Why You Can't Look Away

Sorry Babe

The game is on. You have chips, beer, and everything else ready to go. Your favorite team is playing in a huge game. Your wife/girlfriend comes in and starts to tell you about her day. Somewhere in the middle of her speech about how she can't stand Heather at work, you realize that you care infinitely more about this game you're about to watch than what she has to say. Don't worry. Your relationship isn't over. Here are the reasons why we love sports so much.

An Evolved Species

Charles Darwin. Not a name that you hear when talking about sports everyday, right? Well, his discovery and research into Evolution give a ton of insight into why humans love sports so much. Evolution is the change and development of characteristics over time due to your surroundings. There are so many inner-workings within sports that play directly into evolving and improving. We get to see athletes constantly improve their abilities. We get to see coaches evolve their strategy. We see the game evolve and sometimes devolve into something worse than we once knew (a.k.a baseball). 

But beyond all of that talk of evolution within the sport, we are creatures of evolution. We all strive for improvement. We all want to be better than we were the last time we did something. We are working hard to get better. When we see that within athletes and teams, it resonates within us. 

Social Creatures

In that evolution, we have become very social creatures. We have feelings, hopes, desires, aspirations, fears, and beliefs. Some of those fears, desires and hopes revolve around how other people view us. We hope to fit in. We desire some attention. We fear being shunned. Sports allow us to view all of those things. Do you want some attention? Do some research and pick a dark horse to do something fantastic. Do you want to fit in and not be shunned? Stick with the hometown favorite. Blindly back-up the guy who your city loves. Now, when you do those things you become an idiotic fan with no real opinion and I wish all of those people would depart from my presence permanently. 

On the positive side of this view, sports is something that gives us a common ground. We don't have to come from the same backgrounds. We don't have to have much in common but if I see you wearing my favorite team's colors, i'm going to make a comment about it. Especially, if we are nomadic fans. By that, I mean fans who aren't just hometown lovers. I'm from Pittsburgh but my sports alliances are with teams and players elsewhere. So, it is more unlikely for me to see a Carolina Panthers fan in Pittsburgh. When I do, I feel like I have found a common ally in a war. 

Conflict Warriors

Speaking of war, that is exactly what sports are. People love conflict. People love drama. But, we don't love real conflict and drama. At least I don't. Who wants to live a life where they have to deal with unstable situations and worry about surviving the night. I don't want that to be my real life. However, I will gladly put on my war colors and put my heart on the line for my favorite team. If they lose and let me down, I will be hurt and angry for a few minutes, hours, maybe a day or two, but then i'll get ready for the next sport. 

At the end of the day, sports are purely for entertainment. They are the great drama that fills the stage in the same way that Shakespearean plays did in the past. We don't know what the outcome will be. We get excited, angry, anxious, and happy about every moment. We put our hopes and dreams into these sports alliances and we usually get a good show even if our team loses. Why are sports such a multi-million dollar industry? It's because they resonate so well with us. They give us everything that we want. There is a mix of all of those emotions available in an entertaining environment with a ton of conflict and drama.

Your Excuse

Next time you're sitting in front of the TV waiting for that game to start and your significant other walks in, here is your excuse. I can't stop it because of how i'm wired. I am addicted to sports and there is no breaking it. It is in my nature. Sports are able to give me a roller coaster mix of emotions in my life that I don't want otherwise. I watch sports not only for me, but for our relationship. There are times when I want to experience drama and conflict but I don't want to fight with you and have those issues. I want to have "created conflict." I want to have fake conflict that allows me to break away from the monotony of life.

In the end of the day, that is what sports gives us. It allows us to break away from the lives we live and experience camaraderie with one another, fighting for the greater good. We get to experience the up and downs of drama and conflict without having it directly impact our lives.

Check back tomorrow for the next blog. Blogs are coming 4 times per week. We're talking about athletes being role models tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

- Tim