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Comment by angersock | Hacker News Reader

Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring. Especially when you see what a comically capitalized affair the whole thing is.

Also, this part from the article is kind of silly:

The machoness and absence of women in the highest levels of most professional sports bothers me deeply.

Most sports are built rather heavily around the design constraints of the human body. For what is effectively organized physical conflict, the genetics favor males heavily.

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> Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring.

I've tried so hard to explain this to people my entire life, and gotten nothing but blank looks in response. I LOVE playing almost any sport, and when I watch other people running around on the field having fun my only response is "shit why the hell aren't we going to the park and doing that right now?"

Interesting. I am the opposite. When you watch a sport, it makes you want to play it. When I play a sport, it makes me want to watch it.

Watching a professional sport bores me unless I am currently playing that sport. When I am playing a given sport, then I start watching game highlights because I can learn so much from them. It improves my game play, gives me new ideas, and is just plain fun.

I find it the opposite, and I played in high school too, but since I know the mechanics of everything it makes it a lot more interesting. For instance most people only get the gist of the game, whereas for me actually seeing what formations the offense is running and what coverage scheme the defense is using on a particular play makes it 100x more interesting than if I didn't know any of that stuff like the average viewer.

I've never played the sport beyond a limited-contact flag football league, but I agree with your sentiment. It takes a lot of time to really get to know the game, and if you really like the sport for what it is it's suddenly not so bad to root for a terrible team.

It is kind of a bummer that you rarely get to see all 22 on a broadcast, because the camera stays fixed on the ball carrier. It can be hard to tell if a quarterback is having a bad season because he sucks or because none of his receivers are getting open (though any sports blog will be happy to give you an opinion).

> It is kind of a bummer that you rarely get to see all 22 on a broadcast, because the camera stays fixed on the ball carrier.

There's precisely the same problem with soccer. Unless you're already a true expert, you'll glean almost nothing of the tactics by watching a match on TV. Go to the stadium and you can finally see things like the positioning of defenders while their team has possession.

> Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring.

I find this to be the complete opposite of my experience. I never played football, but I did compete in many team sports when younger and I find my enjoyment heightened by that experience, and a high degree of understanding and empathy.

I find golf, a game even many sports fans do not watch, to be one of the most enjoyable and dramatic to watch. I think this is mostly because I play it, not in spite of it.

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