Why I Watch Sports
I watch sports. A lot of sports. And people don’t seem to quite get it.
My parents scold me all the time for it. They ask me why I spend so much time following people across the world playing a “game” when I could very well be doing something better with my time. However, I wasn’t always like this. It was a conscious choice that I made, and maybe I can explain why I made that choice, and why I believe people should watch sports.
Flashback to the fourth grade. I was the new kid at a new school, and one of the first things my classmates asked me was, “Messi or Ronaldo?” To their disappointment, I did quite nearly know enough about those two players to give them an answer. I came back home from school and spent the rest of my evening watching Messi highlights. I was hooked.
From that moment on, sports became a large part of my life. In a similar fashion, I started following basketball and became a Warriors fan. I paid more attention to the cricket matches that my grandfather watched everyday, and was soon watching every ball of every game. More recently, I’ve started watching chess and Formula 1.
Now, to the uninitiated, this still sounds like a horrible waste of time. So let me show you the ways that watching sports has impacted my life, and hopefully I can make the case that it is a great way to spend your time.
The first reason, which I’ve already given you a glimpse into, is that watching sports helps you make friends. This is true of any age, but especially teenagers and people in their 20s. I have met most of my closest friends today through sports, and it remains a strong link in our friendships. I’ve found that everybody is familiar with at least one sport. By knowing at least the basics of what’s happening in a lot of sports, one can find it very easy to connect with others. It is the ideal conversation piece, and simply brings people closer together.
When I was at camp two years ago, I remember sitting in the bus alone as a huge group of friends who had come together were chatting. As their conversation turned to football, I chimed in. Soon enough, we were chatting away like we’d known each other all our lives. Sports was not all we talked about, but it opened the door to us getting to know each other better. Sports was the bridge that closed the gap between us, and led to us being close friends even today.
This is not just true with peers though. I’ve spent more time than ever before with my grandfather, watching cricket. It has become a tradition for us to sit together and watch the RCB or India cricket match till late night. It has brought me closer to my grandfather, and helped me discover the fun in spending time with him.
Now, we’ve established that watching sports gives you something to talk about and connect with others. However, it doesn’t end there. It also gives you something to do with others: play sports!
There’s a common misconception that if you watch sports you don’t play sports. People assume that those watching sports are the kind that kick back after a day of work by catching up on the game, after sitting down all day. This is absolutely false. I’ve found that those watching sports can’t resist playing it, and those who play can’t resist watching it. Following football inspired me to start playing a sport that I hadn’t even cared for in the past. And guess what? This opened even more doors in my life, from new friendships and experiences to being more healthy and fit. I now have a group of friends that I regularly meet up to play football with.
In that sense, sports is perhaps the best thing you do for yourself, both physically and mentally. Physically, it gives you enough cardiovascular activity and keeps you on your feet (at least for most sports), making you run and jump like you’re a kid again. That’s what’s great about playing sports, it’s simply exercise made fun! Mentally, the benefits are perhaps greater. Not only does the activity clear your mind for the day, it helps you bond and connect with other human beings, rather than sitting at your computer all day. It also has taught me valuable lessons, from teamwork and leadership to brotherhood and camaraderie. Simply watching sports has given me these lessons, but playing it has helped me experience them. The guys I play football with are some of my closest friends in the world, and sports only brought us closer. There is nothing more fun than getting in a good game of football before kicking back and watching a cricket match while getting dinner together. It’s an incomparable feeling when we cheer together as Virat Kohli hits a six or Messi scores a goal. That simply cannot be replicated by anything else.
Some of you may think that this article simply became one about watching sports to actually playing sports. But that’s the beauty of watching sports, you will end up playing them! I don’t get to play as much today, with COVID making it difficult and college applications even more so. I still watch sports, and talk about sports to people that I meet. But the times that I have played these past two years, it has only reminded me more about how important sports is in my life. It is a part of my identity. It has helped me immensely, and I believe it can help you too.
