They just require a certain level of experience and understanding. If you find a sport boring ask yourself have you ever played the sport before? How many times have you played it? Do you know anyone else that plays it? Do you know the basic stategies being used? Do you have a rooting interest?
Why do we watch sports anyway? To be entertained by exceptional skill, high level execution, teamwork, and athletic ability. How can you know what’s skillful or high level execution and you’ve never played a real game before?
What is boring is very subjective, so there is no authoritative source of truth on it. What one person finds boring another may be obsessed with. But if we are deciding democratically, millions of people choosing to watch something gives a lot of credibility to the idea that it’s interesting.
Understanding sports doesn’t make them worth a shit.
If that is your opinion. That’s fine.
Even Circus Maximus? You’ve gotta draw a line somewhere.
Yes, nothing is inherently boring because boringness is entirely subjective.
All of them can be entertaining if you choose to understand them.
That is demonstrably wrong. Thanks to my environment I understand every stupid aspect of football. It’s still fucking boring. Understanding something doesn’t make it interesting.
I understand baseball.
It is still boring to watch.
I understand golf.
It is still boring to watch and to play.
I have tried golf and it takes a lot of precision and technique. But watching it, I kind of only watch it for the scenery. Its like cameras are zooming in to the handle to seem how much rotation the players are adding to their swings
Boring is subjective. You’re framing this like things can be objectively boring, and that sport isn’t one of them.
What some people find boring, others don’t. I find most sports boring and that’s ok
This is a silly argument. Can you think of a single thing that you find boring despite knowing something about it? Yes? That’s how some people are just going to feel about (at least some) sports.
For all of those things I’ve never earnestly tried to enjoy them. Every time I earnestly get into why a fandom enjoys something I find something I like.
If so, that is a true gift and you are extremely fortunate. I wish I had that kind of… malleability, maybe?
I’m not entertained watching people eat meals (unless they’re like, educating me on the meals at the same time) despite loving to cook and eat.
I’m not entertained by watching other people play video games despite loving video games.
Likewise I’m not entertained by watching other people play sport games despite enjoying playing sports myself.
I don’t get what’s hard to reconcile about that or what about that suggests to you a lack of understanding.
All sports are boring to watch but fun to play, for me personally. Even though I understand and have experience with them.
That’s where I’m at — if the sport is so fun, go play it. Sitting around watching a bunch of people seems almost creepy to me.
If art is nice to look at, paint it yourself. If fantasy books are fun to read, write it yourself.
It just feels a bit reductive. I find rally racing exciting as hell, but I don’t have the budget or skill to do it myself. What now?
People who are really, really good at what they do create an inherent value when they do it. There’s an awe to be had at marveling what other human beings can accomplish.
You have a good point, but to be fair, sport is often eminently available. Football for example is almost easier to play than to find a place to watch. And sports which stem from games are inherently based on participation being fun, while e.g. art is often a difficult process leading to a nice result.
Honestly, I disagree with your entire premise. Art is extremely available. And my point was that while anyone can play football, playing football at a world cup level is as difficult as arting at a Rembrandt level.
My main point was that art is an introspective process where the product is often (but not always) a central purpose of the process.
On the other hand football is a game usually meant to be an entertaining and engaging process for the players, where the end result is considered pretty secondary (at amateur levels, I recognise that at professional levels the game itself is more the product than the result necessarily is).
In other words, football is a game. Creating art usually isn’t.
This thread is about watching other people play sports. Your comment, at least the way I read it, seems to indicate that you understand why people might like watching other people play sports. I think we agree.
Almost everything, every field, and every expertise are learnt, used, and potentially enjoyed by millions of people, but that doesn’t mean I need to spend the time to learn and enjoy everyone of them.
Sports are one of those things that I don’t care enough to learn and enjoy, just like juggling, tree climbing, and driving oversized vehicle.
Disagree. I understand american and european football perfectly and don’t enjoy either.
Baseball is boring and you can’t change my mind. I have played 7 years of baseball, and to this day still can’t stand the sport.
yeah I am with you man. I find baseball and softball so damn boring. I have watched a few cricket matches and they at least have the novelty of me having absolutely no idea what the rules are.
It may be boring to you but not to many other people.
Indeed, but that very statement invalidates your own unpopular opinion. Because weather they are boring or not is opinion based.
Therefore I guess this is a good unpopular opinion because its stately wrong? Idk how this is supposed to work.
It may be entertaining/interesting to you but not to many other people.
I’ve never come across anything under the sun that’s “inherently boring”, but if I did I would be endlessly fascinated by it.
*Inheritantly
Golf and lawn bowls for me. I don’t like playing them, and I don’t like watching them. However Mario Golf and Golf With Friends is fun, so I think we just need to adjust it to have more explosions and make it a full contact sport
This argument reminds me of https://xkcd.com/915/
People with too much time and narrow expertise adamantly proclaiming the non-boringness of something that is boring on the surface.
I’m sure I could enjoy the sport, when it happens, but the problem with many sports is that there is more waiting around than sport. With American Football or baseball you get about 15 mins of play in a 3 hour show. I can’t be dealing with all the inactivity, no matter how good the play is.
You could say the same about chess. If you all the action you care about is just people physically moving the pieces on the board.
You could, but chess isn’t a sport.
American football is a turn based based tactical game. When the ball is not moving the offense is setting up the play and the defense is trying to counter what the offense is doing. There are a lot of mind games and misdirection in that sport.
