Tag: sports fans

Why I Hate Sports

Posted on by brianbaughman

This may come to a shock to some of you, but there’s a part of sports that I hate.  The part that shouldn’t come to a you as a shock is that it has nothing to do with the actual contests.

Unless you were hiding under a rock for the last week you’re aware that there was a pretty big boxing match last night.  This was one of the most anticipated fights in recent history that I can remember.  The sport of boxing has fallen from its once great image back in the 20th century.  There hasn’t been a big name to transcend the sport since Mike Tyson.  A lot of people know the two combatants in last nights fight, but for the most part they aren’t as well-known to the general public as past boxers have been.  Part of the problem these athletes have has been brought on by themselves.  Most of them have made poor decisions outside of the right that have landed them in jail and tarnished their image.  The American public doesn’t tolerate domestic violence by its celebrities as much as it once used to.  Boxing is an inherently violent sport, and I for one don’t condone what those athletes have done, but I am also not shocked by anything they have done in their private lives.

The fact that those things happened aren’t the thing I hate about sports.  Ray Rice beating his fiance in an elevator isn’t the thing I hate about sports.  Greg Olsen paying his ex-girlfriend what appeared to be hush money isn’t the thing I hate about sports.  Adrian Peterson beating his child with a switch isn’t the thing I hate about sports.  These are just a few examples of the bad side of sports.  For the most part professional athletes are the exact opposite of what these three examples show.  Note that those are all football players, which is another extremely violent sport.  Again, there should be no surprise that these types of actions come from people who participate in violent sports.  It happens less often, but the domestic violence by professional athletes isn’t limited to the sports that are violent in nature.  An internet search of professional athletes and domestic violence returns over 230,000 results in .38 seconds.  This shows that public is aware of what is being done.  This is still not the part of sports that I hate.

One of the greatest things about sports is that you can choose who you support. There are a multitude of reasons for why you to like the teams you do.  You shouldn’t have to qualify your own fanhood to anyone.  When I look through my timelines on social media there is a wide variety of different fan bases represented and they are all there because I can respect that others have a different point of view than I might.  How boring would it be if I only had friends who saw things exactly as I did?  Some of my best conversations regarding sports have been sparked by the differences in opinion about teams that I have with my contacts.  It happens at all levels of sports too, from high school, to college teams, and into the pros.  I may have similar interests in teams with some on none of these levels, some of these levels, or all of these levels, and across multiple sports like basketball, baseball and football.  One of my favorite things is to see how the colors change along my timeline depending on who’s playing on any particular day.  But this still isn’t the part of sports I hate.

While I like how social media has become a venue for people to debate sports, it is also what I hate about sports.  I respect that everyone is allowed to have their own opinions.  What it doesn’t allow is for people to be rude, crude, and down right mean to others because of their differing opinions.  Those opinions could be about how a game was played, how personnel was used, how the officiating had an effect on the outcome, or the most common “Your team sucks because…..”  It has become all to common for people to post things that are outlandish and ridiculous.  Some of the things I read on social media really make me shake my head in disbelief.  I really hope people are posting these things only to get a rise out of the people they are attacking.  I used to reply to comments made by people who make these crazy comments.  I quickly found that I was just fueling their idiocy by giving them an avenue to spew forth more idiocy, but it was causing me to get caught up in their whirlwind of stupidity.  I would waste a lot time replying to people and proving them wrong with factual information, only to have them continue to reply with more of their opinion.

The first thing I always see when a major sporting event doesn’t go the way someone wants is the conspiracy theory.  Things like the refs were paid off, the league won’t allow team “x” to lose, they always cater to this player and always judge that player harder really get on my nerves.  Yes I understand that you’re upset when your team loses. One of the downsides to the internet is that if you search long enough you can probably find info to support any argument.  The problem is most of that evidence is probably not true.  I hope no one believes professional sports leagues are setting staging their games with a predetermined outcome.  If any of the major sports; football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, auto-racing, golf, boxing, or even tennis, it would destroy them.  Without the credibility of a fair playing field, sports can’t exist.  So until there becomes evidence of cheating happening, please don’t try to convince me that it did.

The other part of social media I dislike in sports is what has become to be knows as trolling.  I do very little to hide my allegiance to my teams.  I follow pages on social media that cover those teams.  I like to read the articles they post, it gives me multiple perspectives on stories are games that my favorite teams participate in.  What I don’t understand is why people who have allegiances to other sports teams feel that is necessary to comment on those articles in a way that have absolutely nothing to do with what the article is about.  Does it really make you feel better about yourself or that your team is more superior because you can alter a photo that countless others have altered to support their  team?  Do you think you’re the first one to come up with that joke?  Do you enjoy it when others do the same to your team?  I for one get frustrated when I go to comment on an article, I mean something actually relevant to what was written, and I get nothing but a bunch of people trying to argue with me by spewing trash at me.  I guess it goes along with the tabloid mentality that seems to be taking over our country.

While I love my sports teams, and I love watching sports in general, I hate what social media has done to the way it is reported.  It has become another place for people to climb their own entitlement ladder.