Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Oh wait, they don’t like it when you say Super Bowl, so it’s “The Big Game” day! Right, a day where the most boring, most over hyped event ever happens.
Yeah, as you could tell from that opening line, and the title of the post, I just don’t give a damn about sports of much of any type – there are a few games I like, and yes, I technically have teams I like, but beyond that I just don’t care. If you like sports, then good for you.
I repeat: if you like sports that’s fine. Don’t go complaining that I’m attacking you, or go trying to start a fight with me over this to defend yourself. I don’t want to hear it.
Anyway, back on point, I might as well explain why Sports of all types are such a matter of contention for many in the more tech-interested side of things. While yes, the general divide between nerdy kids and outdoorsy, sports playing kids in school has something to do with it, the real issue is the way it is treated as a “default” thing in society, as something that everyone automatically likes and knows about.
This article does a fine job explaining how Football sounds to people who just don’t care, and is worth reading as I continue: http://www.tickld.com/x/how-football-sounds-to-people-that-just-dont-care-T
Do you notice the pattern of the above? It isn’t that people like it. Like I said, you can like all the sports you want, no one cares. The problem is how people just won’t shut up about it, and how much of a fuss is made out of it. When I was growing up I actually thought something was wrong with me because I just didn’t care. Turns out, no, I just didn’t care because I enjoyed technology and games more, and that was perfectly fine (albeit people wanted to act like it wasn’t fine.)
I’ve been at my day job while Football games were going on and actually had people just start talking with me about it like I knew not just that there was a game going on, but also that it was a major game and talking as if I had a team in that event. I didn’t know, or really care, and while I’ve grown skilled at telling people I’m simply not a sports fan, sometimes in such situations people actually act like there is something wrong. Grown adults who act like something is off on a person who doesn’t care about 2 teams of 45 guys or so tossing around some lemon-shaped ball.
Now, I don’t hate the actual sport – I do like the game concepts, and have looked into it more than it would sound here. That still doesn’t make me want to actively watch or care. It’s all incredibly boring to me. Baseball, Basketball, and to a lesser extent Hockey are all about the same level of boring to watch, but I do like the game design of each one.
Everyone has their hobbies, and as I have repeated through this article, that’s fine. In part 2, I’ll cover just why the sports obsession seems so odd and overdone to me.
Enjoy your game, but please understand not everyone else cares as much as you do, okay?