re: Are middle aged die hard sports fans a dying breed?

I stopped being a hardcore sports fan in my 30s I still paid attention to baseball at every Major, minor college, and even some high school baseball games


Saturdays were always college football Saturdays during the season, Live when it was worth it
televised unless there was something else to do


Of course RICE I saw a little bit of everything,, women's v'ball and soccer even

Then I paid attention to the playoffs for hockey and the tournament for NCAA That's really about it since I hit 30-32

Should be.

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But why?

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Great question. I guess my answer is that I think it’s great to be passionate about some things in life and it may as well be that? Unfortunately, that’s the best I can come up with

Cousin and I talked about this the other day. The best time to be a sports fan is your first couple years of college. Still have your whole life ahead of you, not stressed about graduating yet and finding a job and all the other bullshite. You’re just partying, trying and failing to get laid, and watching fricking ball. It was the best. When you’re a kid you’re too young to really enjoy it. You can probably throw your high school fandom years in there too but college was way more enjoyable and less stressful overall. But from high school to college is easily the best time to be a sports fan

Sure, you can get back to that point when you’re a bit older but it’s still not quite the same. From 22-40, life kind of hits you in the face. You lose friends, grow a lot as a person, experience some deaths close to you, get married, have kids, pay taxes and probably some form of debt, gain some hobbies, trying to build a career, etc. all that shite weighs on you and so sports, as others have said, is more for entertainment. Saints might be good again and that would be great but the days of them being good and me agonizing over a loss are pretty much over until my kids are moved out and there’s less things taking my attention away

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Don’t disagree with your other reasons, but Occam’s razor says it’s just hard to be that into a sport when your favorite team is an abject disaster

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This is a good point as well. Since the Saints have a bit of hope for the first time in years, I’ve been more invested. But even if they were playoff good, I still don’t think I’d have that same fire

I think those are cosmetic issues in terms of NCAA sports, except for baseball, as players were quite mobile before the portal.

I can watch college football and basketball games from an entertainment standpoint, but I don’t know any of the players on the hardwood. Hell, we have former pros committing to colleges now. Duke-UNC used to be must-see TV regardless of who you pulled for. The tournament is what saves college basketball, but I find it hilarious when you have Chuck and Shaq provided matchup analysis when they have zero clue who the players are.

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still live and die with my teams.

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I still do to an extent…but if it’s not my team, it’s hard to tune in.

My phone has given me ADD. It’s hard for me to just sit there and watch a game without halfway just scrolling through my phone. Some of that disconnect has led to disconnected fandom too I suppose.

I was pretty passionate about the NFL until the NFL decided to gift Buffalo a Win and a Number 1 seed after 1 of their players got their chest ran through by a lanky WR, during a road game that they were getting arse beat in.

The NFL then fixed the AFC Championship game (about a dozen mind breaking calls in a game decided by 3 points) to push the black QB excellence narrative with Mahomes and Hurts.

College Football has not been legitimate since 2019 or so. 2020, every team played under different rules due to COVID and NIL/transfer portal took over the sport shortly after.

The NBA has quickly morphed into 3 point shooting contest for woke gay racist activists. The only decent part of the NBA are the International players. The American players suck on both a game level and human level.