Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

Have you noticed that, whenever a Sport comes up, in a post, for discussion, that Sport quite often gets the "Can't stand watching that xxxx. it's only followed by idiots".

That's been, recently, said for the Football Internationals, then you have some who say horse racing is about a horse running, around a track. with a human rider claiming any victory.

Then you have Fishing - sometimes referred to as "a battle of equal intellects".

Motor Racing "Driving fast cars round a track for two days".

Which sports are good & which are only watched, or played, by the bad, in your thinking?

Do you only dislike the ones you cannot do?

Or do you not watch any sports, at all, and think anyone who does has a problem?

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

Generally I prefer to do or rather did sports rather than watch them .
I like to go round cross country courses ( on foot not on a horse ) it’s makes a nice walk and I admire these people who take big solid fences .
They have no nerves .
I don’t mind people watching sports although I do think that those who boo the other side ( football) are idiots it’s so unsporting .
Motor racing - rather watch paint dry .

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

I have never liked sports even when I was at school, I don't dislike any though I find soccer the dreariest of them all (I sort of followed Arsenal in the late 60s and used to go to Highbury to see them when I lived in Finsbury Park), Like most Aussie kids all my kids played sport. so I spent most of their teenage weekends ferrying them to soccer and footie fields and cheering them on. It was often a logistic nightmare.

Even now I still know the Footie scores from the evening news though it is moderately amusing now because my middle son is a dyed in the wool St George Illawarra supporter whereas his kids are both Canberra Raiders fans.

The only sport I have ever followed was motor sport and was a member of Brands Hatch Motor Club a very long time ago, I also used to follow F1 in the days of Moss, Hill (Graham), Clarke, Surtees etc and visited Zandford, Nurburgring (sp?)Monza etc as well as Le Man and most UK circuits.

For years I followed Australian Motor Sport but since the advent of the V8 Supercars and their fake cars my interest has completely waned.

My daughter and SIL race motor bikes so I take a passing interest in that

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

I imagine any sport can be fun for the participants, but I've never really been able to see what fun there is in watching them. I must admit that I did get wrapped up in football for three or four years, when I used to take my son to matches. By the time he was old enough to go on his own, though, I had reached the stage where I was beginning to question the point of it. The concept of Professional sport seems quite ridiculous to me now.

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

I guess some of us just can't see the point in spectating, participating yes if you enjoy that particular activity, but to try and piggyback on someone else's glory seems quite a strange thing do do to me. Of course, then there is without the inanity of the abject hysteria that some of these pastimes seem to generate, particularly with team sports which outwardly is nothing less than tribal.

On the plus side though, it does make many people ridiculous sums of money at the expense of the devoted masses...

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

I have to confess that I found being at Old Trafford, or some other grounds, electric.

Amongst a large group of there is this ripple of huge emotion which hits the supporters.

Hard to explain, you have to be there to feel it, it's a special feeling.

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

I loved athletics at school....not the running so much, but the javelin and long jump, swimming, etc. Not a fan of watching it much though.

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

Football seems to be high on Patriotism, supporting the Country, or City in which you (or your parent) grew up.

Occasionally you get one (I know one) who supports a club he's never been to, or seen live!

Also interesting, to me, is the Ascot events, up the road.

Many go there for the booze, the food, the dressing up, etc., but they only see the horses race by for about 10 seconds.
Oh! & HM might wave to you!

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

Throughout my life I've also preferred doing sport to watching it but sometimes I felt so inspired by, say, good tennis matches at Wimbledon that I headed for my tennis club as soon as the match on TV was over. OTOH, I admit having missed out on a goodly number of big time sport events (e.g. football finals) because I wanted to be active rather than a couch potato. I never felt comfy in a football stadium but always had a great time in my tennis club which meant the world to me. Never understood why F1 and motor "sport" in general is considered a sport.
Now being a retiree with some ailments I tremendously enjoy watching sport on TV, track and field athletics, gymnastics (both of which I hated at school), cycling, swimming, and tennis, of course, in summer and ski jumping, biathlon in winter.
Never been a fan of team sports, though, which are a bore and a playground for a certain type of individuals. Instead I appreciate the individual performance of an athlete on which they either rise or fall.

Re: Some Sports are for Thugs & Idiots - But Not Mine!

Samuel Johnson once described a fishing rod as "a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other". Me? I couldn't give a monkey's cuss. I go fishing to recharge my "internal batteries".

Then there's golf: a good walk spoiled - popularly attributed to Mark Twain, but it was first used in 1948. (Twain died in 1910.)