Four shirtless men with their upper bodies painted in Southern Methodist University school colors stand in a crowd cheering for a sports event.
You’ve probably seen people like these on TV or in real life: fanatical sports fans who paint their whole bodies and spend hundreds of dollars to watch games. Frankly, such devotion to sports scares me. And I’ve recently realized why.
People used to suggest that maybe it’s because of safety. There is a stereotype that jocks are homophobic queer-bashers, so people reasoned that I was scared of fanatical sports fans because of that. Well, that’s plausible. And fear of violence is part of the equation: I get scared when people harass others for wearing rival colors. If fans are willing to beat up a guy wearing rival colors, what are they going to do to me? But then I realized that that’s not the whole reason – my sister, mother, and grandmother all love football, and they most certainly are not violent bloodthirsty queer bashers. It is possible to enjoy sports and not be a fanatical sports fan, but I don’t think that being a fanatical sports fan is always indicative of being a bigot.
No, what scares me is the fact that people invest so much of their identities in sports. In the city where I live, policemen have to grease telephone poles before the final game so that crazed fans won’t climb up the telephone poles in an adrenaline high after the game. (It doesn’t help, by the way.) Fans have tipped over subway cars in the past. And, although I’ve never lived in Boston, I remember reading about deaths that happened a few years back when the Red Sox won because excited fans just… went crazy. It’s absurd how out-of-proportion fan reactions can be. It honestly of disgusts me that this level of devotion to sports is more accepted in mainstream society than certain minorities are.
And, really, why do people care so much about sports? Is it an overcompensation to try to look macho? I don’t get it; I’m the type who watches sports when there’s nothing else on TV. Here’s the thing: It is just a game. Who cares if your team loses; they’ll play again and maybe win next time. And, if they win, that’s great for you, but it’s not a super life-altering event on the level of getting married or something.
That being said, I actually did watch a complete football game on TV last week. I think that’s probably the first time I’ve ever done that despite the fact that I grew up in a family that always had football on TV. The game was damn exciting and I was bummed when Auburn beat University of Alabama by one point. It was fun to watch that game. That being said, I think I’ll stick to watching the X Games religiously because I don’t really understand the rules of football.
