Any non sports fans in the house?
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,116
Cant claim to be a complete innocent here as i used to be a die hard jordan fan, but in general i dont get sports at all. and it often seems i am the only person in my town, or in the world who isnt caught up in the latest sports news or score or game or whatever. one of my favorite analogies came from a teacher, who suggested that sports fan mentality resembles nazi rallies in their ferver and outlandishness. i concur. i used to play sports. basketball was my thing. i was actually pretty talented. but in 6th grade or so, you had to start trying out to play, it became about single a, double a and triple a. i remember clearly being terrified of my 6th grade basketball coach, who was rude, and a complete jerk. the focus had shifted from just having a fun time, to winning and beating the other team. i could have cared less about any of that. Even now I have to laugh when some sports fan says "we won". Really, you were on the team and lead them on to victory, eh? i dislike sports cutthroat attitude in general, the nationalistic aspects of it, and the win at all costs attitude. we have seen the results of a society that lives by that rule, in the effects of steroids on baseball and how pervasive it is. the focus becomes winning, not on playing a game that you love. winning becomes the sole reason for playing.
in general sports is a distraction from whats important in life. and we all need distractions. i indulge in silly or frivolous things as well. but whereas going to see a movie as escapism has some redeeming qualities to it, i fail to see the societal importance of football for example. there was that spot on onion satire years ago, that went along the lines of "football player will never walk again due to injury, but his team wins".
my dad and uncle are sports nuts. first thing they talk about when they see each other, is about the local sports scene. its so foreign and bizaare to me.
in general sports is a distraction from whats important in life. and we all need distractions. i indulge in silly or frivolous things as well. but whereas going to see a movie as escapism has some redeeming qualities to it, i fail to see the societal importance of football for example. there was that spot on onion satire years ago, that went along the lines of "football player will never walk again due to injury, but his team wins".
my dad and uncle are sports nuts. first thing they talk about when they see each other, is about the local sports scene. its so foreign and bizaare to me.
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Dublin 02 Arena - 22/6/10. Belfast Odyssey Arena - 23/6/10. London Hyde Park - 25/6/10. Berlin Wuhlheide - 30/6/10.
Manchester MEN - 20/06/12. Manchester MEN - 21/06/12
i agree good point. the commercialization of sports is a huge aspect of why i cant stand it. its all about having endorsement deals and all that stuff. i dont get it. why does tiger promote some cadillac? Whats up with federer and that shaving gel commercial? I never understood that aspect of it all. Especially for federer and tiger both could easily be called the greatest ever in their respective sports, whats the point of hawking some useless item. its like its commerce for commerces sake.
I know that better than just about anyone as I am a alumni of the University of oregon. Nike and Phil knight essentially built the football stadium, and paid for the building of a new basketball arena. Nike was essentially started at the U of O. As an anarchist/socialist radical i had a big problem attending a school where essentially everything was bought and paid for by Phil Knight.
Sports is about the image. about winning no matter what. Look at Tiger woods. Everyone in the world expects him to win every single tournament he enters and when he takes a 5 month break from golf, and then returns, he comes in 4th but he considers that a failure? its like...okay....
and the whole issue of cheating is key here. i was a fan of mcguire and conseco. when cheating becomes so prevalent in sports, as it is right now, in every sport, its sort of pointless to watch. everything that the athlete does is called into question in terms of legitimacy.
I enjoy skinny-skiing, going to bullfights on acid...
for kids and shit it's fantastic to be active.
watching sports on tv or at the actual event and being all into it is ridiculous to my notion.
i must say that every big time sports fan i know is a jerk off.
btw, what is football or baseball fantasy?
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
lots of things can teach kids valuable life lessons and can form lifelong friendships as well. thats whats so maddening about sports for me. Just using the University of oregon as an example again, a ton of money is given to the sports department each year. Phil Knight donated millions of dollars to fund that new sports/basketball arena. It seems to me that money could be better spend funding something more productive (art programs, music programs, activist organizations, social justice organizations etc...).
sports isnt all bad sure, i admit that. but i personally dont get the whole culture of it all. competition is fine, but when it gets to what i mentined before: win at all costs, whats the point? Sports then stops becoming a positive influence and becomes negative. A bunch of drunk fans. And a whole "lets get him" mentality to it. The whole crowd boos every single time, any call is made against their team, reguardless of if it was correct or not
I remember specifically it may have been in that pivitol 6th grade year when I quit sports, but it was this basketball game. I was playing. And the other teams coach was turning blue in the face arguing with the ref, swearing, my mom said he looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Now mind you this wasnt an important game. it was grade school basketball. my mom, when we left, gave him a dirty look, and said something to him like "I hope you dont have a heart attack".
the whole culture of it is rotten it seems. its just like politics. who's up. who is down. whos winning. who's losing. Who will win, who wont. And by how much. Who is injured. Who is the MVP. Who cares? Its all so asinine and non important.
Kids can be kept off the streets and learn new things, form bonds in many ways. sports isnt the only way these things occur.
If you accept sports can have positive aspects, it only comes to frution that it can have negative influences as well. the cheating aspect of it, winning at all costs, the cutthroat attitude, the militaristic and nationalistic aspects of sports, the I wont help or go over to a player to see if they are hurt because they are on the other team mentality.
To keep my future kids off the streets, seems to me much more prudent to enrol them in some painting classes or guitar lessons or drama classes rather than have them become the next Federer.
you mentioned going to the movies as a form of escapism. sport is entertainment too. but the overwhelming feeling accomplishment and happiness when your city's team comes together and wins a championship is like no other feeling i have ever imagined....and i am from philadelphia where i've only gotten to experience that one glorious time in my life (the first few when i was little don't count!). the night the phillies won and then the parade with 3 million other friends were two of the most joyous days of my entire life.
the question is, is it sane to pump millions into sports programs? Cant we as a society maybe come up with a better use of those funds?
societies going back centuries and centuries and centuries have been into sports. you realize that right?
so you think its right to spend millions on funding the U of O new arena that is being built? reguardless of if you know the specifics of it or not, you have to be kidding me to tell me at a university of all places, millions of dollars could do alot of good, spreading it out into the community would be even better obviously, that funding some arena is the best use of millions of dollars. its a question of priorities. my alma mater values sports over the education of its citizens and paying attendees. and i dont think my university is unique. why is it weird of me to suggest maybe this isnt the kind of society that we all deserve?
societies have been into alot of things for centuries. violence, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, war. just because something is so, doesnt mean its right or just.
oh my god dude. chill out. when did i say i support public financing of stadiums?
civic pride. that's where it's at.
also---because something is so, that doesn't make it just. you are right. it makes it AWESOME.
i feel bad for people who can't enjoy something like the city of philadelphia experienced a couple years back.
thats exactly what i mean. beyond a feeling of pride, what is the legacy and lasting importance of your favorite teams winning a championship? How does it positively affect your life? The phillies won, but how does that effect you a year later? 5 years or a decade later?
And as far as civic pride, its fascinating that cheering on a sports team would be termed civic pride. My hometown Eugene Oregon is known as a hippie haven, Berkely North. But it also is historical racist, and even recently, in the last few years, many prominent local african americans came out and unveiled the "ex-files", a series of documents, showing the reasons why many african americans left the town. racism was at the top of the list.
I say all this, to suggest, civic pride to me, means being proud of ones community and neighbors. whether the UO football team wins the rose bowl or not, has no impact on me. The Ducks lost the rose bowl this year, but that hasnt crippled my life. I live it, i live on reguardless. To me, civic pride would be the community coming together to maybe build a new school, or to fund some new anti war organization, or to come out to a protest in large numbers. A sports team winning or not winning, will not figure into my lifes regrets when i am dying. maybe some of you will think of sports in that moment. i wont.
i feel bad for those who think a bunch of guys paralyzing each other, and murdering each other as in football, is a source of pleasure, entertainment, joy and civic pride. i gotta say, no wonder our country is such a mess if this is the prevailing attitude.
Civic pride is fine by me. But lets celebrate something more momentous and important and special than a people throwing a ball through a net, or scoring touchdowns or hitting a ball with a bat.
Am I in a Debbie Downer skit? :roll:
You do realize that every country on the face of the earth loves sports as much as we do right? Why would you choose to single out just this country?
Not everyone is an artist or a writer. Some people dont excel in the classroom. To some, sports are the only thing they have to be proud of... its the only thing that gives them a sense of accomplishment. To some (this may sound overly dramatic) its what gives them meaning in their life. I consider sports to be a form of self expression just like the arts.
When you say "win at all costs", you seem to be focused too much on all the negative out there. Ive played sports my entire life and i can tell you that 99% of the time, both teams give it their all, and no matter the outcome they shake hands and give due credit to their opponents. Sure there are those assholes out there that go about things the wrong way but i can assure you from 23 years of experience they are the minority. Most of the time, the nonsense going on in the stands is a hell of alot more hostile then whats happening on the field, even in football. Thats just human nature i guess.
My father has been a coach for over 30 years, and at an early age, he explained to me the importance of losing. No thats not a typo. He would say "winning is easy. losing is hard to take. losing builds more character than winning. " Maybe im lucky to learn from someone with such insight, but its led me to influence all those ive competed with just that message.
I enjoy skinny-skiing, going to bullfights on acid...
I enjoy skinny-skiing, going to bullfights on acid...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
i agree, i would go. and i as i said i am an alumni of the school, dylans played at the university twice in the past decade, ive seen john lewis there, saul williams, ward churchill, woody harrelson.
that said, the point is, this knight guy is a big deal. he is phil knight the ceo and head honcho of nike one of the largest corporations in the world. nike was launched in Eugene, near the UO campus, and nike makes the jerseys for the sports teams here, specifically with endorsements by nike. this is where nike started.
its a conlfict of interests i am not comfortable with. my school, was at the center of the 99 riots over the wto and all that, as our own campus was being funded by nike. my feeling is that, sports is your own deal, if you want to do it fine. its your own bag. but sports departments get WAY more revenue and allocated funds and budgets than any other department, and thats in all schools. all universities. lets fund sports. but lets also give equal funds to art, music, film, dance, photography, social justice programs etc...
I wouldnt be complaining if millions was being allocated by the university for the above stuff. it isnt.
you said not everyone excels in arts or writing or the classroom, and of course you are right. but not everyone is an athlete and not everyone has an interest in playing or patronizing sporting events.
Balance is the key. and its not balanced as it exists today.
Lets face it, no school sports program, college or otherwise is in danger of being cut or lost due to cuts. the cuts go to the arts, music, film, dance, photography
to me, the leaders of our future, the future leaders of america, not in terms of politics, but in general terms, will not be the football or basketball meatheads on your local high school or college squad, but the intelligent, creative, brilliant, idealistic individuals who are in those above fields. lets put it this way, i respect someone who is in the environmental club or photography or anime club as opposed to the jock in football and baseball squads
I enjoy skinny-skiing, going to bullfights on acid...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
hey shut up horos. ok, cool. yeah i will just change my philosophy of life because horos says i should. yeah let me get to work on that. and i surely will bown down to nike, a modern day slave corporation, that has sweatshops where honduran mothers and children work for 10 cents a shoe, that eventually sells for 100 bucks. yeah, i am pro nike now. thanks horos. thanks for showing me the light.