sports extremist -why?

ok, I love sports, and my family is a great athletic family..I coach..., but what is it, that makes people go to extremes for sports...with the game on the line, we see fans that are just in a super trance/fear/shock/etc....they cry when their team loses....athletes get death threats when they lose....and my favorite<>the cheers are louder for a hockey fight, than a hockey goal!!! and if there is blood, even louder !!!!! people need to feel a part of something....but isn't it the thrill of the 'kill'<>win,touchdown,goal/etc that makes people sports crazy??? why do humans need this?

 

Have you heard about the 2008 Michigan Vs Appalachian state game? If you watch that game, most Michigan fans probably cried after that game. Not just because it is one of the biggest upsets in college football, but because we played poorly against a team that we "heavily" underestimated and thought was bad. I myself was at that game, and it disgusted me how we were treating them. The fans and radios were making fun of their appalachian accents and their style of living and such. It was so bad that my dad said that he knew Michigan was going to lose that game because of how we were making fun of them. (I did go to the rematch this last season and it was satisfying to get our payback for it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9zpDEsqrbs

Sorry I got a little off track there. But I think it kind of has to do with how passionate one is with a sport. I'm passionate about football and hockey and I get really into it, especially with fights and if it's your team that's playing. I don't exactly cry when my team loses, I'm just disappointed especially if they played real badly. Also sports is kind of something that brings a lot of people together, that includes the fans and the players. At these games everyone who is there has something in common, we all like the team that we are rooting for as well as our love for that sport. I love being able to high five and talk to anyone around me when I'm at Michigan or any other stadium, because we are rooting for the same team and we all love the sport. Sorry for the long post I just feel a little passionate about this subject.

 

much thanks and really good story here...I understand it all, and I never cried, but I was a super fan of the MISL team here...people are 'attached' to their team...that's good...but everyone one should know there is a loser and a winner..they really, can't believe their team will lose, can they?

 

yes, for ages, fans have done this.....good point, as usual....maybe they went a little farther in 'celebrating'/etc back then?

 

Personally I don´t think this is any different to being a fan of opera, or collecting militaria or discussing WW2. For example I never felt I had the chance to meet people who discussed "my language" about WW2 and finally found this place and I am still happy I truly did it. So many hours and books and you sorta get a strange feeling of satisfaction talking about these things, while many of your frineds don´t get it... Anyway, about sports the feeling of belonging and to me personally, having played university soccer and ice hockey during my youth has given me more understanding about sports at least I tend to think so , and I can admire the true stars and what they do, and among the people who feel the same way and chant with you, what could be better?? I could use all the money in drinking but I´d rather buy a season ticket to my favourite soccer team matches. Nothing wrong about a beer or two afterwards and one before the game...Just a couple of things that I think about it... I envy people who get to Premier league or Bundesliga matches where 50,000+ people chant the songs. I have been to a couple of matches there and you truly feel the emotions stirring inside when the singing starts...

 

yes, the 'emotions'.....that's part of my question<>why do humans need/want/get that 'high'/emotions?they don't really ''need'' them though, correct?

 

I think you need those emotions as well... I mean I have been to hundreds of matches in Finland and if you don´t have the crowd it´s not the same...nowhere near the same...2,000 in a soccer match is nothing compared to 15,000 screaming fans in an ice hockey match..that´s Finland...

 

I have to echo that statement. Huge NFL guy and when sitting in a stadium with 50,000+ screaming and being overly emotional, it's hard not to get caught up in it.

 

And there it is. Man is an emotional animal. Culture and society restrains man from acting on his emotions.
A sporting event allows man a proper and accepted outlet for excessive emotion.


As to why a fight would draw more emotion than a goal? A goal is a civilized objective. A fight is more visceral and .... well, just go watch Fight Club.

 

very interesting.....seems like humans are ''doomed'', <>we want/need the 'destructive ?behavior'???>>!!!..

 

yes Kai and KJ, why do humans want/need those emotions??..I guess this should be under an overall thread about why do humans get high/go to amusement parks/drive fast/etc etc!!!!? it feels good, and humans want to feel good.. but what is the reason for that?? some evolutionary need? and as usual, ty for the replies ..always interesting and informative...

 

Surely sports extremists are people who participate in extreme sports rather than those who become over emotional about the results of not very extreme sports. .

I know a really nice chap who competed under the name of Alan of York who owns a stable on the North York Moors. About 15 years ago he was world Jousting Champion. Thats an extreme sport. Fencing at 30 miles an hour and if you get it wrong you can get badly hurt.

Extreme emotion among sports fans is a kind of fanaticism. American sport is commercialised, and cities can buy a franchise in many sports. In Europe it can cross into the kind of fanaticism which is violent and in some cases crosses into another definition of fanatic.

European sport is tribal and local, a matter of civic pride or a focus for local politics. A local derby match is a competition between two cities or within a city like the pailo in Sienna. In some place sporting allegiances overlap sectarian, racial or politics. Real Madrid in Spain were the team for Fascists and Spanish Nationalists over regional separatists who might support Barcelona or Bilbao. Glasgow's footba is split on religious lines and the Ultras of Lazio are closely associated with the MSI. As a student I followed my local team at home and away and was shot at in Leeds, saw a police mounted charge in Nottingham.


Here are a sample of fanatics. (none are safe for the easily offended) 10,000 Billy Boys of Glasgow Rangers calling for Catholic blood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv_l2hgX9wM

While Glasgow Celtic support Irish Nationalist terrorists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YC-g65OYMc&list=PL5D6009A8562B7830

25 mins of assorted football hooligans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7AFLlZ5jrc

Lazio Ultras giving fascists salutes in Madrid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXf-KJvUf8
and in liverpool UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTjIjUtrsqY

Tottenham Hotspur are a North London football club with a traditional Jewish association. Its fans have been threatened with arrest for calling themselves the Yid Army. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4CA44daEUQ

Perhaps I have a superficially amiable view of US sports fans. It all seems such a well organised good natured activity.and the teams are too far apart, and the police too well armed for mobs of visiting fans to pose a threat to law and order.

 

Your basically right. There are always the occasional idiots but they're generally more likely to get themselves hurt doing something stupid than harm others.

 

Does the football team or sports team represent something evil? I mean those who think so, might use that for their own purpose. If you have watched documents or films of for example the Premier league hooligans who later tell about their youth, they went to look for trouble by going to the pubs where they knew were the other teams fans and started a row with them, or waited behind a corner and attacked people just to get a kick out of hitting and getting hit.

 

That is true. For the organised gangs of football hooligans the football match is the background for a fight which may not take place anywhere near the ground itself.. This is a phenomena associated with Association Football.. Rugby Union and Rugby League don't attract the same level of violently fanatical support.

This might be due to the way the soccer clubs were founded in the C19th and drew support from the working classes from existing factions in the industrial cities. Glasgow Rangers was a founded as a Protestant institution and Celtic's Bhoys from the catholic poor. In Istambul it is the wealthy bit Galataserey v poor Fernabache There is nothing new in football matches as a focus for violence. Pre Ww1 there were deasths at an opld firm derby and both sets of supporters turned on the police. Something similar happened in Krakov in 1990

http://soccerlens.com/most-violent-football-rivalries/36725/.

 

The same has been at times mentioned about aggressively acting organisations who set bombs and shooting of civilians and police. Those who do the dirty work enjoy killing and possibly might not even be at all interested in the political or other view of the main organisation. The mastermind is just the person "taking credit to make the cruelty of the action necessary for reaching the goal" while the killers are killers. I know this is going to the wrong direction and I end this here, but I believe true fans respect the view of the other fans and their teams. For instance when Ronaldinho scored twice an incredible goal against Real madrid some ten years ago running through the defence the Real crowd stood up and applauded what he did for a long time. That is magic!

 

Jousting--now that is extreme!! interesting....my brother is a big medieval fan, and I enjoy it...now that you mention it, I'll have to read/research that subject again....I wonder what the fans were like back in those times for those matches? did riots break out/etc?

 

it's not 'common', but we have fights here at games-between fans...

 

very interesting and different to hear about what we call 'soccer' stories, where over here in the US it's NFL football and baseball stories...much thanks for that