Yeah, you read that right.
I'm a girl and I like watching sports more than my boyfriend does.
It isn't because he doesn't like sports or that he isn't "manly" or whatever, it just isn't something that he grew up with like I did.
I've always liked watching sports. I went to my first college basketball game when I was like 6. My first MLB game was when I was around 7. It's just how things always were. For me, watching sports has always been a way that my entire massive family connected — college football in the fall, the NFL playoffs in December/January, college basketball in the late fall and spring, baseball in the spring and summer and through the Series in the fall. If we have time, we'll watch stuff like the Stanley Cup and the NBA playoffs. Every person in my family has their team (or teams) and we keep up with them religiously.
I never realized this was weird until I started dating my boyfriend and he informed me that he can't remember the last time ESPN was on at his house.
I was, as you can probably tell, kind of blown away by this. What would a world be like where, even if no one was actively watching, SportsCenter was still on in the background of everyday life? How would it be to not make weekend plans around when teams played? What reason is there to love March other than college basketball? Would I even still be me if I didn't hate my teams' rivals?
He loves to tease me about it, his favorite way being to pretend to cheer for my team's rivals. But, just like I had to question and try to understand how life works when you don't watch sports all the time, he had to learn about my life. I think for the first year or so we were dating, he didn't understand just how emotionally invested I am in my teams and how much I let this be a part of my life. But it's been fun to show him this part of me and to help him understand not just how much my teams mean to me, but how much this ritual of watching sports means to me.
I know that for some girls, a guy who isn't super into at least football is a problem, but honestly, I love being the one who actively checks the ESPN app when we're out just to make sure that nothing too upsetting has happened. I enjoy being the person who knows all of the names of my team's players and other big names. And I love that, instead of being like some guys who might try to pretend they knew more or rub the random facts I don't know in my face, my boyfriend accepts and loves this part of me.
It doesn't make him less "manly" for me to be the one who is more invested in sports. To be honest, the fact that he doesn't try to pretend that he knows more than I do is better, in my eyes, than a guy who knows everything about every sport and every athlete to ever exist (or so he claims). So, ladies, if you like watching sports more than he does or if you follow ESPN more than he does, just keep in mind what a big and fun adventure it could be to date him. Trust me, you should never count those guys out because they're a lot of fun (and they'll already like your team if they don't have one of their own)!
