Spectator Sports

Living in a college town with a huge football following has led to some interesting observations lately.

I’ve never been a big sports fan myself. This lack of interest and inability to connect with a team has always left me wondering why others so eagerly rally around these events. In particular, I’ve noticed that men, and often the most emotionally inaccessible ones, become inflamed and loose all rational ability when the team doesn’t play well.

The place I’ll start is probably the most obvious. Again and again I hear people describing their team’s performance, “We played a great game today…our defense was really on…”…etc. The choice of wording here is clearly not accurate. To use the word “we” implies that the speaker had some part in the success (or poor performance) of the team playing. The spectator feels an emotional connection to the team and the outcome of the event. The reality, of course, is that the person speaking simply observed other people as they played a game that had nothing to do with anything outside of the people on the field.

I’ll accept the idea that one might object to my last statement. Perhaps the spectators’ support (or heckling) had some impact on the psyche of the players. Maybe a well timed hiss caused that last free-throw to miss the basket. While this is all possible, it seems a little bit like manually flapping the wing of a butterfly in hopes of causing a hurricane on the other side of the world. In most cases cheering and booing have little effect because athletes are trained to tune out this noise. Even if there was a measurable change in the outcome of the game, one would think that spectators wouldn’t really want their actions to influence the game because this would be unsportsmanlike. If we could change the outcome of a game with how loud we yell, then why in the world would we pay athletes as much as we do? We want the best team to win, right?

So, for sake of argument, we want the best team to win and we want “our” team to be the best team. In fact, we truly believe that our team is the best team in a lot of cases (even though they can’t possibly all be the best). We’re back to the original question then: Why do we use the word “we” and why do people get so involved in these uncontrollable events?

I have a theory. I believe that sporting events (and mad spectators) are an outlet for people’s pent up emotions. In addition, I think these events are perceived by sports fans as a very safe way to express their emotions. The idea is that a guy can get all riled up, have a few beers (maybe a brawl in the stands) and then go home. No one got hurt. No harm, no foul.

I disagree though. I think that dealing with emotions in such a way is actually quite detrimental to the emotional development of the rabid spectator. Imagine you are a huge fan of your local football team. The team is on a winning streak and with each subsequent game your spirits are lifted higher and higher. What happens when your team finally loses? You are on the edge of your seat for the duration of the game. Standing and gesturing wildly at all of the appropriate moments cursing all of the while. When the game ends you are truly angry and upset. It may have ruined your whole afternoon! The bottom line though, is that you don’t have to deal with anything. You can spit and curse, but eventually you have to accept what has happened. You do so, and you move on (until the next season).

What have we learned? That there is nothing we can do about our problems. When we are emotional it is okay to lose control completely. Rational process does not have a place. In fact, it is more appropriate to lose one’s head and then later shrug one’s shoulders and hope the team pulls it together next time. There’s not a thing that a fan can actually do to influence the future outcome. The spectator may claim to have all of the solutions, but in the end, they step aside, allow someone else to take responsibility and watch the chips fall. There is no point where personal accountability plays any role. It is literally a way to kill time.

I’m certainly not saying that people shouldn’t watch sports. One pastime is as good as the next so long as no one is being hurt. All I’m suggesting is that the emotional involvement is not healthy. Perhaps it’s time we start teaching children to take responsibility and understand the consequences of their actions rather than emphasizing that emotions are not to be controlled or made productive.