Types Of Sports Fans

Watching the Winter Olympics on TV has again impelled me to observe not just the action on the fields of play, but also the fans watching the athletes. Yes, fan behavior is sometimes as interesting as some of the sports contests themselves. Take soccer, for example. Can anything be more dull than watching the aimless running about and kicking a ball in futility? "I keek zee ball"! But the dullness of soccer is for another day's discussion.

The fans at Olympic contests, with the exception of boxing and a few other more vigorous (violent) events, are docile in comparison to most fans at other events. The more violent games beget the more violent fans. You never see fans rioting at the Olympics, even when the best athletes are cheated by those nationalistic judges. The fact that the Olympic setting is supposed to be peaceful and loving prevents that. Too, the more affluent fans and best educated usually attend the Olympic Games, and those are not the rioting masses filed with beer that we see at soccer contests.

In contrast to the well behaved Olympic fans are the well informed but...uh...crude fans that can be found at many non olympic sports games. Those people know the game they are watching and let the players and coaches of the teams know it with boos when appropriate. They probably miss work often because they prefer to study their favorite teams. Take basketball as an example of the crude fan. Nearly every fan at a basketball game is loud, and thinks he or she can dunk and shoot 3 point shots better than Michael Jordan. I think parents of small kids should take ear muffs to basketball games in case they have to protect the little ones from rhetoric like "You're ------- bind, Ref!" Basketball fans shout that often when their favored team isn't doing well. But I never heard a fan curse at a figure skating event (though I will curse if forced to watch that mess).

There are also docile fans, some of whom are too quiet and, hence, turn an other wise interesting event into a dull one. Golf fans are that way. They don't even whisper when a player is hitting the golf ball. Why it is a hockey fan can scream at players who are executing their skills, but golf fans will be kicked off the golf course if they make noise when golfers are putting? Are golfers so sensitive that they can't bear normal enthusiasm from those watching them play?

Tennis fans are an altogether different breed....mostly a boring lot. They remind me of people who are constipated. They just don't seem to be having fun when watching. Yet they over-idealize their tennis favorites and give great importance to which player wins the contest. they are all style and no substance. Most tennis fans are more wealthy and privileged types. They set themselves apart from other sports fans and sometimes only watch tennis because those other crude sports don't measure up to the "gentleman's game" (Yes, it is called that).

And what about wrestling fans. The real wrestling, amateur style, as in the Olympic Games, is not choreographed and results not predetermined. Fan who watch amateur wrestling are well informed, enthusiastic and supporting of their favorites. I don't like wrestling, but I think wrestling fans are good fans. I appreciate their civility. As for "professional" wrestling, that great theatrical of steroid inflated thugs, it might have the worst fans of all. On close examination of the pseudo sport of pro wrestling I notice many of the fans have tattoos, no or few teeth, and due to a lack of basic educational skills a wholehearted belief that what they are watching is a real sport with real results.

I always worry about the future of the human race when I see wresting fans at the arenas. If any of those alien spaceman ever come to earth to take a human specimen I hope they grab a pro wrestling fan. It will baffle even their superior brain power and technology when they try to decode what they have kidnapped. This may make them decide that we humans are best left alone and of little worth, much less worth conquering and enslaving. Yep! A typical wrestling fan, kidnaped by aliens and examined might be prove the savior of humanity.

I hope you take my fan comments for what they are worth when watching your favorite sport. Yep, my remarks are worth nothing. Just enjoy your game and forget the stupidity I wrote.