men who don't like football

^^^still letting all the jocks from high school get to him

I don't really understand or like sports.

if people love their footy, that's cool. but it's just not my bag, baby.

I eman, it's fun to play basketball sometimes but actually watching that shit? It's so boring.

Watching sports is sort of fun, but I kind of find it to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Like if I only pay a little attention to sports, I find myself lost talking to sports-loving friends, but I don't want to actually put in the time they put in. So instead I pay no attention at all and avoid the subject.

I played a lot of baseball as a kid...still like to listen to a Twins game on the radio and have a beer... don't follow any of it though.

Just one of them to-each-his-own situations...

(stating the obvious...obviously...humm hummmm)

i'm talking about britishers soccerball, btw.

but if people want to talk about men who don't like sports in general, s'ok.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lissa_Challop_Zukoff/1038996498

I don't care about soccer. It seems that there's so much of it in the UK, that you could spend all your waking hours just following it on TV.

it is not really a challop, dom.

if i was all like "i hate football you are all closet gays" then maybe.

just trying to understand a mentality, here.

xpost

richard littlejohn said that he can't trust any man who doesn't like football.

I don't trust richard littlejohn's judgment in these matters.

i know, right?

not a challop but lmao dom

I don't enjoy watching any sport. I actually find football quite hard to follow, my mates can be all like 'wow, did you see what he did', and I'm just thinking 'what, he kicked a ball?'.

I can appreicate a good goal on an aethestic level, but there's absolutely zero emotional attachment.

i would love to like football... i really need to sit down and learn the rules.

no, obviously to be a world class sportsman is a huge achievement, and i do find figures like kris akabusi or the fash to be inspirational.

but yeah, s'never grabbed me.

the sense of american culture that pervades football is charming, if repulsive. i might be more intrigued in that than the actual game.

At Jets Game, a Halftime Ritual of Harassment

things to do other than watch football:

buy shoes
play with the cat
install open source firmware on your router
pwn with css
be a jazz d-bag
smooch girlfriend

^^^rearrange then poll

(virtual girlfriend)

I don't like it, but i will go to the pub and watch a game only for the social side of it/drinks with friends.

install open source girlfriend on your d-bag
smooch shoes
buy jazz router
pwn the cat
play with firm
be a ware

I enjoy watching American Football and F1 and enjoy playing basketball, tennis and racquetball. My main problem with sports is all the... "paratext" around it - the soap operas etc. The WORST part about it is the assigning of mythic status and importance to every little story. Those split screen basketball commercials are like the lowest of the low - taking themselves SOOOO seriously = vomit.

I enjoy playing and watching futbol, basketball and tennis. American football is not my bag, enjoy playing baseball, watching it is dud for me.
Do I sit around talking about this shit all the time ? Nope.

My main problem with sports is all the... "paratext" around it - the soap operas etc. The WORST part about it is the assigning of mythic status and importance to every little story.

i love that shit. the media takes it to a silly level, but i don't think i'd care if there weren't mini-epics going on in sports, or if psychology wasn't as huge a factor in competition as it is. it's as valid an arena for enacting human drama as is theater or movies.

mhmm

go ahead. ;-)

i don't trust grown men* who don't like (american) football. it seems like an affectation. what's not to like?

*winsome teenage boys can get away w/ not liking sports but to reach say mid-20s and not have realized that meaningless sports chatter is the #1 most effective way of communicating with other men suggests either some sort of tedious sheltered npr existence or maybe just general boringness.

I kinda hate sports, but then again, I work for a sports magazine. I'd probably hate washing machines too if I worked for Consumer Reports.

I do enjoy football (NFL) because 1.) It's only on for four months a year, 2.) It's only played once a week, and 3.) It's the only sport that I've ever made any money off of.

Really? Communicating with other men only through meaningless sports chatter suggests tedious emotionally constipated existence or maybe just general boringness. xpost

also common and democratic frame of reference, effective ice-breaking, and generally current/immediate exchange of ideas and information

"*winsome teenage boys can get away w/ not liking sports but to reach say mid-20s and not have realized that meaningless sports chatter is the #1 most effective way of communicating with other men suggests either some sort of tedious sheltered npr existence or maybe just general boringness."

I don't have anything against American football, I just don't have a preference for it. I grew up in a traditional Latin American household where futbol and baseball reigned supreme, American football not so much. I may have taken on my family's prejudices but to make blanket statements that suggest that if someone doesn't like American football makes them an NPR junkie or is by default a boring individual is seriously laughable.

i agree with the gist of your point, oscar, but the poster you quoted used the phrase "meaningless sports chatter", not "meaningless American football chatter".

baseball is also acceptable

xpost

I fully understand people who don't like sports, but I am an unashamed and besotted fan of just about every one. It is so awesome when someone who is intelligent and interesting turns out to be a big sports fan. Life ain't just about competition though so it's fully OK that people prioritise other pursuits.

Really? Communicating with other men only through meaningless sports chatter suggests tedious emotionally constipated existence or maybe just general boringness.

And pegging everyone as dull because they share an interest you don't is what, exactly? Lazy generalisations, anyone?

Adam is right though that sports chatter is an effective way to communicate with other men, and sometimes I wish I knew more about sports for this reason. But I don't, I never have, and several genuine attempts to "get into" sports throughout my life haven't taken. I can enjoy watching a football or baseball game (moreso than NPR!), but I can't keep up with stats or appreciate subtleties of play, or really hold a conversation about them to any degree.

I didn't play any sports growing up (other than skateboarding and BMX, which are not the same thing at all). I've tried to get into watching them as a grown-up - for the purposes of basic socialization - but I can't get into the routine of spending every Sunday from September through January in front of the tube. That's valuable free time!

I have been spending a lot of time encouraging my new girlfriend's 4-yr-old to play football (oblong, not sphere) and basketball. His only other pastime is Spiderman for fucks sake and running around jumping on walls is only going to be an acceptable activity for so many years, ya know? Anyway, I hope it keeps my own interest up so I don't have to keep explaining to people "Oh sorry, I don't know what you're talking about because I spent high school smoking and sneering at people."

(American) football season is great because art museums are almost empty during the season. I'll watch a game if it's on, and I can talk about it/play fantasy or whatever, but I'm not willing to set aside 1/7 of the week to care.

Baseball and basketball are better because you can catch a game pretty much any night you're in the mood to watch. It's not an event that you have to plan around.

Yeah, but baseball's boring as hell.

Definitely gets props for having about a bazillion games per season though, I'll give you that.

I moved to the US from NZ 7 years ago. I kind of followed cricket and a little rugby in NZ, but don't even know who the teams are / what any of it means (for any sport) in the US. Until my gf corrected me, I thought the difference was that the Yankees were basebal, and the Mets were football. Sports honestly enter my life about as much as quilting (and no, I don't notice the Post or Daily News).

Really? Communicating with other men only through meaningless sports chatter suggests tedious emotionally constipated existence or maybe just general boringness. xpost

-- Gavin, Saturday, May 31, 2008 11:20 PM

otm

like i could give a fuck what "other men" think of me.

i really have no interests in sports whatsoever, but bonding through sports chatter is no different than communicating through chatter about music, movies, video games, cars, chicks, or food.

there's nothing inherently good or bad about liking any or all or none of these things.

we should all stop feeling superior to each other so we can all band together and feel superior to furries and cosplay geeks instead.

but if that's all you have...

xpost, b-b-b-but wasn't it your esteemed publication (or at least, its sister version) that had to offer a written apology for some sub-tabloidese hackery the other week?

it was a publication with which i have links, yes :)

OK. double-strike the word "tabloid" ... oh, no, hang on: said publication is a tabloid now, eh?

LOL so this is the source of the butthurted.

A few peeps I know are allowed to dislike footie. One of them just posted up above me. The rest of you can man the fuck up.

I love football wholeheartedly but even I wouldn't go into a pub that was packed with people watching a game I had no interest in. Why would you? It so dominates the pub it'd be pointless. Like going in when there was a shit band playing (and yes it is the same thing, some bands bring a feeling of aggro with them too).

Loldon seems to get pretty lairy about that shit. I don't think I've ever noticed a pub anywhere else where the football overwhelmed the entire place to the point of making you feel unwelcome.

that's cos there seem to be "football pubs" over here? or is that my just off the boat ignorance?

if I don't want to watch football I don't go to the "football pub" and if I do that's the only place I go.

Yesterday afternoon I played football in the park with a load of strangers (many of whom I've played with before, admittedly), mostly foreign students and local townspeople. The football is good, the attitude relaxed, the fellowship delightful. This is an instance where football as a cultural narrative and an exciting, fulfilling pursuit finds its highest expression for us, the non-professional fans.

OK, riddle me this: just WHY is it a beautiful game?

I think it has the best balance of free-flow and awe-inspiring skill, when it's played at its best. Other games have one or the other, but none with the same balance as football.

Football is probably the ball sport with the easiest rules to understand and the highest scope for both military organisation and moments of individual brilliance.

(xxpost) Immerse yourself: YouTube thread of footballing joy

Noodle Vague has it, it's a far more open-plan, free-expression sport than most or any others, and all individual balances and instances are made more important by the pure, high-stakes scoring system. I probably just about prefer cricket, but for entirely different reasons. Dom also 4-2-3-1. ;-)

Plus football has a lot more cultural baggage, which I think is why it's hard for Americans to fully "get" it.

It's a bit like coming to a TV series in the middle of its run, except it's a series that's been running for 150 years.

There's tons of other sports that I dig in their own way, but football is the only one that routinely affects me emotionally.

Boxing does as well, but its a lot easier to have a dull boxing match than a dull footballing one.

I don't follow boxing but I watch dull football all the time. THANK YOU, MLS.

And if it's not dull, it's tragic.

I refuse to believe Landon Donovan doesn't captivate the eye with his silky skills

Footie's like movies for me, I think I take more pleasure in the dull technical games than in all that flashy bollocks that telly pundits like to big up.

xp That would be the fivehead, actually. It's transfixing, but in a "Mom, come see! Joey just stepped on a slug in the garden!" kind of way.

Oh guyz also I got hold of FM2008 this week and it's like computer crack once again.

Dude, dude, dude... FOOTBALL MANAGER LIVE is out within a few months.

That will be the day I fully return to the fold.

I've never bought World of Warcraft cos I like my family to see me occasionally, FM Live sounds like total DANGER WILL ROBINSON

OK, still not getting it, and I'm not American. I think 'cultural baggage' is a huge part of it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nY40Lzqchg

Hope that helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XOL8o-3TZ8

This, I think, explains it all. It's just a dude shouting for nine seconds, and it's probably the #1 cultural aretefact in Italian history, eclipsing anything from Dante, Michaelangelo, Lampedusa, or Pasolini.

thing is, i do get it. i understand why it matters and i really wish i cared. for a while I tried to force myself. but no: nothing.

so I just get angry about it instead. it's probably what chronic impotence feels like :)

Let's face it, if it wasn't bred into you (meaning "one") as a kid, you're not likely to pick it up as an adult.

yeah, my dad wasn't into it, so neither am i.

Exactly: This may be cod-psychology, but I suspect that the experience having been taken to the game by dad (or other male elder) as a kid is a HUGE part of why this matters so much to so many blokes, and why it's so involved with their ideas about masculinity.

Not that that's the whole story, or true for everybody, obviously.

Even if by accident, it's become common currency

Do I not like that. I hate the fact that every twat you meet claims to be into football and support a team - shove yer prawn cocktails, along with yer bollocks, up yer arses. See, this was the only upside of hooliganism, it kept sundry twerps away from football. When I were a lad it was perfectly acceptable not to give a flying fuck about football - and I'm talking Glasgow+environs here. I always regret that my brother eventually got into football, 'cuz he was a bohemian kinda kid into music+clothes+shit but he forced himself to get into football to give him something to talk about down t' pub

im thinking of reading up and being more interested in football (even though im not really) - seems like a good icebreaker and convo-starter when you meet people.

Srsly people who really care about a subject can usually tell if you're faking it, so why bother? Unless you really are interested.

Another thing about football, is people used to "grow out" of it. My dad stopped going to games eventually because he thought it was for kids. Also LOL @ anyone over the age of 15 wearing a football top, unless you're actually playing.

Yeah, people liking things is lame.

Yes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/mantfu.jpg

This is why I just don't talk to other men anymore.

xpost - not to pretend im an expert but just to make casual conversation. i think if youre a man, since it seems like 90% of all men like football, knowing a bit more about it is not a bad thing. and people do look at you a bit weird when you say you dont give a shit about it.

(American) football season is great because art museums are almost empty during the seaso

uh, maybe in the republic of football

do you really want to be this bloke, tho?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_GVmQpjOZY

xpost

noodle, permission to repost that image repeatedly on other threads/forums/in the newspaper/etc?

That's what I made it for, sunshine.

Exactly: This may be cod-psychology, but I suspect that the experience having been taken to the game by dad (or other male elder) as a kid is a HUGE part of why this matters so much to so many blokes, and why it's so involved with their ideas about masculinity.

Hey, can we have some psycho-babble about girls who like football then?

(ones who like it because freddie ljungberg/cristiano ronaldo/beckham is "well fit" don't count)

I believe you meant Daniel Agger.

This, I think, explains it all. It's just a dude shouting for nine seconds, and it's probably the #1 cultural aretefact in Italian history, eclipsing anything from Dante, Michaelangelo, Lampedusa, or Pasolini.

you forgot mussolini

And Joe Pasquale

I wasn't the slightest bit interested in following football (I enjoyed playing it) until the age of 10 or 11, and my dad didn't have an awful lot to do with getting me into it.