Let me make two things clear: first, sports are NOT boring. Watching sports isn’t boring and playing a sport certainly isn’t boring. Second, talking about sports is an American pastime as much as baseball has been America’s pastime since the 1869.
I have played sports since as far back as I can remember. When my family and I lived in Germany I played soccer and baseball every year and bugged my parents to sign me up for the next season even before the current one ended.
Bowling has always been a part of my life, thanks in part to my parents and grandparents. I even bowled for Weber State University during my college career. No matter where we lived there was always a bowling alley nearby.
I picked up football after moving here and have since switched to participating in strictly bowling and golf, though I’m not subject to trying new sports at any time.
As plain as I can explain it, I have had something to do sports-wise since I was at least 6 or 7 years old.
If anyone wanted to argue that sports are not even fun to participate in, well, that’s almost un-American (for lack of a better term).
Unfortunately I almost have to say that sometimes watching a specific sport can be a little droll, especially when it seems like there is nothing happening.
However, the argument can be made that it only seems that way because most of the time people aren’t paying attention to what’s really going on in the game.
Take for instance baseball because that’s the sport I hear most of the time as being boring to watch. At any given moment, however, something is happening.
A ball being thrown, hits going into the gaps, players shuffling their feet on the base paths, pitchers looking in all directions while twirling a ball in their hand and getting signals from the catcher and manager at the same time.
These kinds of things are happening all the time. Just because you think you’re watching a game with nothing happening, it doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
Which leads me to the last point of talking about sports. The only way, and even I find this hard to believe, to talk about a sport as “boring” to someone is if that person finds the sport boring.
In that case, I just don’t talk to that person about that sport and try to move on to something else.
If someone I want to talk to about a sport says “I don’t watch that sport, it’s so boring,” I simply turn around and find the next person.
There’s something to be said about people that don’t like sports: they are boring people.
Even a person who just reads the sports section to look at the standings and say “gee that team is doing good this year” is an acceptable sports person.
They may not be able to talk about certain teams or players specifically, but they take the time to understand what’s happening so that his/her friends know he isn’t completely out of tune with the sports world.
So if you still find a sport to be boring after reading this, come find me. When I have the time to continue to prove to you that you’re wrong, we will have to have a little chat.
If you’re a sports fan and know someone that finds your favorite sport boring, go find that person and show them this piece.
If you have now found an affinity for sports thanks to this piece...you’re welcome.
But if I hear another person say that a sport is boring, watching or otherwise, be prepared to make a long argument for yourself because I’ll be there arguing for that “boring” sport until you change your mind.
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