Why are American men hyper-obsessed with sports?

It’s bizarre. It’s the only thing the men in my husbands family will discuss.

It is the acceptable version of testosterone laden warfare. It's the reason HS sports are funded over HS debate.

Vicarious experiences? I don't think it's just straight men who are "obsessed" with sports – most of my gay male friends are likewise really into sports like I am – but talking about sports is certainly less controversial than politics and more pleasant than climate change.

I’m into sports fool!

It's like that almost everywhere. It taps into people's desire to have teams and competition.

"American" men, OP?

When was the last time a deadly riot/brawl broke out in an American football, baseball, or basketball arena? Ever been around Indian men obsessed with cricket?

It's a sugar pill for war.

Breeder males respond to sports as a metaphor to sex: trying to beat the other males getting your stuff in the hole.

I’m with R3, R4 etc. I’m gay and I’ve always been into sports. Played in school and college, so did my husband. We still play recreationally and follow teams. So do many/most of our gay friends.

My sisters are/were athletes too, so I never thought it was a male thing. We’re pretty competitive professionally so maybe it’s just people who like the pursuit, for the sake of it, personal improvement and so on…

There’s a lot of gambling on the games. It’s also an acceptable emotional release and a way to endlessly prove yourself because you know the tiniest little statistic imaginable: “He has caught a pass in 6 out of the last 7 matchups of these two squads …”

So many femmes on this thread

I’m a straight man and I love sports, if I allow myself to get into it enough any given year/season I’ll be driven to tears, shouting, etc many times. If you want to understand the psychology of sports fandom I would read what Chris Lasch wrote about it. I don’t pay much attention some years though depending on my priorities - like this year i just don’t have much free time at all. I find that when women or gay men do take an interest in sports they are much less invested in the game/technical aspect of it and see the sports itself maybe more as a setting for the personal and social drama that happens off of the field (the players looks as well maybe).

It's probably like that in every country OP. Crazy but probably true.

It's actually really gay when you think of it.

Team sports allow men to get close to other men in a socially-acceptable manner. When you're on the team, you get locker room camaraderie, complete with pheromones and testosterone-laden air. As a spectator you get to recapture those feelings and celebrate them as a means of bonding with other men -in a way that society doesn't frown upon. I'm not saying they are all gay. Far from it. But most men really do long for male friendship and a closeness that they fear would brand them as less-than.

R15 yes the deep longing for fraternity is a huge part of that and men very much romanticize the shared struggle , sports fills a psychological need to participate in something like this that isn’t warring or hunting imo

[quote] “He has caught a pass in 6 out of the last 7 matchups of these two squads …”

Guessing you’re not into sports, or I’m learning something new. Which sport is one playing if “catching a pass” in a “squad”? Rugby? I admittedly know little of the parlance of Anglo sports.

Men in Europe are just as sports-obsessed as American men.

*sports obsessed

It’s a form of tribalism that allows straight men to safely express emotion and reinforce belonging and acceptance within the group. Sports is the rare activity that makes sweaty physical contact between men and admiration the male form socially acceptable in straight society. A similar obsession exists among some gay men with RuPaul’s Drag Race, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Britney, etc… People long for community and to find others who share the same passions.

R17, that’s the kind of commentary you hear when you watch American (NFL) football. “Teams” and “squads” are interchangeable terms.

It’s not just American men…a lot of the fraus I work with are into football, college mainly, and talk about it all the time. I am in the south, though, so maybe it’s a bigger deal here.

Not just American men -- entire countries in Europe and Latin America will come to a standstill during a World Cup if their team is playing.

r12, please never post here gain.

R24 I pay for that privilege but you can ignore me

Men the world over love sports, OP.

It’s a cultural leveler. At work the mail clerk and the senior partner can talk and bond for an hour on Monday over the play by play of the weekend’s football games. It’s stupefyingly boring to me, so I always feel like an outsider. It’s a proxy for combat on some level. Belonging to a tribe in competition with the other tribes is something primordial in the human psyche. I don’t care about any of it myself, so I have always felt I’m not correctly wired as a human being. More of a lone wolf.

I don't have any data to back this up, but I've now lived/worked in the Southeastern US for the past 5 years after spending most of my life in California and it seems like the women in my office are just as into sports -- especially football -- as the straight men.

You should see the glances I get when I get asked if I saw "the game" last night and I say, no, I was busy watching Julia, the Julia Child bio-series.

Why are American women hyper-obsessed with relationships?

In the workplace it’s always “did you see this or that reality show?” “They’re fighting again, he’s going to cheat on herl.” On and on and on.

Is it really that exciting to pry into the relationships (usually faked!) of a bunch of vulgar creeps you don’t know and never will?

[quote]I’m a straight man and I love sports

So then what exactly brought you to [italic]Datalounge[/italic], of all places?

I never liked sports, but grew up in a house where they weren’t encouraged and were rarely if ever on TV. I know my experience is different than most.

R30 The rest of the internet is in an unacceptable state, I had no choice but to escalate from lurking to posting. It's going to take lethal force to send me back to that hell.

This is what mystifies me. In a room full of guys, I will be watching the same exact football game they are. When the closeups of a huddle occur, a tight shot of beefy linemen trotting off-field, or a tight end with a magnificent ass and thighs comes on screen, it is like candy for me. The straight guys see the EXACT same thing and act like it does not exist, and you can't tell me that they are staring at the same stuff I am staring at. Like that baseball player study and eye-tracking.

Exactly R27, I understand why others like sports and can bond over them, but I find them painfully boring. There’s also that people think they sound smart when talking about sports, but to me it sounds like they’re speaking another language. I was just never able to get into them or bring myself to give a shit about even a local team winning, and no amount of eye candy has been able to make them interesting.

American? OP has never stepped foot outside the country.

R40, it’s a queer ftm.

Or a straight ftm.

No, I'm not FTM. Sorry!