Why do people obsess over professional sports?
Like insanely obsessed to the point where they can hate other people due to their choice of teams to support? I dont think Ive ever obsessed over anything to the point I see some sports fans. I am just curious about some insight into what goes on in the mind of extreme sports fans. Is it similar to an addiction?
If anything, it has more parallels to religion. People select a team often as a kid based almost entirely on faith and background – do you like the Toronto Maple Leafs because they’re objectively a good team, or because you’re from Toronto and your parents have a few jerseys in the living room?
People generally feel assaulted when you attack (I use the term attack in the figurative sense) their point of view, and when that point of view is personified by some sports team, it’s reinforced not only by whatever beliefs they hold about that team, but by all the friends and sense of community they have that also surrounds that team. It’s like a cult.
Some I think have been brainwashed into childhood to love a team.
Others I think do it to fit in with a group and eventually it just stays with them.
References :
If anything, it has more parallels to religion. People select a team often as a kid based almost entirely on faith and background – do you like the Toronto Maple Leafs because they’re objectively a good team, or because you’re from Toronto and your parents have a few jerseys in the living room?
People generally feel assaulted when you attack (I use the term attack in the figurative sense) their point of view, and when that point of view is personified by some sports team, it’s reinforced not only by whatever beliefs they hold about that team, but by all the friends and sense of community they have that also surrounds that team. It’s like a cult.
References :