64% of Americans watch Football and more particularly 73% of men. ( America’s Sports, 2011). (Rather Dated reference i know).

Not me.

To begin, I don’t follow any traditional sports. Its not just football. I grew up playing various little league sports but I never really was into them or particularly good at them.

None of my immediate family members were fans of any sports. I think this is the biggest contributor/reasoning.

For many families getting together and watching the game is a bonding experience. It becomes tradition, solidifying more and more as the years go on. Rooting for the home team is a un-describable  comradery amongst peers. Total strangers can immediately bond at the bar by just rooting for the same team and immediately become friends.

I get it, I totally get it.

Tonight I went to the local bar to join some friends to watch “the game”. I never know what game they are talking about. I couldn’t tell you if its baseball or football season at any given time, I’m clueless. I went to be social and have a beer. I quickly realized you can only really talk in between plays. If not, whatever you say is brushed aside and usually followed up by a shout either positive or negative depending on the outcome. I went to the bathroom and waited in line. The guy next to me said “cant believe they just scored like that”, I froze, literally didn’t even know what to say so I said nothing. Hindsight I should have just said something easy like  “I know right” but i was afraid of a follow up. I had 2 beers got tired and went home during half time.

What interests me the most is how emotional people get from it. People’s moods correlate directly to the performance of their team. With one play they can go from miserable to ecstatic. More that simple cheering and booing people can become full blown upset or happy. Its kind of weird to me but at the same time I sometimes say to myself wow I must be missing out on something.

Contrary to all that, I love going to games in person. The energy is cool and the showmanship behind it is really dramatic and fun. Its easy to follow the emotions of the crowd and cheer when your team’s winning.  And if your team wins at the end its that much more fun. So I guess watching on TV with a group setting is the same for them. So again, I get it.

In the past year I’ve watched more sports than I have in the whole life. I’m trying to get into it. Why? Comradery. It became most apparent to me the usefulness during an interview I had (and ultimately didn’t get the job). I breezed through the formal questions but half way through the person who was interviewing me who I would be working with started talking sports. I had nothing to say. Zero contribution. Not saying that’s why I didn’t get the job but It absolutely would have helped if I could go back and forth with him. People like to be around people with common interests, totally normal.

No real point of this one. Just some reflection on a non sports fan. Maybe in the future I’ll laugh that I felt this way while screaming for home team. Maybe.

gunn

10 23 2017

Braverman, Samantha. “No Surprise: 64% Of Americans Watch NFL Football; 73% of Men, 55% of Women.” TV By The Numbers by zap2it.Com, Harris Interactive, 14 Oct. 2011, tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/network-press-releases/no-surprise-64-americans-watch-nfl-football-73-of-men-55-of-women/.