Welcome Sports Haters!

Because the bourgeoning band of bureaucrats testing for PED themselves take painkillers. More free holidays and power grabs.

Athletes should be allowed to do anything they want to win outside of interference with their competitors. Ben Johnson won fair and square.

Training itself is performance enhancing.

I'll agree with that. The "I'm a better person than you" aggression simply trumped the "I'm a better batter than you".

It was pathetic. One can't imagine why they even started the game unless it was simply to make a silly movie for silly people to thrum with self-satisfaction at the contemplation of their own vicarious goodness.

Yes, I do think they would have. I do. One of the main lessons Sports teaches kids (and adults!) is that you have to win fair and square, or your win is meaningless.

It even goes for fans. I'm a huge football fan. But I don't want to see my team win because the other team's star player gets knocked out in the first few plays. It's disappointing. You have to play the best, to be the best.

It seems to me that our society, in almost every other way, teaches people to be greedy, selfish, out for themselves. Those certainly are the people we laud, the 'success stories.' Team sports teach you the opposite: without working together, you can't even beat a BAD team.

How people could knock such a simple, enjoyable way to teach kids an extremely valuable life lesson, I don't understand.

The event in the video wasn't a 'one-time' event. It happens over and over again in sporting competition, I could find you countless examples.

Cycloptichorn

I'm not knocking it.

I'm saying it didn't move me personally, and that I personally found it extremely boring to watch. I didn't find it enjoyable in anyway, and kept waiting for something to happen that wasn't so predictable.

The lesson wasn't lost on me. How could it be when it was so heavily and clumsily dropped on my head.

THUNK......ow....what the hell is this...?.....oh, a lesson in helping out the underdog and playing fair.....wow, no soft corners on that one.

If it caused some to cry (as CI said it would in the initial thread he put it in) then fine. If it taught some people some valuable life lesson, great.

Hey, I think the bible is some of the most sleep inducing, eye glazing over stuff in the world. But it sure helps a lot of people I suppose.

If sport events and such help you as a person...marvelous. I just don't get anything from it.


You know, there's a lot more people that don't pay any attention to sports than I think sports lovers realize.

This is funny...not to bring up yoga again, but it was the context in which the following happened.

Last week I went to a kundalini class, and this one is taught by someone who is what people associate with being a guru. Turban, white flowing clothes, beard, etc.
Anyway, there were about 30 people there, about equal number of men and women. He asked if anyone there had never been to a yoga or kundalini class before, and 2 young men, looking about 19 or so, waved their hand.

The one guy said he'd been coming to hatha classes for a couple of weeks, but never kundalini, and he'd brought his friend with him tonight. The friend had never been to any type of yoga before.

wow.
kundalini is not the type of class a westerner should attend as his first yoga experience.

anyway, the Guru decided to speak for a few minutes, and I don't remember exactly what he was relating, but he said something about comparing whatever it was to a basketball game. Then he paused, like he didn't even know if what he was saying was anything like a basketball game.

so he asked "does anyone here play sports?"
Everyone just sat there. I could see one of the young guys start to put up his hand again, but then just left it down.

so he asked "is anyone here interested in sports?"

again, we all just sat there, and the same young guy did put up his hand and said "I play (don't remember what sport he said) too."

so, the Guru asked "did my example make sense?"

The guy said "um, no, not really"

Guru said "EXCELLENT!!!"

Everyone laughed, even the guy.

It was a really good natured laughter, full of the appreciation of the ridiculousness of the situation.

Then we engaged in non-competitive, bonding with each other activities for the next hour that was surely as physically demanding, if not more, than many sports.

You know, when I've been in a room full of sports fans, and admitted I knew nothing about what anyone was talking about, no one has ever laughed good naturedly and made me feel welcome.

It's cool if you like sports.

It's cool if you don't.

Who cares?

What if your win is meaningless anyway?

What if your losing is meaningless anyway?

What if how you play the game is meaningless?

Why do we need to find meaning in everything?

Isn't someone worth something just by their being?

Of course they are.

I would remind you that the thread is entitled 'welcome sports HATERS!' and specifically denies your viewpoint that nobody cares. The original proposition was against the position of those of us who love and support sports, not one of indifference.

Cycloptichorn

We as humans decide what is meaningful and what isn't. That's one of the primary reasons I like sports - we use them to give a lot of meaning to events which do not usually lead to personal gain. I get no money or extra respect or anything when my sporting team wins. In a society which spends far too much time propping up greed and self-interest, sports are an avenue which teaches us to place importance and meaning on things outside of our control or our personal gain.



We are Humans - we find meaning in everything by our very nature.

Cycloptichorn

Respectfully, I disagree with all of that.

If the only way I could find meaning in my life, or learn life lessons, was through sports, I would be the unhappiest of humans.

Also, everything doesn't have to have a meaning to be enjoyed and experienced.


Which goes to show yet again, that is is not just one way.

um...ok....I really don't care about that, as that causes conflict.

it's not like this is the only thread where the title of it becomes long forgotten.

I don't like sports
You do

so what?

You could try betting on it chai.

$100 on a Chelsea goal and Anelka smacks one from 25 yards which thuds with a thump into the crossbar, with a slap if it's raining, shaking the woodwork and rigging, with 40,000 gasps and the commentator in fifth, and it bounces back to where Drogba picks it up on his toe, swerves round a defender, shifts it to his best side, and bends it into the back of the net just out of reach of the goalie's despairing fingertips. If $100 is chickenfeed for you jack it up to a figure that isn't.

Or a 20--1 chance winning a last two furlong ding-donger three-way finish by a nose.

But there's some dissapointment to bear I'll admit.

Some say that scoring the goal or riding that winner is better than sex.

wow
i did not understand a single word you said.

not that not understanding you is unusual, but i really didn't understand a thing.

Probably because sucker (soccer) is a non-American thing..

It was simply what your "So what?" inspired in me.

It is not uncommon for ladies not to understand why they have inspired a man.

Well hold on there babalouie.

I'll have you know I have actually WATCHED an entire soccer game.

I think it's the only sporting event I have ever watched in its entirety.

Basketballs really bad.
In fact, it's the worst for me.
I remember going to a few high school games because my friend wanted to go, and 3 minutes in I would be sitting there oblivious, with my eyes glazed over.
Every so often, everyone would stand up and yell. By the time I got myself together enough to stand up, everyone else was sitting down. So basically I got to just sit there.

What it is chai, in the NFL say, is not only symbolic of the barbarian predatory impulse, to which you owe so many of your comforts, but also an encouragement in the direction of its longevity.

If ever they start faking it you are, as a lady, in serious trouble.

I fully agree chai about basketball. It is ridiculous. I have never met an English sporting gent who has anything but utter contempt for American basketball.

And I have met a lot of them.

Actually, I don't owe anyone for my many comforts, except me.

Sorry to burst your bubble you old sot, but what I have, I earned.

Actually, I should say that what I've been able to retain, I earned.

I have had someone with a barbarian predatory impulse take something from me, and it certainly wasn't sportsman like.

Especially as the league is totally fixed. The NBA is a joke.

Cycloptichorn

Ah HA HA HA!

um, wasn't I supposed to laugh?

it's a joke, right?

I don't understand what you are trying to say in this post.

Cycloptichorn