarded as a hero!
 
No sports for me. Completely & utterly pointless. I played kickball occasionally when I was a kid before there was Nintendo and because that's what all the other kids wanted to do, so I can IMAGINE how playing might not suck so bad for 10 minutes or so, but...watching? Why? WHY? I I don't get it. Yaaay, go TEAM! Team that I have chosen to hope wins despite having absolutely no connection to or affiliation with in any way, shape, or form. And then to see people that love sports high-fiving each other & screaming with unadulterated joy at a touchdown, or literally brought to tears when their team loses, well that just...really kinna brings home to me just how different I really am.
 
jacinto said:
No sports for me. Completely & utterly pointless. I played kickball occasionally when I was a kid before there was Nintendo and because that's what all the other kids wanted to do, so I can IMAGINE how playing might not suck so bad for 10 minutes or so, but...watching? Why? WHY? I I don't get it. Yaaay, go TEAM! Team that I have chosen to hope wins despite having absolutely no connection to or affiliation with in any way, shape, or form. And then to see people that love sports high-fiving each other & screaming with unadulterated joy at a touchdown, or literally brought to tears when their team loses, well that just...really kinna brings home to me just how different I really am.
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It's important because it's pointless. Many things are pointless but we still do them. Watching sport is an important male bonding tradition. It's really a form of human contact, a challenge, a game. Who can be the best. Life is really a competition. That computer you typed that message on? It got there through competition.

I'm no good at sports but you can't deny that the people that do them are talented at what they do.

If you tell me your hobby I bet I can poke holes in it. Drinking beer is pointless and bad for my health but I enjoy doing it, so I do it.
 
Quart said:
It's important because it's pointless. Many things are pointless but we still do them. Watching sport is an important male bonding tradition. It's really a form of human contact, a challenge, a game. Who can be the best. Life is really a competition. That computer you typed that message on? It got there through competition.

I'm no good at sports but you can't deny that the people that do them are talented at what they do.

If you tell me your hobby I bet I can poke holes in it. Drinking beer is pointless and bad for my health but I enjoy doing it, so I do it.
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Okay I wasn't trying to poke holes, I was trying to express why I don't get it. Maybe I went too far, I don't know. There are a lot of other posts saying essentially the same thing I think, but maybe mine comes off as particularly abrasive or condescending. I should've considered how it would read to people that are into sports.
 
A waste of time. I can watch things like volleyball or judo/sumo but that's about it, most of the time. Why watch? It's better to do sports.
 
I honestly do not care for watching sports or sports as a whole.

They just don't capture my attention and get me excited like they do a lot of people.
 
I. LOVE. SPORTS. Almost as much as I love my girlfriend. Almost.

Anyway, I love sports. Part of that is because of family reasons. I would always go over to my grandmother's house for Spring/Fall Break and we would watch the Notre Dame college AMERICAN football games. One of my uncles went to Notre Dame, so my grandmother would always take my mom & aunt up to Notre Dame to watch a game every year. (They got free housing to come to one game a year because my Uncle was a student)

I watch the Atlanta Braves (Major League Baseball) because that is what me and my mother enjoy doing. I also watch the Tennessee Titans (National Football League) because of my grandmother, but that is nearly not as important as Notre Dame.

My girlfriend likes the Braves because of me, and I just found out she liked soccer, so I'm going to try and get her to watch a Nashville SC (Major League Soccer) game with me.

So in total, I watch all five of the major American sports, those being American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and the most recent addition soccer. I watch one team from each (plus a couple of college football teams), those all being my local (or regional) teams. I watch sports because of my family (it brings us together) and because I enjoy sports.
 
ok, I guess I'm in the minority here, but I do watch some sports for a couple reasons...

1. I used to play. I'm familiar with all the rules of all the popular, and not-so-popular sports, since I played them as a kid. Football (American), Basketball, and others I really don't watch anymore, but Baseball I do. I fact, I know MLB Baseball can be of great interest to those with more severe forms of autism (I'm just an Aspie). It's super-deep with statistics, and can be a real hook with those on the spectrum.

2. Knowing what's up with the local sports teams give me a topic for small talk when I venture out into public... Ex: I see someone with a Dodgers hat (I'm in Los Angeles area), I can comment on something that happened the day before, "Damn, that was a tough loss last night..."

3. I'm not a fan of fiction. Not into TV shows, except exceptionally well written. I do like some movies (I work in the industry), but mostly documentaries.
So, sports are non-scripted entertainment. Many times, stuff happens that is completely unexpected, "you can't write stuff like that..." actually happens. It's reality. I like the truth of it all (when no-one is cheating, of course, lol).

4. I love to play tennis. Great exercise without even realizing it. I haven't played in a bit, but I'm currently looking for a playing partner.
 
I have no idea which teams are the best, but if you bring me to an event for a local team, you better believe I instantly become a superfan. I love live sports.
 
EditTim said:
I love to play tennis. Great exercise without even realizing it. I haven't played in a bit, but I'm currently looking for a playing partner.
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So you don't have any problems with hand-to-eye co-ordination? I should be so lucky...
 
I've always found it to be a waste of time and money. I don't understand why neurotypicals are so obsessed especially with their local teams, and act like they personally lost or won something when their team wins or loses a match. Seeing people literally rioting and destroying things because one group of people kicked a ball around better than another group of people just reminds me how much we still are just a bunch of monkeys...
 
Koshka said:
I don't understand why neurotypicals are so obsessed especially with their local teams, and act like they personally lost or won something when their team wins or loses a match.
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I think I do understand the obsession with spectator sports. It's about people connecting emotionally in ways that we often don't get. I feel the reason for the traditional popularity with men of all ages, is it was the main outlet for emotional connection between men that they felt comfortable with. Participating in sports being another one.

Understand, I am not saying we have any less a need for emotional connection. The level of emotional expression of sports fans is usually totally out of character for many of them. They are connecting with friends, fellow fans and the players. So, how do we replace this need with other activities? Participating in sports works well and has the healthy benefits that spectator sports lacks. If we are inclined to play team sports, I understand this is a great way for aspies to socialize. I have terrible hand-eye coordination so team sports, golf, etc don't work for me. I do run in races on a running team and find this does help me stay more connected with people.

Let me know what you think of my ideas on this subject.
 
It used to be my get away passion as a child I would be either playing or inventing games regarding sports this was before video game consoles became huge. My first console we bought was a original nintendo I was in 7th or 8th grade but before that I invented sports games for myself. These days I find myself playing sports games on playstation but not like everyone else plays. As far as in real life I mostly watch highlights I can not sit through a whole game anymore and basketball has become downright unbearable to even watch highlights or keep track of at all.
 
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