[SamAdams76]

I think it is unhealthy for men to be obsessed with sports.

We all know the type. Those who closet themselves in the den on weekends watching game after game and when "their team" fails to win, they throw a temper tantrum and sulk like children. Sometime they might even smack the wife around, slap the kids or kick the dog. It happens. Wives of sports-obsessed men are right to be out of the house Super Bowl Sunday. Go shopping with your female pals, take in a chick flick or something. And if their husbands team doesn't win, they shouldn't even bother going home. Just spend the night in a hotel room, it's safer that way.

You see these lunatics at the games, grown men wearing the jerseys of their favorite player, waving around those foam "We're Number 1" fingers, and just acting the total fool for the TV cameras. Grown men! It's unhealthy, I tell you. Personally, I think anybody over the age of 13 wearing a sports jersey of a professional team (unless they actually happen to be a professional player on the field) has some serious growing up to do.

Speaking for myself, I'll take in a game here and there. Sometimes on a cold autumn day, I like to come in from yard work to light the fireplace, obtain a tankard of cold cider or ale, and take in a football game. Playoff football can be pretty exciting to watch, though the Super Bowl itself is usually a letdown.

However, I don't get emotionally invested. I might hail from New England but if the New England Patriots don't win the big game, I don't go around the house knocking over furniture or calling radio shows to say that so-and-so "sucks" and that the referees made a bad call. That is all so lame. When it comes down to it, who really cares whether or not the home team wins? I mean, unless it is your son or best friend out there on that field, what does it matter really? If the team from Green Bay, Wisconsin wins a championship, does that really mean that Green Bay is the "best" city and that all the people living there are temporarily superior to those who live in Kansas City or St. Louis?

Consider this. The squad of any professional sports team is made up with highly paid athletes from all over the country. In some sports, from all over the world. The athletes playing for those teams are on contract and they really don't give a crap about the town they happen to be playing in at the moment. The quarterback for the Detroit Lions catches the first plane out of town as soon as the season ends and hopes to be playing in New York or Dallas the year after - or anyplace other than Detroit. And that could be said for any sports team.

So why do grown men get so emotionally invested in their home teams? To the point where they collect cards and pore over career statistics like they were some 12-year-old star-struck kid. And don't even get me started on autographs. Can you imagine how disgusting it must be for a professional athlete to have fat middle-aged men follow him around trying to get him to sign some stupid artifact? How absolutely pathetic is that? If you are a grown man and you are still asking athletes to sign autographs for you, can you please explain? I would like to know why a man would humiliate and degrade himself so (and please don't tell me it's for your 8-year-old son at a cancer ward because I'm not buying it).

[dangus]

You’re just saying that because the Red Sox suck.

No, I’m totally joking. After writing about how sports fans have become such jerks because of ESPN, I couldn’t help being a jerk to be silly. I largely agree with you; I’m all for getting all worked up during the game, but put it aside, and carry on!

[ConservativeMind]

I agree.

It is much more mature to run after Ms. Palin for her autograph.

Joking aside, the attention paid to any sport boggles my mind.

Get outside and workout yourself. Don't sit or pay to watch others do so. Everyone, get a life!

[Hatteras]

"I might hail from New England but if the New England Patriots don't win the big game, I don't go around the house knocking over furniture or calling radio shows to say that so-and-so "sucks" and that the referees made a bad call. "

Good for you and I absolutely agree..... But :-) I did have a boss that was a big Boston sports fanatic. He grew up there and apparently even worked part-time while in high school at the Boston Garden.

Outwardly, a nice guy. But get him talking about sports and he becomes Mr. Hyde. Even at 45 years old, he insisted on wearing his Tom Brady jersey in every Friday. His office was packed with Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins memorabilia. Penants, little toy figurines, a couple of photos of him with some sports figures... As to your article, scientists and psychoanalysts really lost an awesome opportunity during the 2004 ALCS to do a case study using this guy as their subject. He went from "still hopeful" to total drunken despair in 3 games, culminating with him stripping his car of his #1 Red Sox Fan front license tag at 3 in the morning after the Red Sox lost game 3. Then... in the ensuing 4-game comeback by the Red Sox, he went from people actually starting to feel bad for the guy to, once again, the most obnoxious fan in the world.

He coached his daughter's softball team and spent half the day at work going through his personal scouting reports on the upcomng opponent and building his line-up for the evening's game. He would call the "league office" (the local parks and planning office) the day after games to complain about the umpire and ask for the league's interpretation of the rule in question, etc... Heck, in preparation for the upcoming annual Spring softball draft, I even heard him call the father of a 13 year old girl (from a rival team) in an attempt to get her to play for his team. HE HAD A LIST OF 13 YEAR OLD GIRLS SOFTBALL PROSPECTS FOR A YOUTH LEAGUE DRAFT DAY!!! Creepy on any level...

The guy was waaay too obsessed. And the scary part is that we see these people on TV in the parking lots and the bleachers all the time. And no matter what team they cheer for, I suspect, like my former boss, the obsession isn't just on display for a few hours on Sundays.

[ladyjane]

So why do grown men get so emotionally invested in their home teams?

Because associating with successful others increases their positive feelings about themselves. It also changes their hormone levels. If their team wins their testosterone level shoots up and they feel good. If their team loses, their testosterone level goes down and they feel miserable. Their team's success also affects their cortisol levels.

[Hot Tabasco]

And don't even get me started on autographs

I have a hockey stick signed by Chris Chelios that was given to me by his brother when his brother was my neighbor........It was payment for hooking up his home theater system when he moved into the house.

[trisham]

Are you serious?