Is There Anything Wrong With Watching Sportsball?
Is there anything wrong with spending your time watching sportsball? Walk into a bar on any given Sunday and you’ll hear grown men shouting obscenities at professional athletes on big screen television. These manchildren, donning jerseys over their beer bellies will be ordering fried chicken wings while claiming that these athletes are lazy for not hustling more or are weak for not playing with a broken finger. Onions are still vegetables when fried right??
What is Sportsball?
Sportsball is a colloquial term given for the amalgamation of all sports games that men watch, typically football, baseball and basketball. Now plenty of people have bashed America’s pastime of watching sports as a lazy and childish habit for men to take part in. Over the last few years, you may have noticed a few prominent figures on social media claim that obsessing over sports is a waste of time.
These potshots range include everything from “Wearing a sports jersey with another man’s name on it is a cuck move” to “Eating chicken wings and drinking beer all weekend while watching others exercise is a soy move for weak, out of shape men.”
Bashing Sportsball has become the easy punching bag for edgelords. These may be people who got picked on by jocks in high school. Maybe they don’t really even care about sports but are simply parroting what others are saying. Its virtue signaling for gurus. By saying you’re too good for the Super Bowl, you’re signaling to others that you’re different. Which is fine, but you’re not getting richer or healthier merely by ignoring sports. What matter is what you do with that extra time.
This is a topic that I’ve wanted to talk about for months. It’s easy to “score” social points on social media by claiming sportsball is for fat losers. But this is a spicy soundbite at best and pandering to a certain audience at worst. There’s a more nuanced take on “sportsball” that doesn’t fit in a tweet, but rather a longer blog post.
“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”
While most people who watch sports need to spend less time watching sports, this is not a one size fits all situation. Do you watch hours of sports all weekend, then watch all the sports shows during the week and read sports articles all week? If so, you are wasting too much time obsessing over the lives of those more successful than you. Enjoy the games, but don’t follow sports so closely that you neglect your own life.
But maybe you simply watch a game a week with your kids and use it as a time to bond and enjoy each other’s company. This could be an opportunity to teach your kids how to improve on a sport that they play. By watching these games, your kids can learn from those who’ve achieved massive success from their hard work, dedication and persistence. And there are some truly inspiring stories in sports that may motivate your kids to work harder in tee ball or pop warner youth football.
For the last few years, I used to agree that sportsball is largely a waste of time for a man of action. And when taken to the extreme that so many men do, it certainly can be. But as quarantine has challenged the mental sanity of so many, I have changed my opinion on the matter. Men who work hard and stay in shape need time to decompress and relax.
Do Sports Ruin Your Week?
Don’t let yourself get too emotionally invested. If you find yourself getting so wrapped up in “your team’s” success, you may need to rethink your priorities in life. First off, it’s not your team. You didn’t cut weight, hit the gym and practice all week for the big game. You set your fantasy football lineup in an air-conditioned office and ordered hot wings. Sports is a fun diversion. And those who struggle to control their own life seek escapism in sports or other vices.
Those who let a football game ruin their week likely have nothing great going on in their life. I’m not taking shots at you if this offends you. But you should look to fill this void in your life that sports may be filling. If you found a more meaningful pursuit in your life, you’d shake off that loss like the meaningless piece of entertainment that it truly is.
Sportsball is Great, in Moderation
Let me admit that I watch sports in moderation. Last week I watched an exciting game between the Bears and the Saints. Da Bears lost but I still enjoyed watching the game with my kids. I’m not less of a man for doing so and if you think that, then fine. As Jay Cutler would say, “DOOOOOON’T CAAAAAAARRE….”
Second off, I work out consistently and even at 33, I am still a competitive athlete. I routinely practice martial arts and run long distance in my free time. I run Spartan Races and other obstacle course races as an incentive to stay in shape. This isn’t my livelihood like professional athletes but sports has always been a big part of my life. Growing up, I played baseball, basketball, track and football. I spent every week in the gym getting stronger. I’ve been called a dudebro and I’m unapologetically a bro. But unlike most has-beens who talk about throwing a football over them mountains, I’ve moved on from high school.
Growing up watching sports was a great time for me to spend time with my family. My father would find teaching moments in the games and it helped me learn how to play these games better. An athletic skillset helped me make friends. Growing up my friends and I would play pick up games of basketball during recess or play no pads football on snow days.
There is nothing wrong with watching sports. The problem arises when you spend all your time and energy obsessing over sports at the expense of better endeavors. I say this from personal experience.
I used to be that guy who would spend his Friday nights at the bars with friends, his Saturdays watching football and drinking beer and all-day Sunday at Buffalo Wild Wings eating fried food and drinking cheap beers. I was content to work hard all week and spend my weekends watching football. As the great poet Homer once said, “Since the dawn of civilization, man has sought to fill his gut with beer and food in the anticipation of watching other men exercise.”
Find an Active Lifestyle
This lifestyle began to feel meaningless as I was going through my divorce. And in 2017, I began to watch much less sports and found much more free time to go on bike rides, walks and runs. As a result of my more active lifestyle, I lost 25 pounds in a year and began to feel more energetic, younger and healthier.
It can be easy to let sports become your default activity when you’re bored. Nothing to do, might as well watch “the game.” Here’s a secret. There’s always going to be “the game” on. The TV will be telling you not to miss “the game.” Your friends will be talking about “the game.” But life is full of FOMO moments. (Fear Of Missing Out)
This is why I love to work out early. You can get up early and go for a run or hit the gym before “the game.” Or you could simply skip the game and spend the day outside with your family. You’ll find you will likely have more fun and you’ll make better memories. And when it’s over and you wake up the next morning, you can check out the highlights on YouTube. The NFL puts out these great 10-minute clips of all the big plays from each game. You can workout while watching these and you’ll be able to say you caught that amazing play from the game last night.
Watching sports can be fun, but it’s a lot more fulfilling to find a sport of your own to invest your time and energy. Fantasy Football is just dungeons and dragons for jocks. If you enjoy it, that’s great, but if you’re spending hours at work tweaking your lineup, are you even having fun? If you’re yelling at random games because of a “touchdown vulture,” you might have your answer for why that brunette ghosted you.
Watching sports in moderation is great but playing them leads to a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle. Find a rec league or take up running. You should obsess over your own fitness and track your own stats. Not another man who doesn’t care about you.
After you’ve worked out and had a full day, don’t let anyone fault you for watching football. There’s nothing wrong with watching sports if it doesn’t cut into more meaningful priorities.
Here on Path to Manliness, I’m constantly being told by random comments “what a real man does.” Most of it is biased nonsense. But there is something a man does if he wants to be a great man. A man does the work first and plays second. If you want to watch sports, you’re free to do what you want. But you’ll feel better about yourself if you work out for yourself first.
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