Sports "nerds," traitors??

[DanTran]

One of the subtitles of this site is "where geeks are gods" or something similar, this leaves me to ask, what about nerds who are also fans of sports?

My story: (I have many, )

In high school I was a member of our chess club and astronomy club. To be honest, the astronomy club was understaffed and underfunded. There were a lot students in the club, although there were hardly ever any meetings, since most kids joined knowing there wasn't any work involved and that it looked good on college transcripts.

Anyway, the "president" of the astronomy club was also the smartest kid in the school (possibly in the county if you want to count test scores). He ended up being the class Valedictorian, and he had the record for one of the highest GPAs in school history, a perfect (weighted) 5.0!

He was only one who really knew anything about astronomy, so a few other students (the passionate ones) and I built a tiny observatory in this kids backyard, made out of wood and propped up on cinder blocks. A couple of nights a week we would chart stars, look at planets, and look for any anomalies (lol, we found nothing, the suburbs don't provide for clear enough skies) but it was fun and educational nonetheless.

Anyway, the thing that struck me about this kid was that he always wore the same sweatshirt. A New york rangers one (a hockey team). Now, he was pretty awkward socially so I just assumed it was just a piece of clothing someone gave to him, and he always wore, not having much time to think about fashion. Much to my surprise, going into the observatory one night I find this kid glued to his telescope, and the radio blasting!! Guess what, it was a Rangers hockey game!!! I learned later that he was a HUGE hockey fan, and he refused to miss any game, even though stargazing was his favorite hobby, he still had to have the game on at all times.

I was very surprised. My vehement hatred for sports had not yet been fully cemented, but I knew that I did not like sports, and could not imagine my fellow nerd partaking in such a plebeian activity. I forgot all about it after graduating from high school,but discussions on this forum have made me reminisce and want to ask..How can smart people watch sports, how many nerds watch sports, and are their traitors for their kind for doing so?

I'd like to know your thoughts on the subject, personally it stumps me, I'm not sure what to think..

[Earl]

Well, that is very interesting.

Some people just like to listen to someone talking on the radio. It helps them to relax. It serves the same purpose as TV. People fall asleep reclining in an "easy" chair in front of the TV in the living room all the time.

Of course, that's really not the answer to your question, is it? Our society has become so saturated with sports as a form of entertainment that interest in one or more sports as a spectator has become a social norm, an expectation that anyone who wishes to feel accepted and valued must conform. Most people have a strong desire to "fit in"; so, they become sports fans.

I don't mind sports fans, as long as they don't seek to impose their preference upon me or anyone else. (More about that later!) Generally, I try to have a "live and let live" attitude. However, if I still knew the guy, I'd be curiously to find out why he loved hockey so much. Sometimes you get to know someone better that way. Assuming, of course, you don't make the inquiry in a rude or confrontational way ...

[sportslover]

I consider myself fairly smart and I work as a education assistant in a elementary school and I like sports.

I don't see the issue with smart people or "nerds" as you said liking sports. Are nerds supposed to just be all about stuff like stargazing or studying or 100% all about science? That would be pretty boring if you ask me. I don't see a problem at all with smart people like sports. What is the problem with sports? Why are sports thought of by some as for dumb people? What entertainment should be for smart people in your opinion then? Hmm?

[DanTran]

Nah, this kid wasn't trying to fit in anywhere. It can't be because of the social norms, I doubt he'd be concerned about his social status, he never even brought it up, remember we had to find him doing it, but it wasn't like he was ashamed of it either....

There are many intelligent people who love sports, I just don't know why!!

In relation to sportlovers comment:

No entertainment. A smart person shouldn't engage in such trivial things. Reading and listening to classical music is the only entertainment an "intelligent" person should be interested in.

Everything else makes you a sheep.

[Fat Man]

I consider myself fairly smart and I work as a education assistant in a elementary school and I like sports.

I don't see the issue with smart people or "nerds" as you said liking sports. Are nerds supposed to just be all about stuff like stargazing or studying or 100% all about science? That would be pretty boring if you ask me. I don't see a problem at all with smart people like sports. What is the problem with sports? Why are sports thought of by some as for dumb people? What entertainment should be for smart people in your opinion then? Hmm?

I would like to go to a museum, to an art gallery, and see all that is on display. I would like to go to a classical music concert. There are many things out there far more interesting and fun and mind stimulating than watching some drooling morons chasing a ball. DUH!!!

To me, watching sports is like watching retarded Kindergarteners in shitty diapers sitting in a sandbox and throwing sand, and their own shit, at one another!

[Brigan]

No entertainment. A smart person shouldn't engage in such trivial things. Reading and listening to classical music is the only entertainment an "intelligent" person should be interested in.

Everything else makes you a sheep.

Cool story bro, you had me going for a bit... just a bit.

[DanTran]

I don't understand? Brigan, what do you mean?

Do you believe that I'm being insincere? I detest that, my views may be extreme, but they are my views nonetheless.

We need to be consistent. Sports, like all popular entertainment (music, movies, tv, video games) is destroying the intellectual world. How can I be true to my principles if I enjoy stuff that the masses enjoy? Hell, I might as well be watching sports!!! Living vicariously through others....it occurs in all media. At least good literature and classical music, and the sciences can spark intellectual curiosity. After all, this curiosity separates us from the animals. Do you want to live on instinct alone? I think not!

[Fat Man]

I don't understand? Brigan, what do you mean?

Do you believe that I'm being insincere? I detest that, my views may be extreme, but they are my views nonetheless.

We need to be consistent. Sports, like all popular entertainment (music, movies, tv, video games) is destroying the intellectual world. How can I be true to my principles if I enjoy stuff that the masses enjoy? Hell, I might as well be watching sports!!! Living vicariously through others....it occurs in all media. At least good literature and classical music, and the sciences can spark intellectual curiosity. After all, this curiosity separates us from the animals. Do you want to live on instinct alone? I think not!

Good evening DanTran:

If you have read through some of my posts in OFF TOPICS, you will come to know that arguing with Brigoon is futile!

He's a bed-wetting ignoramus still in shitty diapers who believes in fairy tales!

When Fit Man - AKA - Fit Shit came into these forums, he devoted a topic just to little ol' me.

The first ting he did was call me a disgrace to humanity and every time I would say something in my defense, Brigoon called it IRREVERENT!

Also, Brigoon claims to be a law student.

Yeah! He will probably be a crooked lawyer defending scumbags and ripping the plaintiffs apart.

Lets say for example: someone who had been beaten and raped, testifies against her rapist in court.

As a lawyer, Brigoon would say IRREVERENT, and than ask the plaintiff why she came on to the defendant and why she tried to entice him, thus ripping the victim apart in the court room.

If Brigoon were living in the USA, he would be giving blow-jobs to Rush Limbaugh for money!

[Brigan]

Funny Fatty, you keep mocking at my career but.... you have yet to get one, until then.. you're just a Parasite it seems..

Guess you're not doing anything yet to change that huh? Just rambling your nonsense on the Internet, way to go =)

[Fat Man]

Funny Fatty, you keep mocking at my career but.... you have yet to get one, until then.. you're just a Parasite it seems..

Guess you're not doing anything yet to change that huh? Just rambling your nonsense on the Internet, way to go =)

I'm 60 years old ,so it's a little late for me to get started!

I could have had a career but when I went to school they didn't care about academics, the only cared about sports.

I got rejected, because of my crippled up left knee the result of a car accident, because they couldn't make me into a jock, I was rejected, and thrown away!

This was back in the 1960s when physically handicapped kids were discriminated against in our schools.

So, it's you sports fans, and the jocks who are the parasites.

You're the parasites ruining education, and jocks demanding millions of dollars just for chasing balls!

I have been bullied around, and harassed, which eventually lead to me having and emotional and mental breakdown when I was 17 years old, and spent three weeks in the state mental hospital, where I was beaten and raped by an older man.

And, when I came home I was so fucked up in the head, I didn't want to go out of the house, I spent most of my time in my bedroom, and I was in no condition to go out looking for a job.

So, when I turned 18, my parents filed a claim for disability so I could get my disability check.

Again I say . . . . .



. . . and . . .



And so . . . to you . . . .

A KNIFE IN THE THROAT!!!

Now, get out of here and go die somewhere!

[DanTran]

Brigan, I'm not sure you deserve to go "die somewhere," however you cannot blame Fat Man for the condition he's in. Blame society, blame schools, blame jocks and bullies. But more importantly, blame sports. If anything, Fat Man's touching story is all one needs to say that sports should be eliminated, and sport fans destroyed!

Fat Man's school must have been a terrible, intolerable place. Fat Man, did anyone ever learn anything in that school of yours, or was everyone a GYM TEACHER?!! It's a shame that academics was so hated in that school that it effected your career.

Considering what you went through, you seem to be in good shape mentally.

And Brigan, I hope your law career turns out better than how Fat Man is predicting it...

[sportslover]

So wait, smart people don't need entertainment dan? Seriously, I love reading and learning about history but really if my life was all about that my life would be pretty damn boring and worthless if you ask me....

Sports are entertaining fun, a show of some great skill and ability. Why can't people see sports as good thing? How does liking sports make you a sheep? Cause I don't see it like that.. Wow some people....

[Fat Man]

Good morning DanTran:

OK, I'm going to respond in heavy dark blue text.

Brigan, I'm not sure you deserve to go "die somewhere," however you cannot blame Fat Man for the condition he's in. Blame society, blame schools, blame jocks and bullies. But more importantly, blame sports. If anything, Fat Man's touching story is all one needs to say that sports should be eliminated, and sport fans destroyed!

Fat Man's school must have been a terrible, intolerable place. Fat Man, did anyone ever learn anything in that school of yours, or was everyone a GYM TEACHER?!! It's a shame that academics was so hated in that school that it effected your career.

Well, as I have mentioned so many times before, in my high school, our so-called science teach was also the football coach, so, he was too damn bust coaching his team of pre-frontally lobotomized baboons to teach in the class room. So, instead, he would set up the movie projector and go out the door, leaving us all sitting in the dark watching stupid cartoons.

In English literature class, we got to play Charades! Now isn't that nice!

Yeah! My high school was like going back to Kindergarten.


Considering what you went through, you seem to be in good shape mentally.

Well, actually, I'm still fucked up in the head, going through endless cycles of anxiety and depression and mood swings. I haven't been posting here as often as I use to, because here lately, I've been feeling tired all the time.

So, I'm still a basket case!

And Brigan, I hope your law career turns out better than how Fat Man is predicting it...

Well, actually, I could care less if his law career went swirling down the crapper!

Hey! I know! He can always come to the good ol' USA, and maybe defend George Zimmerman, that scum-bag cry-baby coward still in shitty diapers, who shot and killed an unarmed 19 year old black kid, Trayovn Martin, seeming as though Brigoon likes to take the side of scums against the victims, and calling anything the victims have to say as, IRRELEVANT!!!

Yeah! He would be one of those crooked shyster lawyers!

Now I shall respond in heavy red text!

So wait, smart people don't need entertainment dan? Seriously, I love reading and learning about history but really if my life was all about that my life would be pretty damn boring and worthless if you ask me....

Well, maybe what DanTran and I would regard as entertainment is way beyond the comprehension of the typical sports fan or jock.

OK, I like to watch a science fiction movie sometimes, and I like the old black & white classics, and I would love to attend a classical music concert, and go to a planetarium and a science museum, and to an art gallery, and attend a university lecture given by a prominent scientist, and I use to sing a the Karaokes. But I don't have my own transportation so I can't go out at night anymore, and I can't afford to travel, so I'm stuck in this redneck town here in El Paso Texas.

I'm just glad I have YouTube so I can see some lectures by Richard Dawkins, that are both educational an entertaining, and by Christopher Hitchens (may he rest in peace) and many otehr science videos.

Yes, I find that even educational events can be entertaining.

But, of course, it's all way beyond the comprehension of the typical sports fan who has the mind of a 2 year old!

Sports are entertaining fun, a show of some great skill and ability. Why can't people see sports as good thing? How does liking sports make you a sheep? Cause I don't see it like that.. Wow some people....

Gee! I don't find watching some ugly smelly apes chasing a ball around very entertaining! It's about as entertaining as watching grass grow or watching paint dry!

And not only does liking sports make you sheep, it also makes you cattle.

After the games, sports fans go charging out into the streets, like the proverbial bull in a China Shop, breaking shop window, setting fires, overturning cars, raping and pillaging!

I rest my case!

Next case!

[Brigan]

Well, actually, I could care less if his law career went swirling down the crapper!

Hey! I know! He can always come to the good ol' USA, and maybe defend George Zimmerman, that scum-bag cry-baby coward still in shitty diapers, who shot and killed an unarmed 19 year old black kid, Trayovn Martin, seeming as though Brigoon likes to take the side of scums against the victims, and calling anything the victims have to say as, IRRELEVANT!!!

Yeah! He would be one of those crooked shyster lawyers!

the 19 yeard old biased by the media? and Then you claim you don't eat bullshit from your own TV! When I'm not even at MMMURRIKA

Use Google Fatty, It doesn't hurt.

1) the Real INFO (He was a Jock / Football player )



2) He also was a DRUG DEALER



3) His mother is after the bloody money.



4) When shit hit the fan, the media used OLD PICTURES of Trayvon. and a Mugshot of Zimmerman.



Guess you're are a Sheep of the Media FAT MAN

[DanTran]

So wait, smart people don't need entertainment dan? Seriously, I love reading and learning about history but really if my life was all about that my life would be pretty damn boring and worthless if you ask me....

Sports are entertaining fun, a show of some great skill and ability. Why can't people see sports as good thing? How does liking sports make you a sheep? Cause I don't see it like that.. Wow some people....

Everything that the masses do, makes you a sheep. That's where the term comes from, follow the flock.

If history is something you love, than you wouldn't be bored doing it all of the time.

I have to agree with Brigan about Martin, don't see why it's relevant here, but it's here nonetheless.