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The Benefits of Being a Sports Fan
PJ Media ^ | 12 Jan 2024 | Chris Queen

Posted on 01/12/2024 11:23:01 AM PST by Rummyfan

If you’re reading me for the first time or if you’ve been living under a rock, I’m a massive fan of the Georgia Bulldogs. As an alumnus of the University of Georgia, I try to keep up with every sport, but I’m particularly invested in Georgia’s football and baseball programs.

The day I began writing this (Jan. 11) was the second anniversary of the morning after the game where Georgia won the 2021-2022 national championship in football. That game was the first of two back-to-back championships for my beloved team, and it ended a 41-year drought for the Bulldogs. All the memes and articles from that night that I saw on my Facebook memories filled me with the same excitement.

Those two national championships, along with the 1980 championship, which I don’t remember as vividly (I was eight years old), were tremendous experiences that I cherish, but one of my all-time favorite Georgia Bulldogs sports memories was one of the College Football Playoff semifinal games.

On Dec. 31, 2022, the Dawgs faced off against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Both teams fought hard, and the game came down to the wire. With the score at 42-41 in favor of the Bulldogs, Ohio State kicker Noah Ruggles lined up to kick a game-winning field goal. The ball hooked left precisely as the clock struck midnight. Talk about a heck of a way to ring in the new year!

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
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I know many Freepers are down on pro sports, and even to some degree colleges too, due to over-commercialization, NIL, and the politicalization of same. But I still love sports.
1 posted on 01/12/2024 11:23:01 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Sports are a good way to create community, as well as diversion from politics, stress of work, etc...

In our (neo) marxist world where everything MUST be political, it is a welcome diversion

its also why marxists in Fed.gov will continually try to politicize sports, especially the most popular ones.


2 posted on 01/12/2024 11:26:13 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Rummyfan

There are benefits to not being a sports fan also.

It gives you the opportunity to hold meaningful discussions beyond who can throw a ball the best

It sets you apart from the crowd

You’ll never be accused of being a fair weather fan

You can live your life truly not caring about Taylor Swift and some football player.


3 posted on 01/12/2024 11:42:36 AM PST by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: Rummyfan

Some of my best friends to this day are Little League and HS basketball teammates. Just the way I want it (and always imagined it).

We all do at least one PSU tailgate/year and it never disappoints. We drink, eat, tell the same jokes from 40 some years ago, play classic rock, and act like kids again for a few days.


4 posted on 01/12/2024 11:43:21 AM PST by FLNittany (Autotune is jealous of Karen Carpenter)
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To: cyclotic

Being and uber sports fan allows fags to have man crushes in public without being called out on it.


5 posted on 01/12/2024 11:47:59 AM PST by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
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To: Rummyfan

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
Ernest Hemingway


6 posted on 01/12/2024 11:51:36 AM PST by shoff (Vote Democrat it beats thinking!)
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To: shoff

Ernest Hemingway was nuts. You understand that, right?


7 posted on 01/12/2024 11:56:35 AM PST by yldstrk
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To: yldstrk

And a leftist but of course that’s redundant.


8 posted on 01/12/2024 12:01:35 PM PST by xp38
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To: cyclotic

“There are benefits to not being a sports fan also.”

More and more you are right. I’ve had kids and grandkids born on big Alabama football game days, but outside our family, who cares? I know I don’t care about the pedigrees of fans and their teams either.

My late father and I didn’t fight when we watched games together. That was the draw fifty years ago. My sons and I have had a great time getting to see every game. Used to be you couldn’t.

But more and more I see people too wrapped up in it, taunting other teams’ fans for trashy reasons. Like they are playing instead of their heroes, and if they lose or their team doesn’t get the breaks screaming about all kinds of hideous conspiracies.


9 posted on 01/12/2024 12:05:01 PM PST by Luke21
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To: Rummyfan

“due to over-commercialization, NIL, and the politicalization of same”

Also it’s mostly sitting on your ass eating and drinking and watching others perform physically and verbally.

Mostly. A relative is a hockey fan and, at age 50, still plays in a hockey league.


10 posted on 01/12/2024 12:09:14 PM PST by cymbeline
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To: cyclotic

And no sports paraphernalia cluttering up the home and vehicles.


11 posted on 01/12/2024 1:18:06 PM PST by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: FLNittany

It good to hear someone else has friends from grade school that they keep in touch with. I have 3 friends that I met when we were about 10.. We’ve been through it all together (more or less): marriage, children, careers, major hurricanes, cancer, divorce for 1, parental deaths, sibling deaths, and one remarriage. We still have a yearly get-together even though we live in various parts of the country now, and none of us live in the town where we grew up.

*** We drink, eat, tell the same jokes from 40 some years ago, play classic rock, and act like kids again for a few days.***

Same here. It’s a great blessing.


12 posted on 01/12/2024 2:56:53 PM PST by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: FamiliarFace

Yep, when I’m with my high school pals, we’re all 18 again.


13 posted on 01/12/2024 2:57:59 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: PGR88
Sports are a good way to create community, as well as diversion from politics, stress of work, etc...

Check out local sports. Minor league baseball games.

14 posted on 01/12/2024 3:04:32 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: PGR88

It’s pretty difficult for sports to be a diversion from politics when sports is rife with politics.


15 posted on 01/12/2024 3:21:09 PM PST by Right Brother (Pray for God's intervention to stop UMCRevMom's invasion of Free Republic)
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To: Rummyfan

From an anthropological point of view, team sports are tribal warfare practice, not just for the soldiers on the field but for the taxpaying civilians that fund and support them. Tribes without violent sports, or religion, tend to disappear.


16 posted on 01/12/2024 3:47:39 PM PST by Reeses
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To: dfwgator

We are perpetually no older than 14, the last time we were all together. Fifth through eighth grades.

Funny how we have stayed in touch all these years. Maybe not each person for every year, but one or two throughout the years, and at significant milestones.

I wish everyone had old friends like this. The world would be a better place.


17 posted on 01/12/2024 7:44:17 PM PST by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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