Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
The term “sportsball” always brings to mind the image of someone raining on another person’s parade — someone who has inserted themselves into a situation involving sports in order to clarify that they themselves don’t like sports. They want the people around them to know that they’re above that whole sports charade and aren’t your “usual” person.
Ad
It’s almost like the adult version of “lol I’m so random” culture, in that it’s only done to try to make oneself look “unique.”
Sometimes I wonder if we'd have flying cars by now had civilization spent a little less brain energy contemplating Football.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 18, 2016
People are allowed to just enjoy things. It’s not like watching any other TV show, going for a nice afternoon walk or playing video games is going get us any closer to flying cars.
Everyone should stop saying sportsball for several reasons. First, plenty of people don’t like sports. Second, to not like something is barely a characteristic of a person — it’s almost a non-statement. If someone were to walk around and say, “Oh man, are you guys talking about the screen actions? Just kidding, I don’t like movies,” no one would accept that as a normal way to enter a conversation.
Starting off any conversation by telling people you don’t like the thing they like is just pointlessly rude. If you don’t like something, there is no real need to lead with that information. If someone asks you what team you follow, a great answer is to say that sports aren’t really your thing. A terrible answer is “I hate sportsball. Why do people even care anyway? It’s not like you’re on the team. I just don’t get how…”
Turns out, how someone feels about sports has nothing to do with how smart they are.”
No one wants to be trapped in a rant about why sports are actually dumb and you’re a genius for not liking them.
Also, it doesn’t make you smart to not like sports. Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, was a high school football all-star. Alfred Hitchcock, the pioneering director, followed West Ham United F.C. Prince, whom you all should know, was a Minnesota Vikings fan.
You can be an absolute genius and love sports or a fool and love them just the same. You can be intelligent and dislike sports, or you can be dumb and constantly only talk about how you dislike sports. Turns out, how someone feels about sports has nothing to do with how smart they are.
Getting enjoyment out of ruining others’ fun is something only awful people do. Period.
Ad
I’m sure someone reading this is saying “Look, another sports fan who just can’t admit they’re wrong.” Well, it turns out I don’t even follow sports. Though my dad does, and so does my brother and my entire family. I also have lots of friends who follow one sport or another. Gallup tells us that 59% of Americans call themselves sports fans.
So whether you like sports or not, you’re going to have to interact with them and their fans. From now on, please remove the term sportsball and all other condescending phrases from your vocabulary. Everyone else, even those of us who also don’t like sports, don’t like what you’re doing.
Fynn Bailey can be reached at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @FynnBailey.
