Friday, April 04, 2008

Sorry, Watching Sports is Boring

People often ask me if I like sports.

And I say, "Yeah, I do."

And then they ask me "What sports do you watch?"

And then I say, "What the hell does that have to do with it?"

And the reason I say that is because unlike what is now becoming the majority of my generation, I actually still play them, I don't watch them. And I have noticed the effect. I am in excellent shape, while the elder Gen X'ers are getting guts and getting flabby.

See, what they should be asking is "Do you watch TV?" Followed up by, "What do you watch?"

But they think that watching sports in itself is some kind of activity unto itself. The problem I've found with watching sports is that regardless of the sport, it's still very "John Madden-esque."

Please tell me what sport this commentary couldn't apply to;

"Well you see, Jim, if Bob wants to score some more points then he's got to get the ball to Steve. But you can't score more points, unless Bill gets a little more possession of the ball, which means Mark will have to do more to cover Frank, and until Frank gets traded for Paul, then I don't see how Mike is going to be able to make it around Chad."

And millions of people waste their lives watching this stuff.

What also gets me is this irony of "progressive video game graphics."

I play video games, I LOVE video games. But I only play video games where I can do things I normally can't do in real life.

For example, I will not be in WWII. Sorry, just won't happen. But I can play Jimmy Patterson, the OSS Agent from Turtle Lake, Wisconsin who goes and wipes out Hitler's Nazi regime. Or I can play the Master Chief and repel and invasion of the Flood.

I do not play video games that can be done in the real world. Namely sports video games.

What on God's green earth is the point of playing sports video games? You want really great graphics? Then go outside and pick up a ball and play some sports. The graphics don't get any better than that. But no, there I am with my friends at the bar and we see some frat boy putz with his hat on backwards playing "Golf Tee Professional 2010!"

Alas, because of my indifference to watching sports, I have a hard time caring who is being traded for what, and how much did this guy sign up for. Additionally, I couldn't care less about Barry Bonds, or Mark McGuire or any of the steroids BS going on in professional sports. If you were to look at how much time has been spent wasted on discussing, speculating, and investigating something that ultimately doesn't matter, and if the scores of commentators and millions of Americans had worked instead and contributed that money to the economy or heck, even charity, how much better use of time that would be, I wonder if we'd be facing recession now.

That being said, I found this chart interesting. Article here;

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I admit that watching sports is mostly boring. Only the great matches , finales of some european or world championship, are worth watching.

However, I can understand why people play sports video games. They do because real sports are difficult and most people suck at playing basketball or whatever else. When they sit in front of their Playstation, they can be as good as Tiger Woods or Brett Favre, something they will probably never achieve in real life.

Besides, there are sports which cannot be easily done by everybody, for example many kinds of motorsports.

Unknown said...

I disagree with the premise that watching sports is 'wasteful.' One can only work so many hours in a day/week/any time frame, so labeling any sort of hobby/pastime as negatively affecting productivity/economy is off base, IMO.

That said, whose to say sports viewing doesnt help local economies? We just had a regional final of the NCAAs here in Houston, and it brought in millions of dollars to local buisneses. This wasnt even the finals. This was the a four team tounament to determine who gets to go to the finals. And college basketball is probably no higher than 5th on the most watched/viewed sports. Think what a Superbowl can do for a city.


I work hard...I watch sports. Why is that an worse than you working hard, and playing hard at whatever your pastime is?

Sorry, but this post just smells of Andy Rooney doing one of his 'you know what really grinds my gears' commentaries.

Anonymous said...

Logically, we should permit enhancements in sports. We can use sportsmen as platforms for drug and cyborg technologies. This will help improve human capabilities and benefit our military and our workforce.

I don't play sports, or sports video games. I have, however, played MMORPGs. I think that may also be a genre that deserves criticism...

Anonymous said...

I don't watch sports either, never have, never will, except for the SuperBowl, and even then I tend to skip it.

Of course I also could care less for most sports as well, but even the ones I like, I still tend not to watch them too much.

I love mixed martial arts, gymnastics, and hockey, so I do those as best I can, and I am a physical fitness maniac, so I am in great shape.

As for videogames, well IMO, it depends, if you love playing sports games, coolbeans, if not, don't.

Some guys I know who own expensive sports cars (like Lamborghinis and Mercedes) still love to play the racing car videogames.

I also do think that sports events can help local economies, regarding the small businesses and so forth.

I do agree fully that it is rather hilarious how folks will ask you what sports you are into, and then they just assume you sit on your butt and watch them on TV.

My real pet peeve is the people who scream and yell and criticize the teams/players/fighters when they themselves couldn't do jack squat with regards to playing/fighting.

Anonymous said...

"That said, whose to say sports viewing doesnt help local economies? We just had a regional final of the NCAAs here in Houston, and it brought in millions of dollars to local buisneses. This wasnt even the finals. This was the a four team tounament to determine who gets to go to the finals. And college basketball is probably no higher than 5th on the most watched/viewed sports. Think what a Superbowl can do for a city."

The revenue brought in by sports fans from elsewhere is what is seen, but the other things they would have spent their money on if not for the sporting event is what is not seen.

Obviously, those people would rather spend their money on sports so there is a gain there, but to say that spending money on one particular type of recreation rather than another will produce net gains for the economy is incorrect.

Anonymous said...

i agree completley. sports are a huge waste of time in terms of watching them and video games. i have had this feeling towards them my entire life. sure i like to grab a hockey stick and play, but wtf do i care if some red and blue dots run around hitting a black pixel from side to side. its not exciting, and the only reason it exists is because ppl who enjoy it rub off on their children and the cycle continues. weak minds succumb to stupid things, then defend them even though when faced with the reasons why its boring/wasteful are extremely strong

Anonymous said...

I never have liked sports. Its so boring to watch & frankly I don't care who wins. But you are sooo right about the sports video games. They are extremely gay.

Anonymous said...

Wow, a man kicked a ball! Wow, a different man kicked the ball! OMG, another different man kicked the ball!

...

Chaz said...

There's something very lesbianic about you...

V. Fournier said...

I think MOST people like sports for the RAH-RAH OUR TEAM bullshit, the same thing nationalists and military goons masturbate to.

The only intellectual exercise in sports is the team tactics, which most people are too retarded to follow.

Anonymous said...

Only idiots watch sports. The bigger the idiot the fatter they are.

Anonymous said...

Sports are completely boring. Nothing could possibly be more tedious.

Anonymous said...

Sports watching, sports playing, sports video game playing. All boring. Watching two dogs fuck would almost be more entertaining. The people I grew up with who played sports, they were despicable, anti-intellectual alcoholics. Boring.

Anonymous said...

I agree that I'd much, much rather play sports than watch them.

I find many other things much more interesting. Things that I can really engage myself in. I don't ever feel engaged by sports, unless I'm playing them.

A huge part of what makes sports fun to watch is having some sort of emotional investment in a team/individual. Be it you're from the same area as them, you know them personally or know people who know them, or you're betting on them to win etc. etc. I don't bet and I've never really had a team that I felt was 'my team' (I moved around a lot as a kid), so I don't find sports all that interesting to watch.

On the other hand, when you're actually PLAYING, everything changes. You want to be the best, you want to beat the other team/person and the status you get from winning, and you don't want to let your team down. Suddenly you're invested and it all becomes very interesting.

Zuzanna said...

Couldn't agree more. Can people get a fucking grip of themselves and do something useful with their fucking time? Would it hurt them to maybe read a book and learn something? Or perhaps get your fucking lazy ass up and do something that could positively influence the world? Instead they would rather argue over which team is better like it fucking matters. Playing sports shouldn't be about winning, it should be about social interaction and exercise and yelling at the tv and growing a beer gut is not a part of it. So stop wasting money on shit that's insignificant. Wake the fuck up people...

Unknown said...

I completely agree with the author. Anyone who is into physical fitness and has an active lifestyle will find it difficult to look at sports. Just go out there and do something yourself instead of only watching the athletes do their thing. Most people however are just plain lazy and will of course never care to improve their body, mind or soul.
Bravo author for a fantastically written opinion!