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OT: Is happiness in sports an illusion?

Is happiness in sports an unobtainable illusion?

  • Yes

    Votes: 66 40.2%

  • No

    Votes: 35 21.3%

  • It’s complicated

    Votes: 63 38.4%
  • Total voters
    164
I cared about sports when I didn’t really have all that much to care about otherwise. Now that I have a family and a career, I don’t go out of my way to spend much time paying attention to sports. Time goes by fast enough with kids, I don’t need to waste hours of my weekend watching distractions.

That being said, I still check stories and forums between patients when I have time to kill.
 
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“3. I think the commercialization of sports, specifically college and pro, has reduced the joy of being a fan to the ultimate ends of the sport only. Namely, winning championships, which we already refer to as “winning it all” (suggesting there is nothing left).”

This is where I am.
 
Unlike several here, I'm not all about a repeat of the Glory Years (although I was here for them)... meaning while winning it all would indeed be a thrill. I'd be "happy" just to have a good competitive watchable team, Canes or otherwise...

...meaning no Gayturds or Noles saying we suck, upside-down "U's" and all that. In a way, happiness (for me) is at times the absence of "unhappiness". Maybe that's shallow or unfathomable, but there is a philosophy on life at work that I think is best left for another thread (or forum.)
 
IndayArtHauz said:
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I both 1) care less about sports and b. am increasingly cynical about their ultimate aims. Let me establish some priors:

1. I am a Christian of a sect who believes that true fulfillment cannot be found apart from Christ. However, I do believe there are many lesser joys in life that are worthy of pursuit. so to be clear, I am not equating “happiness in sports” with anything on an eternal scale.

2. In my life I have had multiple franchises I follow in multiple sports win championships. The Canes, 49ers, Spurs, and tangentially the Cubs have all won ships, with all but the Cubs winning multiple in or around my youth/adult life. I am not a Cleveland Browns or Buffalo Bills fan who doesn’t know what winning it all feels like.

3. I think the commercialization of sports, specifically college and pro, has reduced the joy of being a fan to the ultimate ends of the sport only. Namely, winning championships, which we already refer to as “winning it all” (suggesting there is nothing left).

The last point has harmed the sports individually and collectively, especially college, and turned them into 365-days-a-year content machines. Whoever wins the Super Bowl in two weeks will have less than 24 minutes dedicated to their victory, let alone 24 hours. The content machine will immediately kick into high gear, refocusing the fans of the other 31 teams on free agency and the draft. The NFL is no different than an endless scrolling app like IG or YouTube, it just uses your calendar instead of a piece of software.

Im pro-playoff expansion in CFB, but I’ve come around more to the thoughts of my late father: he hated the idea of a playoff. I thought he was a grump, but hes been proven right on a couple of things since the sport added the BCS and playoff: 1. College football would lose its local flavor and focus. 2. The significance of conference accomplishments would vanish (I remember his profound joy when Illinois won the B10 and got to play in a Rose Bowl. A huge deal decades ago). It’s that second point that I think reverberates so strongly with me now; nothing short of winning it all matters anymore. There is no “good season” that ends in defeat, not unless you expected your team to suck.

So the significance of *not* winning it all has never been lower, and, oddly enough, the significance of winning it all has never been lower. If you can’t find joy in lesser accomplishments, and you can’t really enjoy when you win it all, has the ceiling in sports not fallen dramatically? (I think this may also explain why data-driven, “I love the sport itself” type interests and media adjacent to those interests have flourished, but that’s another issue.)

I don’t expect anyone to really read this, it’s a stupid question. Besides, there’s always next year.
Click to expand...
Love what you did in opening statement.
 
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I should have ended 2002 with my Holy Grail. NFL and NCAA championships. The 2001 Canes returned to NC glory, and the 2002 Buccaneers won their first Super Bowl after 27 years of mostly mediocrity.

Happiness in football has diminished for me after the 2002 Canes had the NC stolen from them.

Futility followed since. The Canes haven‘t sniffed relevance since 2004.

The Bucs managed a SB with Tom Brady that in my heart of hearts knew it was a fluke. The team was good without him, to be clear. Winston held the team back. Being able to get the GOAT was a gift from the Football Gods. Here, have a championship, but just one.

Next season, with Brady gone and the cap gutting the team, the Bucs will be lucky to win 6 games.

The worst part of the last two decades was knowing Miami had zero chance. None, unless by divine intervention those still wanting to succeed were somehow able to open pocketbooks and compete financially.

We’re seeing this happen now, and hopefully Mario, Rad, Zo, and the rest can make Miami relevant at more than a brand level.
 
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I’ve reached the stage in my life where I no longer live vicariously through a team. My happiness with sports comes from living in a time where at any given time I can watch a sporting event and for a brief moment disconnect from the craziness of the world. Don’t get me wrong if my team wins I’ll be ecstatic. But life moves on with or without my teams winning.
 
I find a lot of happiness in sports mainly because I’ve always been super-competitive. Growing up my younger brother and I would always play any sport, board game, or video games and we absolutely loved competition.

When I lost, I kept playing until I won because **** man, it felt good.

With that being said, I haven’t found a lot of joy watching my Hurricanes over the past several years. Not winning and not being competitive led to this.

When watching other sporting events where I don’t have a dog in the fight, I can be extremely happy just watching a close/competitive game.
Boxing, UFC, World Cup, English Premier League, March Madness come to mind. Also, I always find immense joy when underdogs win.

Watching elite athletes at the top of their game also makes me happy. Tiger winning the Masters, Peyton Manning getting his 1st and 2nd Super Bowl wins (I couldn’t stand that Eli had 2 before his older brother), watching Allen Iverson court side, seeing Devin Hester take the Super Bowl kickoff back for a TD, etc.
 
@IndayArtHauz

Being a Christian as well I can say it’s a hobby much like when I was playing baseball and football when I was a kid. There’s was times where I felt horrible when I was a kid because I had a bad couple of games and that carried into my adulthood life for a while but as I got older that changed.

I think it’s more of our priorities changing especially bring that you have kids now brother.
 
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If i didnt love sports like football and basketball so much I would've probably stopped watching them because of my teams.

More so football, the heat consistently at least try to their best to put together winning teams(besides this year lol). But if my happiness depended on the canes and broncos id be one miserable mf but i love watching the sport so much that i enjoy other games especially because its stress free from my team

So my answer probably is yea if u just love a team and not the sport u kinda setting yourself up for disappointment because every team has its ups and downs
 
So, I was born in Boston, but I was raised in Florida. My family loved the Big 4 Boston sports teams, and I'll never forget how ecstatic everyone was when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2001, or when the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004. I'll also never forget the heartbreak I suffered when the Patriots lost to the Giants in 2007. I was ******* devastated by that, and then they did it to me again in 2011 lol. I was spoiled as a fan of those teams because they all won a championship in my youth. Now, I'm disappointed when they lose, but it wouldn't ruin my day like when I was younger.

It's weird though because I wasn't always a Miami fan, and I actually rooted for BC for a long time because my dad liked them. In 2016, I lived in West Palm Beaach, and I slowly became a Canes fan. I should have been a Bucs/Rays/Magic/Lightning fan because that was where I grew up, but I was a fan of the Boston teams because of my family, and I think I became such a big Miami fan because they were the only sports team from Florida that I actually rooted for when I moved to Tennessee in 2018.

Now, The Canes are the team that bring me that joy when they win, and that frustration when they lose. I'm just hoping that Miami will be relevant again in football in the near future because I've become a very passionate fan, and 5 years of mediocrity has been a lifetime to me, I can only imagine how bad it has been for some of you guys lol

I don't think happiness in sports is an illusion. The happiness it brings is fleeting, and the pain it brings can ruin your day, but it's worth it to me. At the end of the day, it's only a game, but it's so much more than that as well.
 
i agree it all just feels gross now. so much harder to root for these random transfer portal kids who feel like paid contractors.

every year for the past 10+ years i trick myself into thinking were gonna have a good season & we end up disappointed (with this year being maybe the biggest middle finger of them all) . im just sick of the emotional rollercoaster.

Usually around this time every year im counting down the days till spring ball, but the thought of reading a barry article telling me who is "flashing" this spring honestly makes me wanna puke .
 
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Heres the reality regarding sports and any acitivity in life. Its merely a distraction from the ******, average life we usually have (at least its supposed to be).

It doesn't boost your mood for the week, you are excited for the moment the game is done and your team has won, but you wake up next morning, realize its Monday and go back to your ******, average life until Sunday.

Life and death are the only consistent certainties. Everything else can **** off.
 
IndayArtHauz said:
Nice way of saying the rest was laaaaaaaaaaame
Click to expand...
Actually found humorous...

"As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I both 1) care less about sports and b. am..."

well done!


As to the rest of your porst, being fans of sports (for 99.999% of humans) is one of a "sugar high life". Most genuinely feel the rush of endorphins* with a win (good things happen) and the empty feeling of a loss (bad things happen) when levels crash.

We are designed to seek out the next "good thing"--food, shelter, ***, cheese fries, pineapple and bacon pizza, naked pics of Bea Arthur, porsts by @fraggle , etc. It's just how we are built.

Now, "good things" can change in one's life by increasing or waning in importance for a number of reasons, but the drive is always there for something. Perhaps your priorities have changed? Would be weird if they didn't as you age.



*commonly known, much more are involved in reality
 
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Funny this is, outside of Miami games, I really enjoy watching college football for the simple pleasure of enjoying the game. There’s a kind of pleasure enjoying a game when you don’t particularly care who wins. You can enjoy the game at its purest. It’s why I enjoy X and O discussions so much and why I respect innovative coaches.
 
Sports were definitely more enjoyable to watch in the past. It was all with a few years span at the beginning of the century that most started to be dull. Every time they add rules to try forcing parity they lose the core meaning of competition.
 
It’s complicated. If it doesn’t make you happy, do it less and less.

Someone mentioned the Yankees. I enjoy being a Yankees fan because they bring news or activity almost all year round to pay attention to…off season signings or trade deadline action is almost always there to follow…
 
For me, I feel like I have a weird perspective on this question. My family is originally from New England, so I was born a Red Sox fan. For my entire life, we lost. We would get close, and somehow fail. So the highest high I have ever felt was the 2004 Sox - and it wasn't even winning the Series. It was coming back from down 3-0 to beat the Yanks. At that point it felt like there was no doubt that we were going to win it all anyway. It was pure, unadulterated euphoria.

However, after that - I felt like....what now? And I can say that now, in 2023, I don't follow baseball at all. Up to that point, and especially in the playoffs, I lived and died with every pitch. I was riveted. Now? I couldn't care less. It's actually really weird to me but it's also the truth. So - was the happiness an "illusion?" No. Definitely not. But it was FLEETING for sure.


Now, with the Canes - it's different. I can't explain why, but I suspect that all or at least most of you understand. The Miami Hurricanes are embedded in my DNA. I have experienced the highest of highs with our Canes as well of course, but I am just as passionate today as I have ever been. Even through the last twenty disastrous years, my attitude toward our team has never changed. Honestly, I kind of wish it would - because I look forward to every fall and the hope of a new season, and every year we are left wanting. The closest thing was 2017 - and I have to say, it was A LOT OF FUN going on that run. Smoke and mirrors? Maybe, but who cares - it was exhilarating. The win over ND was the first time I had felt such joy since probably the Sox winning the series.

So I say - no, happiness in sports is not an illusion. But it is short-lived.
 
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