Do "Nerds" Not Enjoy Sports, Or Just Not Mainstream Ones?

[Clive Howlitzer]

I've never really ran into this myself. All my friends are huge geeks and they are all into sports also. Myself, I am a big fan of American Football.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Nerds should love American Football, because the players are fat. Not that all nerds are fat, but if you're at your PC the whole day it's kind of a foregone conclusion.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I am a nerd...

...

...!

GO FLAMES GO!!!!!

I am Canadian though and most of us are programmed to enjoy hockey so that might counter the whole nerd thing. I don't really enjoy any other team sports but flying down a mountain at break neck speeds on some skis is probably my favorite thing to do in life (yes above video games and women).

Captcha: nosy parker. I only point this out because it is the second time today I've had this one and I've never had a repeat before...

 

[snave]

All but one person I know likes sports, playing or watching them. I was forever deemed 'unfit' in school PE lessons because I didn't enjoy hockey and couldn't hit the ball with a tennis racket, but I absolutely love kayaking and swimming (which we did not do at school) and abseiling and rock climbing. I think there are quite a lot of people out there like me, who failed miserably at school sports and decided they just didn't enjoy sports. Access to multiple types of sport breeds sporty people, I think

You have just described a handful of largely non-competitive sports. I think that's quite an overlooked problem with the education system of most countries.

Competitive sports tend to be heavily over-represented due to the relative ease of managing a large group of students in a single competition, rather than a large group each in competition with themselves. If you've ever been in front of a classroom, you'd quickly realise that fostering competition is a great way to maintain class control. The catch is that this risks alienating those (often introverts) who simply do not enjoy competition. Not to mention that non-competitive sports often fall on the "high insurance" end of the spectrum.

Casual competition can often provide one solution (indoor soccer, Calvinball type games, etc) which encompasses all the benefits of team sports, without the pressure or group exposure.

 

[Vigormortis]

For what it's worth, I enjoy sports but find it a little annoying how elevated athletes are socially. It's a similar deal with actors. Too much usage of the term "hero" for my tastes, basically.

Watching sports is lame.
Playing sports is fun.

These sum up my thoughts on the matter rather nicely.

I am most assuredly of the "nerdy" type. Yet, I don't hate sports. Hell, I enjoy the occasional pick-up game here and there. Especially at parties or random get-togethers.

However, I detest "professional" sports. Not the sport itself, mind you, but rather the professional leagues.

Seeing pro-athletes get paid millions upon millions to essentially run a leather ball around a field or court and star in adverts, seeing sports "fans" drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on ridiculous memorabilia, all the while watching our education systems go down the drain and hearing people ***** about our science and space programs "receiving too much of our money", pisses me off to no end.

I knew someone that said that once. That NASA and other such scientific research organizations were receiving too much money from the government. He said this to me while he was prepping to bid a few hundred bucks on some dirty, used jersey on eBay.

We don't talk much anymore.

 

[Playful Pony]

I can't name any sport I like... I enjoy a little casual tennis with my friends now and then but... I don't watch any sport, I don't follow any team and I NEVER care about those conversations. When I discuss teams excitedly, it's usually concerning the 3 found in Planetside 2, and my other interests are generally games, drawing and general gossip... I like to talk, about pretty much anything, just not sports...

 

[AlexWinter]

I'm a WoW player and I love player rugby and football. Unfortunately I never have anyone bearable to play with.

...That wasn't meant to sound so sad haha.

 

[Shuguard]

I think nerds just like different sports or esports or anything in general. I only watch the superbowl, but other then that i sometimes watch sc2 and recently watched world finals for LoL. So what one person likes another may not. Doesn't make that person any less of a nerd(yes sports fans you are nerds, just sports nerds).

 

[sammysoso]

I don't think that "nerd" really has any relation to whether or not you like a particular sport.

I'm a nerd (posting on a video game website kinda gives that away) but also a total sports geek. I support all the major Houston teams (I'm not huge into basketball, but I do look at the final scores for the Rockets).

Go Texans!

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

I'm a Nerd. I loathe all Sports with a passion. It really depends on personal experiences.
Edit: After a quick rethink, I don't mind Archery. Or Swimming. Those are the only two Sports that I like.

 

[triggrhappy94]

My general policy is that it takes all kind of people to make the world go round, so never generalize or stereotype.

I think it help if you're invested in a team. I don't normally watch sports, expect for the really bad refs in football.

 

[Hagi]

Let me ask another question.

Would you consider someone who was heavily into popular sports a nerd?

If no, then nerds obviously don't enjoy sports, at least not mainstream ones.
If yes, then nerds obviously do enjoy sports.

Nerd is a kinda subjective thing. There's no clear universal definition on the exact requirements of being a nerd. You just have to ask whether or not your own personal definition includes popular sports or not.

That being said, I do consider myself a nerd and whilst I'm not a fan of the most popular sports like football (real football, not handegg) I do greatly enjoy running. I wouldn't discount a football fan of being a nerd though, I know several people who greatly love watching football and are quite nerdy.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

I love watching football (the one where the majority of time, you use your feet to kick a ball), and that's arguably the most mainstream sport in the world. I also play basketball, and occasionally enjoy watching it.

Oh, and athletics. Love me some athletics. Don't really know why, but there's all the numbers involved, maybe that's where the nerd shines through.

 

[Arakasi]

I draw a large distinction between watching sports, in which I would be bored to the point of suicide, and playing sports, which I would only enjoy doing with friends.

 

[dystopiaINC]

I like football. Patriots fan.

same here man *fist bump*

I love American football, but I get bored to death by hockey, baseball, basketball ect. while I have plenty of fun playing the sports, I'm terrible at most of them, however I do love paintball (and I'm a pretty good shot. Hey what do you know COD does help out after all! well no I was good at it before I played COD but still...)'

EDIT:
also not sure if this was posted but it'd interesting
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2522-A-Nerd-By-Any-Other-Name

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I don't particularly enjoy watching sports so much as I enjoy playing and participating in sports. I tend to watch a few games from a variety of sports, but it never catches my interest to the point of actually following players or seasons.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Have literally never cared about any sport. So...

 

[Palademon]

No, I'm pretty sure I dislike most if not all sports, with no bearing on how mainstream they are.

 

[Lodgicalwill]

I don't particularly like playing sports, I've always been a musician before a sportsman. I can't fault watching a bit of Snooker, Tennis or Rugby League however. Leeds Rhinos FTW