Conversationalist Series: Watching sports
Watching sports…
On the one hand, it can be seen as a gigantic time-suck akin to video games surrounded by beer and fried food.
On the other? Sports seem to be at the center of almost every culture and a way to bring people together and scratch our competitive itches.
They make billions of dollars a year for a reason.
Backstory
Growing up I played every single sport and joined every club I could find as any good ADHD boy should.
I had my parent's heads constantly spinning trying to get me to practices, meetings, and classes.
I also idolized the pros and watched as many sports as was feasible in a single-mother-lead home.
It was what all the cool kids did.
Everyone had the Jordans their favorite players wore. They had jerseys and fitted hats of their favorite teams. They played as their idols in the latest EA sports game.
It was just what you did.
How would I play on the basketball team and not stick my tongue out as I dribbled like Jordan?
I was supposed to do a bicycle kick at soccer practice and not yell “pele”? Unthinkable.
This trend continued well into High School and Early College for me where it was then compounded upon…
Enter fantasy sports
Fantasy sports. Most guys’ first foray into gambling. The old $50-a-team fantasy football league with the buddies.
I wonder which marketing genius at the NFL came up with this idea. Let’s gamify the ever-living shit out of watching sports and give folks a reason to watch games other than their own teams. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
This is not an argument for or against fantasy sports to be clear - that’s for later.
The End of Being a Spectator
Around my sophomore/junior year of college is when I first remember a drastic drop in my watching of professional sports.
It wasn’t some intentional online guru productivity hack or an epiphany I had on an edible. I just started to find I enjoyed doing other things with my time. Such as… chasing girls, playing sports, lifting, partying, oh yeah.. and schoolwork.
They naturally slipped out of my priority list without any real effort to settle in their current state - 95% watching highlights to know what’s going on > 5% watching things I love (Soccer and UFC mostly).
Side note: I will be watching the fuck out of the World Cup.
Side note 2: I absolutely love playing sports and still do as often as I possibly can at 31 years old.
The Dilemma
So… I’ve given some backstory so that you can understand where I’m coming from and where I’m currently at with watching sports.
If you’ve made it this far - sick. Now let’s get to the good stuff: The Philosophical debate I have with myself every time I see a huge sports fan or a huge sports-watching hater.
I think the best way to begin is to talk about the pros and cons
Pros
The social aspect
Watching sports is something that brings people together. You root for the same team (or against each other). People host parties to watch “the big game” and buy tickets to live events
Conversationality (I guess this is a word?)
This is probably the biggest pro to watching or at least keeping some type of ear to the ground on what’s going on is being able to discuss with “normies”
This is doubly important if you work in sales. At least know the basics imo.
Fun & “Play”
I feel like hustle culture will have us believe you can’t just have fun. I can’t think of anything better for the psyche than some good ‘ole fashion fun.
In fact, there’s an entire book written about the importance of “play” for anxiety and depression - you can find it here.
Cons
Time Suck
Watching sports, just like any other non-work activity, can be filed under the time-suck category along with Social media, Netflix, Video Games, and anything else that doesn’t move the needle toward our goals.
Unhealthy Associations
I’m not going to expand upon why these are labeled as “unhealthy”. Pretty self-explanatory stuff. But what I will say is that this is not a blanket statement. There are people who can watch sports and avoid everything listed below. However, the sports-watching environment cultivates and encourages this type of behavior to the highest degree.
Gambling
Drinking
Unhealthy/Fried food
Tribalism
The Big One.
The Not-Talked-About-Enough One.
People literally beat the fuck out of each other for wearing a different team’s jersey - Philly folk, I’m looking at you.
Example: I literally had a BDR almost ruin a sales call because I made a comment about a sports team to the prospect and he got butt-hurt and came at me live on the call. Thank god I was able to laugh it off and recover (and then light him up after) but the fact that it evoked such a visceral reaction out of him was wild to see.
Closing Thoughts
In the end, I don’t have a clear answer for you on whether watching sports is “good” or “bad”.
I think it is a hyper-personal, nuanced choice that you can use the above analysis to help in your decision-making process.
The reality is, it comes down to one question really:
Can you watch sports while still moving the needle towards your health, wealth, and wisdom goals?
If the answer is yes? Do you booboo
But if not? If you feel like this might be something getting in the way of your current you and the version of you you want to be? It might be worth it to step away for a bit and see how you feel.
Bonus
One last thought before you go
There is a “new” aspect of “watching sports” permeating society - especially the younger folk: Watching Video Game Streamers & Esports
If you read that sentence and rolled your eyes… I hate to tell you but you’re out of touch.
Everywhere I go it is inevitable that I am going to see a few kids holding their (or their parent’s) iPhone sideways watching a Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite video or streamer to keep them busy.
I am not a parent and I have no concept of how this is going to play out in the long term BUT I am an observant individual and I believe this is something we need to monitor.
Watching video games takes all of the cons of watching sports and compounds them due to their hyper-addictive nature and extreme ease of access.
We could have a situation on our hands here, folks.