Sports are important to me. Ever since I could take my first steps, I was swinging a tennis racket or a golf club, or tossing a basketball into a hoop. I’ve always enjoyed watching sports on TV as well, no matter what sport it is. Sports are an incredibly important part of my life. With Super Bowl season behind us, I feel I must call into view a certain trend I see on social media and in real life into view. Sportsball.
I know not everyone likes sports, and I’m not here to make them like sports. That’s impossible anyway. It’s perfectly fine to not share the same hobbies as someone else, but it’s really not cool to make fun of and belittle someone for what they enjoy.
On social media, whenever there’s a big sporting event, people who are not into sports work themselves up into a frenzy about how much they dislike sports. But they aren’t confrontational about, no, they would rather be passive aggressive and condescend, that’s where sportsball comes in.
Whenever someone like me will make a comment about how they are excited to see a sporting event, the inevitable reply on Twitter will go something like “yay, sportsball” or “oh boy, sportsball” and all I can do is roll my eyes. Sportsball is a catch-all term for any sport, to show that they don’t care about sports SO much that they can’t even be bothered to call it by its correct name. It’s intended to mock the people who enjoy watching or playing “stupid games”. Yes, sports can be dumb, and they often are, but that’s part of the fun.
And that’s the thing. Nobody really mocks anyone these days for not liking sports. Far from it, in fact, people are generally allowed to like most anything they want. Nobody gets mocked for playing video games, or Dungeons and Dragons any more. And that’s a good thing. People should be free to enjoy the things they enjoy with no fear of other people jeering them for it. “Sportsball” happens because people think they can get away with making fun of it, because it’s popular, but these Twitter checkmarks miss the point. They think that it’s their turn to be the big, cool bully guy and slam you into the locker. The idea isn’t to reverse the social standards of the 1950’s so that the nerds bully the jocks, it’s to create a more welcoming space for everyone regardless of what you enjoy.
So, come on. If someone you know is really excited for the NCAA Tournament (I sure am), or if you’re jazzed about the Olympics, or ecstatic about the World Cup, let them be. They’re just trying to celebrate the things they enjoy, and nobody needs the kind of condescension and derision that Sportsball people bring to the table. Block those people on social media, kick those bad eggs to the curb. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life and neither do I.
