There Must Be Something Seriously Wrong With Sports! Eh?

[Fat Man]

[ I was up most of the night re-editing this topic, and I have done some more re-editing when I got up this morning.]

OK, as we all know, we have been getting more and more new members now who are ex-sports fans, people who use to love sports, but for some reason, they no longer care about sports.

I can think of many reasons why this is. Perhaps some have become disgusted by how the jocks are over-paid just for chasing balls, or that they are an over-privileged class who appear to be exempt from the laws, many times being able to get away with rape and many other crimes.

The reasons for sports fans eventually becoming ex-sports fans I'm sure are many.

I have personally known a few ex-sports fans over the years.

But one thing I have never seen is my life is, and ex-chess player or an ex-Chess fan, or an ex-Star Trek fan, or an ex-classical music fan or an ex-rock fan, or a person who no longer likes to read books, or a person who is no longer interested in science.

These I have never seen. Not unless someone has been suckered into joining some kind of whacked out religious cult where they are required and have been brainwashed to denounce their past association with any of the above.

Otherwise, I have never heard of, for example: someone who was once a Star Trek fan but now hates Star Trek, or someone who was once a Chess player who now hates Chess, or someone who loved classical music but now hates it, or someone who once enjoyed art, doing oil paintings or water colors or sculptures but now hates it, or someone who was once into model railroading, or building radio controlled flying model planes but now hates it, or someone who once loved to read books and always seeking knowledge but now hates reading books.

For some reason, I have never heard of anything like this.

Of course, sometimes people may have to give up something they love, for example: when they fall on financial hard times and are no longer able to support their favorite past time or hobby, but still, they never lose their love for it. If fact, when this happens, we feel torn away and separated from what we love.

And this is what is so tragic in our society.

Football players get paid millions of dollars every year in their worthless pursuit of chasing a ball. It serves no purpose what-so-ever. It's just simply a moronic and childish game.

While people who would like to create works of art that others may enjoy, or perhaps the amateur astronomer who would love to build his own telescope, or someone who likes to design and build radio controlled flying model planes, it is tragic when they can't afford to pursue their interests. Society in general loses in the long run because, the one who likes to design model planes, he might discover a new way to build a more efficient aircraft, or the amateur astronomer with his large home built telescope might be the one who discovers an asteroid on collision course with the earth and is able to give advanced enough warning so that we might be able to intercept it and deflect its path away from us. Actually, the majority of asteroids and comets newly discovered were usually discovered by amateur astronomers with their back yard observatories, because the big professional observatories are usually engaged in some other project observing distant galaxies. There are many examples of discoveries and inventions by nonprofessionals who have been a great benefit to humanity.

And when such gifted individuals fall on hard times financially, we all lose because of it!

Oh! But some drooling slack-jawed mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging moron gets all the financial support just for chasing a ball!

Why can't society be equally willing to support the amateur astronomer in his pursuit, or the amateur aircraft designer? Why can't our society be more willing to support the more deserving gifted individuals instead of paying such great tribute to moronic imbeciles who only know how to chase balls? And then, these drooling sports imbeciles turn around and piss on us, and rape our sisters and daughters, and then, our courts and our judges are too damn fucking chicken-shit to do anything about it!

Sports, is one of many crimes against humanity, surpassed only by the war crimes of a Hitler or a Mussolini or a Stalin! And as far as I'm concerned, anybody who dares to call himself a sports fan is one who supports a criminal enterprise and is a collaborator and a traitor to humanity!

I'm sorry! But who in his right mind can possibly love something that has often destroyed people's lives? Anybody who loves sports, hates all humanity!

And I for one, am sick and tired of having to make sacrifices for something that I never bother to watch on TV, because I have better thing to do than to watch some low grade morons with single digit IQs chasing balls.

As for me, I would love very much to get back to working on oil paintings or get back to playing my guitar, but now I can't because my left wrist was fractured back in July of 2001 in a violent assault on me from my ex-room mate, and I happen to be left handed. But I have not lost my love for art or guitar music even though I can't do those things anymore.

OK, I'm not saying that art, doing oil paintings or water colors or sculptures is the most important thing in the world either. Science is more important, because science may one day find a cure for cancer, diabetes, or AIDS.

But when one creates a work of art, it can last a lift time or beyond. Your art may go on centuries after you have passed on, and people will remember and notice your work.

Where as, a football player scoring a touch down, yeah, it might get recorded in sports history, but all that a football player does leaves behind no physical trace, unless he rapes somebody's sister or daughter, but otherwise, all he has accomplished evaporates like a puff of smoke. It is all as nothing. But we like to try to put a wisp of hot air up on a pedestal, don't we!

Anyway . . . . .

I also love listening to classical music and rock music, and I will always love music until the day I die. And I love reading books on Astronomy, and I will never stop loving Astronomy.

These are the things I have loved all my life, and there will never never never, absolutely never come a time when I will come to hate these things.

Ah! But sports! That's something else.

What is it about sports that causes some sports fans to eventually hate sports, or at least become bored with sports?

It's because sports produces nothing that is new or original. It's just the same old bullshit with the same old plays over and over again. The only thing that changes over the years is that different teams from different cities are playing during the stupid bore game from one year to the next.

Of course one could probably say the same thing about Chess, because I'm sure there is not an infinite number of different moves. I don't know exactly how many different combinations there are in Chess. Perhaps it's something like a trillion raised to the trillionth power. OK, I'm just guessing. But if all the different combinations could be played one each second, it would take over a trillion years or so to play them all. Again, I'm just guessing.

But when it comes to art and music, new songs are composed every day, and new styles of music are invented every decade, and new works of art are created every day. Art and music is always changing. Most if it good, and some not so good, but it's always changing, always some new creation, always something original.

And science . . . there is always some new discovery being made, always some new invention, a new mathematical theorem, some new theory to be tested, always something new.

Model railroading . . . when you build a model railroad, it's never finished. Over the years you will collect more passenger cars or freight cars, and collect more and more different locomotives and add more to your model villages, or lay some more track and add more scenery. It's never finished. You just keep on building and adding more and more.

Radio controlled model planes . . . you will always want to build something new, perhaps create and test a new design, and I have seen how model planes have changed over the years while also keeping and collecting many of the older styles. It's another hobby that's never finished, because after you have finished building one plane, or even before you have finished with it, you'll begin work on another, and another. There is always something new to try. Some will succeed and some will fail, and if a particular designs fails, you don't give up, you redesign the model until is does work. Always something new.

Collecting books . . . there will always be new books written, new stories, new works of fiction and nonfiction, more historical facts uncovered, new scientific discoveries, again always something new. Also, collecting rare old books as well as collecting new books.

No, once people fall in love with these things, that love never dies but actually grows stronger over the years.

Art and music, hobbies, books, these are your friends for life and will never betray you.

But, sports???

Well, some fans feel betrayed when their favorite football hero goes bad.

Yes, most sports fans are drooling morons who could care less when their favorite football star gets into trouble with the law after he's raped someone, they'll still be on his side and will want to get in a long line to lick his boots or sniff his jock strap! They'll still look up to him as their hero, no matter what. Unless, he gets injured too many times, gets all crippled up and can't play football anymore, then the more rabid sports fans will turn against him, and call him pathetic loser, and turn to another rapist to look up to and worship as their hero. Sports fans are really fickle, aren't they?

But the fans who are still human, after hearing about too many of these jocks committing crimes and getting away with it, they eventually become so disgusted that they come to hate the sports that they had once loved so much, but not anymore.

An ex-sports fan is one who has had an awakening, often a rude awakening, and has rediscovered his own humanity, and no longer wishes to be associated with something so dirty and disreputable as sports has become over the years.

So, there must really be something seriously wrong with sports when some fans become ex-fans, and have come to hate sports, never to be associated with it ever again.

My heart really goes out to all the ex-sports fans out there.

And so, I say to all the ex-sports fans . . . . .

CONGRATULATIONS! AND WELCOME BACK TO THE HUMAN RACE!

And to all the drooling morons who still love sports, no matter how ugly and despicable
sports has become, or has always been, and always will be, to them I say . . . . .

TAKE A HIKE MIKE, AND DON'T COME BACK JACK!

[Fat Man]

OK, I had been up most of the night re-editing the above topic, and I have done some more re-editing when I got up this morning.

I'll be going out for awhile to take care of some business.

Hope to see a few responses when I return.

Thank you.

[i_like_1981]

Yes, I've also found it interesting how our website has attracted three new ex-sports fan members over the last three months - recovering_fan, that Ex fan guy and recently, ChrisOH. I suppose they've just come to their senses and realised that they may have gone too far in their sports obsessions. I admit, I definitely wouldn't like to get called a "pathetic loser" by some guy whose only involvement with sports was just watching them on TV whilst stuffing his face with beer and donuts and treating it like he'd done something great himself when his team scored a goal. It does happen in the world, though. Nonetheless, I appreciate these people's presences, and although we've had our disagreements recently, recovering_fan has definitely been an important contributor to the forums these last few months and it's good to have him around. Maybe over the coming weeks we'll have more ex-fanatics coming to their senses and realising that televised sports and the immense, excessive hype created over them are definitely taken too far in this world by so many people.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[recovering_fan]

Fat Man,

I agree with most of what you wrote, except the "Take a hike, Mike" bit as it applies to our site.

--RF

[Fat Man]

Fat Man,

I agree with most of what you wrote, except the "Take a hike, Mike" bit as it applies to our site.

--RF

I just wanted to say something that rhymes.

That's why I also included "Don't come back Jack" at the end of my topic.

You know, like in the song.

Hit the road jack!
And don't ya come back
no more no more!

Hit the road jack!
And don't ya come back no more!

Whatcha say???

Hit the road jack!
And don't ya come back
no more no more!

Hit the road jack!
And don't ya come back no more!

So, I also included "Take a hike, Mike" because it rhymes.

[i_like_1981]

I agree with most of what you wrote, except the "Take a hike, Mike" bit as it applies to our site.

Are you referring to that guy called Mike who sometimes makes posts on the Guestbook trying to give us sports haters some help in getting the ladies, and it invariably results in him telling us to snag up the sports fans' girls as their boyfriends are too absorbed in their televised games? You know, I do wish things were that easy for us all but Mike seems to be the lucky one here. Or maybe he has some exceptionally dimwitted sports fans in his area. Who knows...

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Fat Man]

I agree with most of what you wrote, except the "Take a hike, Mike" bit as it applies to our site.

Are you referring to that guy called Mike who sometimes makes posts on the Guestbook trying to give us sports haters some help in getting the ladies, and it invariably results in him telling us to snag up the sports fans' girls as their boyfriends are too absorbed in their televised games? You know, I do wish things were that easy for us all but Mike seems to be the lucky one here. Or maybe he has some exceptionally dimwitted sports fans in his area. Who knows...

Best regards,
i_like_1981

Yeah, when I said "Take a hike Mike, and Don't come back Jack" I wasn't referring to any particular Mike or Jack who has been posting here in our guest book.

I just wanted to say something that rhymed.

You know, something like, get on the bus, Gus!

I love to say stuff that rhymes.

Too bad there are no names the rhymes with train, plane, jet, or boat.

[recovering_fan]

I agree with most of what you wrote, except the "Take a hike, Mike" bit as it applies to our site.

Well, I knew Fat Man wasn't referring to the Mike that recently posted in our guest-book. He seemed to be generally referring to current sports fans, and, since those are allowed (and in theory welcomed) at our site, I thought I should state my disagreement with the sentiment.

However, as our good pal FM explained, he was only chasing a good rhyme. I believe him. That's his style, after all.

(And it never even crossed my mind that he could be referring to the now infamous "pain train.")

--RF

[Earl]

Mike_the_pain_train was a hoot! Fat Man gave him the nickname "choo-choo_boy." He (she?) obviously was a fake; but he was really funny, too. I really missed this wonderful personage when he stopped posting. Ahhhh, those were the days!

[Skul]

I thought he would've posted on Boxing Day for sure.

Oh wait -- I mean BOCKSING Day!

[Earl]

Ahhhh, yes, "bocksing." I'd forgotten this delightfully humorous misspelling of the word, which leads me to suspect that our adversary had not attained adulthood and quite likely was in junior high or possibly elementary school (unless, of course, such misspelling was deliberate). Either way, this formerly active member of our forum was quite amusing and provided the Earl family with much entertainment. Definitely to be preferred over the 4chan trolls, who usually were not funny. He (or she) is sorely missed.

[ChrisOH]

OK, as we all know, we have been getting more and more new members now who are ex-sports fans, people who use to love sports, but for some reason, they no longer care about sports.

Sorry for the late reply -- power outage and painting project got me sidetracked!

I can think of many reasons why this is. Perhaps some have become disgusted by how the jocks are over-paid just for chasing balls, or that they are an over-privileged class who appear to be exempt from the laws, many times being able to get away with rape and many other crimes.

Well, that's a big part of it for me. I'm currently unemployed and money isn't easy to come by for me. But yet I hear both the NFL and NBA are considering lockouts next year over labor disputes. I mean, these guys (owners and players alike) could retire today and never have to work another day in their lives. Meanwhile, at least 10 percent of us in the U.S. are struggling just to find *any* job, even a low-paying one. And these owners/athletes expect people to support them in their "labor issues"? And expect us to welcome them back with open arms when they do finally end their lovers' spats and resume the games? All I can think is, the hell with that!

So, Blowjob Anderson of the New York Dicks only makes 8 million a year and is upset because he doesn't make 10 million like Ken Dicksmack of the Chicago Buttheads? Forgive me for not feeling any sympathy for the poor baby!

Since a pro athlete is financially set, winning or losing makes no real difference in their financial situation, nor does it have anything to to with their city or community (most of them don't even live in the cities where they play, and they leave or are traded so often it wouldn't matter anyway), I can only conclude that any desire to win a championship is based on their own ego. I guess I get tired of watching overpaid men play against each other just to satisfy an ego trip.

[snip Fatman's examples of other interests/activities that people remain engaged in]

Of these other activities, I think one's *tastes* may change with age and life experiences (as in music, art, etc.) but you're right, most people won't completely lose interest in the field.

What is it about sports that causes some sports fans to eventually hate sports, or at least become bored with sports?

It's because sports produces nothing that is new or original. It's just the same old bullshit with the same old plays over and over again. The only thing that changes over the years is that different teams from different cities are playing during the stupid bore game from one year to the next.

Well, you hit another nail on the head for me. Most games are mind-numbingly similar and totally forgettable. "Championships" mean nothing, really (again, only to the egos of the players and owners), because next year, they have to do it all over again. Nobody cares that you won *last* year -- the fans only care about what happened in the latest game.

Of course one could probably say the same thing about Chess, because I'm sure there is not an infinite number of different moves. I don't know exactly how many different combinations there are in Chess. Perhaps it's something like a trillion raised to the trillionth power. OK, I'm just guessing. But if all the different combinations could be played one each second, it would take over a trillion years or so to play them all. Again, I'm just guessing.

Chess, though, is a participative game, where you use your mind to plan strategies. I don't imagine it very exciting to *watch* people play chess, unless perhaps it was for instructional purposes.

But when it comes to art and music, new songs are composed every day, and new styles of music are invented every decade, and new works of art are created every day. Art and music is always changing. Most if it good, and some not so good, but it's always changing, always some new creation, always something original.

And science . . . there is always some new discovery being made, always some new invention, a new mathematical theorem, some new theory to be tested, always something new.

Model railroading . . . when you build a model railroad, it's never finished. Over the years you will collect more passenger cars or freight cars, and collect more and more different locomotives and add more to your model villages, or lay some more track and add more scenery. It's never finished. You just keep on building and adding more and more.

Radio controlled model planes . . . you will always want to build something new, perhaps create and test a new design, and I have seen how model planes have changed over the years while also keeping and collecting many of the older styles. It's another hobby that's never finished, because after you have finished building one plane, or even before you have finished with it, you'll begin work on another, and another. There is always something new to try. Some will succeed and some will fail, and if a particular designs fails, you don't give up, you redesign the model until is does work. Always something new.

Collecting books . . . there will always be new books written, new stories, new works of fiction and nonfiction, more historical facts uncovered, new scientific discoveries, again always something new. Also, collecting rare old books as well as collecting new books.

No, once people fall in love with these things, that love never dies but actually grows stronger over the years.

Art and music, hobbies, books, these are your friends for life and will never betray you.

Excellent description of all these activities and interests!

The thing about sports is that the body of knowledge is finite. You can memorize who won the World Series of the Super Bowl each year, and you can look at the statistics of players and scores of individual games, but beyond that, there's not much new to study -- just more of the same repetitive stuff year after year, as Fatman said, only different people in different clothes winning and losing games.

I remember when I lived in Columbus some years ago, when the Ohio State-Michigan college football game was played, it was all that was talked about on the news, morning radio shows, newspapers, etc. for at least a week before the game. People were constantly talking about how much they hated Michigan, how "we" had to beat "them" in order to keep our state's honor, etc. Um, they've been playing the game once a year for over a hundred years -- somebody wins, somebody loses, and they do it all over again the next year. Who cares?

An ex-sports fan is one who has had an awakening, often a rude awakening, and has rediscovered his own humanity, and no longer wishes to be associated with something so dirty and disreputable as sports has become over the years.

And what's more, the owners and players don't *care* how dirty and disreputable it's become, because they've got people hooked. That's why I want to get off the merry-go-round.

And so, I say to all the ex-sports fans . . . . .

CONGRATULATIONS! AND WELCOME BACK TO THE HUMAN RACE!

Thanks! Glad to be back!

[i_like_1981]

And what's more, the owners and players don't *care* how dirty and disreputable it's become, because they've got people hooked. That's why I want to get off the merry-go-round.

Exactly, that's the point. Nobody cares about any of the problems in the sports industry as long as the players have their pockets filled with the money of their fans. And the situation over here in England is very, very similar. These footballers fill their pockets up with money that they haven't really earned and are just getting showered upon them for entertaining a load of manic fans. People gladly pay to see these games on TV and fund the obscene salaries these players earn, and THEN complain of the recession that they're in and how they're struggling to cope in the economic climate. And these overpaid sports "heroes" don't have to worry about a thing at all. I mean it, we could seriously help this recession of ours by substantially reducing the wages of these players and not having players sold between clubs for sums that could literally buy a whole estate of homeowners out of their properties. We need to cut these players' salaries down to the point where they have to work proper jobs during the days they're not playing. I don't necessarily think the games should be banned, but we really do need to invest money in areas where it's needed. I guarantee you, some of these football players have enough money already that they'd live the rest of their lives perfectly fine without even making a single penny more. CUT THESE STUPID UNJUSTIFIED SALARIES!

Best regards,
i_like_1981