Introductions

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

Don't worry about it, as displayed in my more recent post, I'm no longer as angry as I was before, I just needed some time to get rid of the anger. I realise that not all of the people there were ignorant jocks, I just knew that if I continued reading through it, there'd be some more. I did read some of the posts that happened after yours and noticed that the statements were different. Although I also read some posts after 1981's and disliked the fact that they viewed it as an "infiltration" to their forum, when i_like_1981 said nothing intrusive. I suppose that it would be inevitable that soon enough I'd have to know the feeling of being angered by sports again, I just thought it would happen next week when school starts again, where athletic mischief is rampant. But I suppose reading those posts was a bit of preparation.

I was not aware of your charity work in Guatemala that was before your senior year of high school. That definitely is a kind thing to do, and I commend you for that. I do enjoy charity work, however I don't believe I could ever do any international charity work at such a young age. That definitely requires a lot of commitment, so that was a great thing you did, and I'm sure it made a difference.

[i_like_1981]

Hello all. I've lurked the forum for a bit and decided that this place has enough interesting characters to sign up. Admittedly, I do enjoy sports quite a bit, so please don't hate me too much. What I have to say (usually) has merit behind it.I'm not very good with introductions so just ask me something if you want to know. Most things in my life aren't privileged information!

Hello and welcome, Jerry McGuire. It's no problem that you like sports. At least you are honest about it. Some people have signed up here pretending to be sports haters or expressing no definite pro- or anti-sports position and it just gets confusing. Like, what the hell are they actually thinking? We can't know. They don't make themselves clear. You may catch a bit of heat on here for defending sports, but let me assure you, I won't rail at you for that mere reason. As long as you're civil about it. It's good to have a bit of debate with someone who thinks differently to everyone else. It was happening a lot last year but all of the old critics from then have gone now. Having read the exchanges they participated in, I'm not surprised. I'm surprised some of them stuck around for so long.

Well, I do have a question for you. What exactly inspired you to sign up for a profile? Do you wish to express a disagreement with some of our stances on sports? Do you wish to understand why some people have become full-blown sports haters? I don't really hate the sports themselves or the thought of exercise and keeping fit. What I DO hate is the excessive hype and massive industry built up around competitive sports. I don't like the sound of people who play these games about once or twice a week getting paid millions of pounds per year for just doing that. Sports may be popular and a lot of people around the world allow them to have influence on their lifestyles. I understand they are a significant part of the entertainment industry, but I really don't see how these inordinate salaries are justified. Seems to me like lots of this money could be getting put to better uses, like helping to fight poverty around the world. Even just cutting the sportsmen's salaries by a bit could put millions of pounds back into the economy. There's a lot that can be done with a million pounds, and I don't like the thought of that amount of money going straight into someone's pocket for... playing some game.

I don't agree with the extreme statements on this forum but I understand where they are coming from. Sports have become excessively important and overblown in modern society. Not only do people become obsessed with them to the point where they don't care about anything or anyone else, people are also made to feel like outcasts and even pathetic wastes of life if they do not share the same interests as their sports-loving peers, who often are the majority in any situation. Sports are massively popular, and that is fine. But people like me have had to suffer abuse and exclusion because we don't indulge in this interest and it's frankly unfair. It's because of that why I've been inspired to write nearly 1,000 posts for this website as of now. It really feels like in today's society, liking sports is not just a hobby, but a mandatory obligation for anybody who wants to be considered "normal". I fail to see why somebody who does not share an interest in them should be considered "abnormal" or "inferior" in any way. I fail to understand why EVERYBODY has to be exactly the same, conform with the crowd, or risk getting given a hard time in life.

I shall be returning with more later. I also need to talk about the Gridiron Palace and Andy situation a bit more seeing as how it was the first major controversy I got caught up in during my time on this website. So much posting to do, so... much time to myself to do it with.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Jerry McGuire]

Hello and welcome, Jerry McGuire. It's no problem that you like sports. At least you are honest about it. Some people have signed up here pretending to be sports haters or expressing no definite pro- or anti-sports position and it just gets confusing. Like, what the hell are they actually thinking? We can't know. They don't make themselves clear. You may catch a bit of heat on here for defending sports, but let me assure you, I won't rail at you for that mere reason. As long as you're civil about it. It's good to have a bit of debate with someone who thinks differently to everyone else. It was happening a lot last year but all of the old critics from then have gone now. Having read the exchanges they participated in, I'm not surprised. I'm surprised some of them stuck around for so long.

Thanks to you and Earl for the welcome. I don't know if this is necessarily the topic for this discussion, but I'll go ahead and respond. Like you, I don't care for the idiotic meatheads who get completely black out drunk and go to games and generally cause havoc. I can relate to this because I'm a college freshman who just started classes and am going to my first college football game. I'm really excited, but I'll be going with some female friends who are pretty attractive, so hopefully no idiots try to make a move on them or pester them. But I tend to dislike anyone who goes to the extreme of anything. What you said about ridiculously high salaries for players is true. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees 3rd baseman and admitted steroid user, makes more in one year than the entire Florida Marlins roster! But this can also be said of musicians, who also live lavish lifestyles and in my opinion, get away with far more in terms of illegal activity than professional athletes do. Also, many fans of bands or musicians will make you feel bad for not liking them. It isn't uncommon for the lead singer to get glass bottles thrown at them while performing. Does this mean that I hate musicians? No. I just have disdain for particular artists and idiotic fans.

[Skul]

Welcome to the forum, Jerry. One thing I need to say, though -- please don't quote entire posts, it's unnecessary.

§13) Do not quote entire posts

There is no need to quote an entire post, especially if you are the first response to a thread or if you are responding to the most recent post. We do not need to see the entire post all over again. If you must quote, edit out the parts that you are not responding to, or break up the quoted post if you are responding to different parts of it.

Other than that, enjoy your stay!

[i_like_1981]

But this can also be said of musicians, who also live lavish lifestyles and in my opinion, get away with far more in terms of illegal activity than professional athletes do. Also, many fans of bands or musicians will make you feel bad for not liking them. It isn't uncommon for the lead singer to get glass bottles thrown at them while performing. Does this mean that I hate musicians? No. I just have disdain for particular artists and idiotic fans.

Well, yes, I agree with you on that point. Sports players are not the only people who get preferential treatment and lighter punishments for their wrongdoings than a normal person would.

But it is true that in schools, those who play sports tend to be the ones on top of the social hierarchy and who get away with more than any of the other students do. I know how much difference being a renowned sports player can make when their sins are revealed and punishment needs to be given.

Recently in the UK one of the players who was in our World Cup squad this year (who were shit, as I expected) has cheated on his fiance and the photos have been all over the news and internet for everyone to see. It's obvious that he was aware of what he was doing. His fiance is going to forgive him, and I doubt it's because she loves him. No, it's because she doesn't care about morality and loyality in a man. She just wants somebody with lots of money and a high level of fame who she can use.

Take a look at this guy (Peter Crouch), and you will know that if he wasn't a Premiership footballer, he'd probably have no women chasing after him. Yet for some reason, the immense amount of money and prestige that comes from kicking round some ball once or twice a week allows him to cheat on a person who he's engaged to, a person who he really ought to be showing the utmost respect to, and get away with it. I don't comprehend why our modern society would allow a man to spit in the face of the woman he loves and get away with it just because he's good at running round after a ball on a field for 90 minutes every Saturday. Most men would expect absolute hell and a quick separation if they did what he did to their lovers, but this dickhead gets away with it like he's better than all of them, and he knows it. It really gets to me, how our society puts sports players on such a high pedestal for something that really is not that important or beneficial to our world and pushes everyone else to the sidelines. What is the big deal about sports?

Perhaps this guy should learn to appreciate how things would be for him if he HADN'T become a top footballer. He'd be lucky to get any woman at all, let alone a model who he can cheat on and get away with it. It's just things like this, the smug sense of superiority and self-importance that playing sports at a high level bring, that have discouraged me from involving myself with them. People should be judged by how they are as a person and NOT because of how rich they are or how athletic they are. Wealth and physical ability - two important factors leading to a superiority complex.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Jerry McGuire]

Sorry about that, Skul. It's a habit. I'll be more careful.

i_like_1981, it's funny you say that, because I know who Peter Crouch is and he definitely isn't a looker. Again though, (unfortunately) many men cheat on their significant other. Also, you truly don't know why his girlfriend decided to stay with him. I've seen regular men be unfaithful in a relationship but are forgiven. You just don't hear about it because every mundane detail of their lives aren't reported in the media. You have to remember that even though many people, and in some cases themselves, thin otherwise, athletes are ordinary people. But at least at my school, being an athlete was secondary to being a student. I literally cannot think of a single instant where being an athlete came first. Even when they had to travel for a meet or a game and missed class, they were responsible for making up the missed work in a timely manner.

On an unrelated (or possibly related) note, I see my title has been changed to "Sportsman". I hope this doesn't have a negative connotation. I don't want to be lumped into the same group as samdaman or any of those other people that can't carry a conversation without an insult.

[i_like_1981]

Don't worry, Jerry. The rank of "Sportsman" is applied to the more civil pro-sports characters on here that are willing to talk to us in a civil way and not start flaming or taking a condescending tone. Sportsman is a rank that shows... you like sports, but you're not the sort who rubs it in people's faces and insults people who don't.

The more obnoxious sports fans will have their username changed into bold, pink letters and receive the rank of "Sports Bore", to signify a ruder and less tolerant character who seems offended by the fact that there are people who actively dislike sports and wishes to shout them down and cause arguments.

Sports bores who are utterly abusive, swear regularly and come on here just to flame and anger the members will receive an avatar of a sports jersey with the name "Gay" on the top and two zeros as the player number. You have to be pretty consistently nasty to receive that avatar. At least that is my understanding.

People who post up useless shit on a regular basis, troll even though they have no definite opinion on the ideology of this forum and start posting up random 4chan memes on here will get the rank of SPAMMER and probably banned instantly. The mods do not see the use of keeping members on here who really don't have anything to say in favour of or against sports, but who just want to post random crap in a hope of confusing people or derailing a discussion. I believe SPAMMER is now the lowest rank on here - below Sports Bore. Am I right in assuming this, Skul?

Regarding your post, it appears to me, having read a lot of the posts on this site and hearing about the Columbine situation, that athletes do get a lot of preferential treatment and are often classed as superior in a school environment. As I have never lived in or even been to America, I do not know how many percent of schools this is the case in, but I've heard stories of how athletes have committed serious crimes yet have gotten away with either no or very minor punishment. I found the Columbine stories and the horrifying acts that the jocks got away with without any punishment from the adult authorities truly disturbing and it really gets me down to know that sports players seem to be allowed to destroy other students' self-esteem just because they're good at playing football. The high school world is determined to present football players as a superior class of people, and their contribution to society is next to nothing when you think of all the issues we have around the world today that sports have absolutely no bearing on. People always seem to exaggerate athletes' importance. This is the case over here as well, where football (soccer) players are looked up to with a high level of regard by most people. And the point I am making here, they blind women with their wealth and cheat on their partners with other women obviously fearing no repercussions, because they class themselves as being a better class of citizen even though their service of kicking a ball round a field really does not matter at all to the wellbeing of our world. These people get far too much respect for something that really isn't that important and I do not have much faith in a world where people are classed as superior just because they're good at playing a game which even children can play on a slightly smaller scale. People make too much of a fuss over trivial things.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Jerry McGuire]

Oh well that's good. I've never been into forcing my beliefs on anyone. Live and let live, you know? Anyone that thinks lesser of someone or ridicules them for liking or not liking something is obnoxious to me. As to the point about the Columbine situation, I don't remember much about it since I was about 6 at the time. But I'm pretty sure ever since then schools have been very careful to prevent bullying and another potential incident. Nipping it in the bud if you will.

[Skul]

Am I right in assuming this, Skul?

Pretty much.

[recovering_fan]

Hiya, I'm RF.

(That's short for "Recovering sports Fanatic", where "recovering" is meant in the sense of recovery from addiction.)

I have been a sports fan since childhood. I wasted solid years of time watching it on television. I came to this site, mainly because I wanted to move on, to stop living vicariously through others' meaningless athletic accomplishments, and to accomplish meaningful things for the world in my own right that would justify an earthly existence that at present seems totally devoid of essence.

I had hoped to find people here like myself--addicted to sports viewing like myself, but also in search of a new philosophy that would impel them to make something out of their lives. Having read the Intro thread, however, I believe most of you are content to stay as you are. Those that oppose sports in some way have done so since childhood (for good reasons, based on what I've read !) and are happy to do so forever. The others, who have enjoyed sports in some shape or form, have done so since childhood and plan to continue forever. I see no apostates here except myself.

But perhaps some of you non-fans may have friends who used to be consumed by trivialities like what the odds were on their teams winning on Sunday, and who suddenly changed and took an interest in interesting stuff. Likewise, perhaps some of the sportsmen here may have friends who used to care passionately about team results and one day, for no good reason, stopped.

Several years ago, when I heard that Manchester United and the New York Yankees had entered into a marketing agreement of sorts, I started telling people in forums online that their two rival franchises, Liverpool FC and the Boston Red Sox, respectively, ought also to merge. Last night I read that the Red Sox had actually bought Liverpool FC, and all I could think was "WHO THE F*** CARES?"

In the meantime, perhaps I can explain to non-fans why I ever did care in the first place. I certainly don't care about the sports world now. Instead I care a great deal about never returning to it.

Cheers,
RF

[Fat Man]

Hiya, I'm RF.

(That's short for "Recovering sports Fanatic", where "recovering" is meant in the sense of recovery from addiction.)

I have been a sports fan since childhood. I wasted solid years of time watching it on television. I came to this site, mainly because I wanted to move on, to stop living vicariously through others' meaningless athletic accomplishments, and to accomplish meaningful things for the world in my own right that would justify an earthly existence that at present seems totally devoid of essence.

Etc. etc. etc. . . . . . .

Cheers,
RF

Good morning RF.

Let me be the first to welcome you to our anti-sports forum.

Allow me to introduce myself.

I'm Fat Man, and I'm known as The Judge here on these forums, and I like to post a lot of images in my topics.

Yes, I guess for some people sports can be very addictive.

I'm addicted to my computer and the Internet, and FOOD which is why I'm a Fat Man!

Well, as a kid in school, I hated sports, and I loved reading. Science has always been my favorite subject, especially Astronomy, so when I was a kid, I was (and still am) a book-a-holic, especially for Astronomy books.

So, not all addictions are necessarily bad.

I wish you the very best in your recovery from sports addiction.

Sports can be worse than some drugs!

I mean, like, really!!!

Most drug addicts I knew were only harming themselves. I never knew a cocaine addict or a heroine addict who has tried to force me to snort a line or take a shot.

But most sports addicts I knew tried to shove sports down my throat, and I was even beaten and bullied around by sports addicts, and sports addicts are responsible for the declining quality of education in our schools.



When I was in high school, my science teacher was also the school's football coach, and he was too busy coaching his team of pre-frontally lobotomized baboons to teach science, so instead, he set up a movie projector and left the classroom and we were all sitting in the dark watching stupid cartoons.

In English literature we played Charades. My high school was like going back to Kindergarten, it was a real Romper Room for sports-tards.

The only thing we learned was how to fold paper footballs.



I'm 59 years old now, and I remember back in the 1960s our schools cared more about athletics rather than academics. The first time I was suspended from school was because I failed to climb a rope in the gymnasium. Never mind that I was passing all my other academic subjects, and never mind that I had a crippled up left knee, the result of a car accident when I was 4 years old causing me to walk with a limp and being unable to run.

No, PE was more important!



So, sports addicts actually disrupt more lives than drug addicts.



Sports is actually the most dangerous drug there is.

Anyway . . . . .

Welcome to our forum.



Here's wishing you the best in your recovery from sports addiction.

[recovering_fan]

Good morning RF.
Let me be the first to welcome you to our anti-sports forum.
Allow me to introduce myself.
I'm Fat Man, and I'm known as The Judge here on these forums, and I like to post a lot of images in my topics.

Well met, Fat Man.

Well, as a kid in school, I hated sports, and I loved reading. Science has always been my favorite subject, especially Astronomy, so when I was a kid, I was (and still am) a book-a-holic, especially for Astronomy books.

I envy you your interest in scientific literature. When I was in high school I liked literature, and I liked mathematical puzzles, but my interests never coalesced into something great like a passion for reading about science or math. If they had, it might have led to a meaningful and fascinating career, rather than to the dog's breakfast of options from which I am currently able to choose. (I only really started watching American football because of all the numbers, scenarios and probabilities involved -- in other words, because I liked numbers.)

Sports can be worse than some drugs!
I mean, like, really!!!
Most drug addicts I knew were only harming themselves....

But most sports addicts I knew tried to shove sports down my throat, and I was even beaten and bullied around by sports addicts, and sports addicts are responsible for the declining quality of education in our schools.

Thank you for these comments. I was not the kind of "addict" you describe, but your comments are still helpful.
I read your thread about the horse-thieves, by the way.
Sorry to hear about what happened. (I don't know what else to say.)
It's great you've always had Astronomy.

Later,
RF

[The Imperialist]

Science matters (oh haha)

Welcome. Sport is only useful in developing muscle mass, not brains. If you want both, MILITARY TRAINING! (Also induces feeling of duty which sport doesn't)

[recovering_fan]

MILITARY TRAINING ... induces feeling of duty which sport doesn't

Hah! Duty to what, though? To one's country? No offence, Imperialist, but 65 years ago in America, duty to one's country meant shooting at people from a certain Pacific Rim country.

How about cooperative games instead to build a sense of duty to the human race? (They can be rather fun, actually.)

--RF

[The Imperialist]

Ah yes, that is EXACTLY why I want to introduce military training for 13 year olds and upwards in my country. People in Japan has essentially given up all notion of duty and loyalty.

And besides, I belong to a Cadet Force in Britain, and I found it to be very good for mental and physical training. (And shouting at people for being incompetents)