How many other Loungers do not care about

[Strong Atheist]

sports in general and football in particular?

I personally think sports are the least important thing in the universe!:evilgrin:

[Shell Beau]

1. Sometimes they are important and other times not so much.

I am not an avid sports fan by any means.

[Strong Atheist]

5. To each their own. I prefer a good book ... nt.

[Shell Beau]

18. I do too! But if it is a big game like the Super Bowl or a

championship, then I'll watch! :)

[Strong Atheist]

22. Not me. I do not watch much T.V. Heck, right now I do

not even own one.

[Initech]

2. I'm male, I like sports, but I dont think sports are

the most important thing in the universe!

[Strong Atheist]

10. I am a classic "nerd", I like books and games,

and loathe sports. All this talk about football in the Lounge made me think of this poll.

[Texasgal]

3. I enjoy sports...

So I guess that by "enjoying" something, it makes it important! <----- did that make sense?

[Strong Atheist]

8. Yes nt.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Male: sports is one of the single largest wasters of human energy

Not in the doing of sports - sports are very important physical activities, and can be fun to play.

It's the watching and the caring about that is the waste of energy - look at how large the sports section is in a newspaper, and think of all that wasted paper. All the time wasted on news for sports - 3 minutes for national news, 2 minutes for the "BE AFRAID!!!" story of the day, 1 minute for world news, and 15 minutes for sports.

But, there ya go.

[Strong Atheist]

11. Not to mention all the money poured into it.

Here in D.C., their public schools are one of the worst in the nation, and they are about to spend $800 million (YES - MILLION) dollars on a new stadium...:eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. I simply LOVE how the sports teams get the communities to build

stadiums with tax money and some private investment, and the only people who make any money off it are the sports teams and the private investors. And then, when the stadium needs repairs, all of a sudden it's "The city's responsibility, and if you don't fix it, we're leaving".

Meanwhile, the local schools are cutting heat to half of the school in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon, and the arts room has almost no supplies and the band and orchestra (except the band that plays at sports games) are using instruments from before they invented metal.

[Strong Atheist]

23. Tell me about it. I am a teacher. The waste at all

levels (including high school) frosts me.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

42. Ever heard of property taxes? Payroll taxes? Sales taxes?

All of those are boosted significantly by redeveloped areas.

[Strong Atheist]

44. Let me know when that $800 million and counting

is made up, would you?


... if I'm still alive in 60 or 70 years ...

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

30. That's a penny wise, dollar foolish attitude.

That stadium is going to completely redevelop a horrible section of the city and generate revenues far in excess of that $800 million dollars over the long haul. It's called an investment for a reason.

[Strong Atheist]

40. Complete bull. nt.

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. "redevelop a horrible section" = government using eminent domain

to raze poor people's houses at sub-par-value compensation and without legal representation, displacing as many ugly poor as possible so that the wealthier people can have a nice playground (that costs $20 or more to get in to) while the poor people who lost their homes might be allowed to work there.


Not to mention the now-needed $300 million capital improvement of the roads around the new stadium (at taxpayer expense, paid for buy selling interest-earning bonds to the rich people paid back by us, the taxpayers).

Plus the increased police presence needed (paid for by taxpayers).



I'm all for having stadiums, but you don't see cities putting up buildings for Target. They might offer tax incentives, but stadiums for pro sports are a unique element in the social fabric. Make the teams who will be living there pay for them, or else make the team owned by the community. Using taxpayer money to build something that will profit someone else, and profit them hugely, is just wrong.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

48. A few points of interest

Firstly - few, if any of the people in that area own their homes. The vast majority of them either rent privately or are in section 8 housing.

Secondly - You point out all of the capital improvement necessary, and I'll add in the private development of the nearby buildings. That sounds like a lot of good construction jobs to me.

I agree that teams should pay for the stadium itself wholeheartedly, while I also feel that the city/state should offer either tax incentives or infrastructure improvements to make it feasible. This is the method that is now commonly used (though in the 90's, cities/states often paid for all of it). To say that the people, even those that aren't interested in sports, get nothing out of it is just as ignorant as saying that people who send their children to private schools or don't have children get nothing out of public education.

[Rabrrrrrr]

76. Oh, well, if they're just renters or low income, then fuck 'em.

We need a stadium to provide jobs for a few months for construction guys.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

105. That's not the point you were trying to make.

The point you were making was that they were landowners that were going to get screwed out of the true value of their homes when that was flatly false.

[Strong Atheist]

50. Amen! nt.

[kick-ass-bob]

16. who wants to sit and watch depressing news?

I get all my news from Matcom.

:bounce::bounce::bounce:

[ForrestGump]

36. Yeah, what you said, you curmudgeon-in-training

My thoughts exactly.

And college football is a bad thing, at least when it's run, as it is at the big football schools in the US, like a very profitable pro franchise...the athletes are very much being used and few will see the payoff. So what if that's a hard and early lesson in life? It's something that universities have no business doing. Universities in other countries don't fool around with that crap, they just busy themselves with actually educating.

[Jokerman]

6. The term "sports trivia" is redundant.

I'm proud to say that I've never watched an entire professional football or basketball game in my life.

I like to participate, not spectate.

[Strong Atheist]

12. Ah, not a "Being There" type. Better than

the Monday quarterbacks ...

[ET Awful]

7. I wouldn't say they're the LEAST important, there are things less

important, such as the color of the wrapper to a package of Bic pens for instance.

However, they are VERY unimportant. :P

[Strong Atheist]

13. Good. We are in substantial agreement. nt.

[XNASA]

9. I enjoy sports. But then, I was a good athlete at one time.

So, perhaps that's the reason.

[Strong Atheist]

15. I have nothing against fitness, but our

culture long ago squashed any glimmer of interest I might have had in organized sports. I played Ultimate in college ...

[Liberalynn]

14. I used to like watching some sports on television

like basketball, tennis, and baseball, but then as my favorite players started getting older and retiring, I lost interest.

I never cared a hoot about football.

Watch the Olympics occassionally but even they don't excite me that much any more.

I think way too much money and attention is placed on sports in general, but that is JMHO.

I especially get irked because the cable company claims their services have to cost so much because of their many sports channel offerings. Well then how about offering a package without sports and oh yeah shopping channels. I don't watch or want either.

[Strong Atheist]

17. For that matter, let us pick our own channels.

What a concept.

[Liberalynn]

21. That would be excellent

there would be quite a few channels that would be gone from my set. I would get rid of stations like Faux news, the religious channels, and Pax in addition to the sports and shopping channels.

[Strong Atheist]

24. They (business) won't let it happen.

You should here the arguments that our local monopoly (Cox - Boo, Hiss!) puts out on this subject ... unfrickin' believable ...

[warrens]

20. Football sucks, but baseball and hoops are cool

I count the days til Spring Training. Pitchers and catchers report in 40 days!

[Strong Atheist]

25. I wouldn't know. Or care. nt.

[William Bloode]

26. I don't watch any sports other than,

Boxing, kick boxing, mat wrestling, and cage fighting. I much prefer to participate in said events though(though i suck at pure kick boxing).

[Strong Atheist]

27. Way too violent for

me :scared:

[William Bloode]

41. It was way too violent for me too lol!

The toll such fighting has taken on my body has more or less disabled me. I still love it even though i can't really compete anymore.

[tjwmason]

28. Other.

Nearly all sports (male or female) are utterly irrelevant to me, they seem to be profoundly important to some.

Football (soccer) is the worst offender here - thus I do have a moderate hatred of it.

Rugby and cricket are important, however, because they are wonderful.

[Strong Atheist]

31. Wow. I almost did not include an "other".

I could not imagine what I had not covered with the other options.

So ... only "certain" sports are important. Ok.

[tjwmason]

51. There's always an "other" in D.U. polls

We're such obstinate bastards that we'll find one. :D

[Strong Atheist]

53. I see .... nt.

[khashka]

95. Now how did I know you would love cricket?

It does have a certain grace. And it's perfectly paced. Moments of calm and moments of intensity.

Khash.

[ForrestGump]

96. The most boring game on the face of the planet

:D

Those three-day test matches, anyway.

The horror...the horror...

[tjwmason]

98. A test-match is 5 days.

and every moment a cliff-hanger.

[ForrestGump]

99. I guess I just used to block the last two days from my consciousness

Bleh...

[tjwmason]

97. That I had the Ashes trophy as my avatar for a while

might have been a bit of a give-away. :shrug:

But you're right about its perfect pace, and for the most part even internationals are not plagued by the ugly nationalism of football matches.

[khashka]

101. Oh that's right! You did!

And I told you enough was enough and to get rid of it.

But come on, cricket is incredibly nationalistic! England vs. Australia - for decades? Back in the day it seemed like Australia always won the Ashes. It was terrible, brutal. Talk about nationalism! It looked like full-scale war!

But, cricket fans rarely erupt into the violence of football fans. Who ever heard of a cricket hooligan?

Khash.

[tjwmason]

103. That's precisely what I mean.

Both sides support their country, but do so in a positive manner. That's what's so good about it.

The competition is definitely full-on, but once the stumps are up at the end of the match everybody's more than happy to have a pint or few with the opposition fans discussing how it all went.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

29. I voted option 1 just to piss people off.

Anti-sports snobs are annoying. I personally do not care for reality television all that much, but I don't feel the need to bitch about it constantly either.

[Strong Atheist]

33. Hello!

:hi:

Sports suck!:smoke:

[ForrestGump]

32. Unimportant in my life. I am not, by nature, a team player but I DO

and have participated in activities that fall under the 'sports' umbrella. I get no thrill out of watching sports -- I basically never watch televised sports (it's bene many years since I watched a football game, for example, and watching paint dry is more thrilling than watching baseball) -- but I do enjoy participation in some. If you ask me, too many Americans watch too much sports and don't do enough of them, or any other physical activity. In other countries, adults actually play sports in proportions far beyond that of the US.

Stop watching and start doing...

[Strong Atheist]

37. (Reeling, gasping in shock! - My Heart! Clutches

hand to chest!).

This is the first time you have ever responded to one of my posts in a serious fashion. I don't know how to respond, or what to say ...:wow:

Did your brother in-law happen to take over your screen name right now?

Or maybe your good twin?

[ForrestGump]

43. Don't get used to it

[Strong Atheist]

45. .

x( :spank: :spank: :spank: x(

[LaraMN]

34. I have absolutely no interest in sports viewing of any kind.

Playing sports can be fun, but sitting there watching? Nah. Not my thing.

[Strong Atheist]

38. Good. We agree, mostly. nt.

[Taverner]

35. Male, sports are unimportant

Now given I think sports are fun and enjoyable to watch. So are kaliedescopes and wildlife shows.

But in the long run, the fact that USC will beat Texas in the Rose Bowl this year is not important in the way that say, Congress might get a much needed enema from the Abramoff testimony.

[Strong Atheist]

39. Ok, I will go along with that. nt.

[hfojvt]

47. there must be one thing even less important than sports, logically

polls about sports :evilgrin:

[Strong Atheist]

49. Yuk, Yuk!

I did it because of all the "which football team is winning now, blah blah blah" threads in the lounge currently.

[GOPisEvil]

52. *checks watch* Yep - right on time.

It was time for someone to show up and dismiss something that provides me entertainment. If you don't like sports, don't watch. Don't impose your standards on me. People like what they like, and it doesn't necessarily make one less of a person if they like something you think is beneath you. I'm sure something you like sucks too.

[Strong Atheist]

55. "Don't impose your standards on me."

Wouldn't dream of it!

Sports suck!:evilgrin:

[GOPisEvil]

58. You're free to have your opinion.

No matter how wrong it is. }(

[ForrestGump]

60. Hook 'em horns!

I will admit to having a soft spot for the Longhorns -- I even have a tee-shirt I wore proudly for quite some time -- as well as for the Bruins and for the vastly superior crushing machine that is the football team of my alma mater...well, was, before they instituted a literacy requirement. :D

But my favorite are UCSC -- go, Fighting Banana Slugs!!!!

[Strong Atheist]

62. "Fighting Banana Slugs!!!!"

You're kidding again, right?

[ForrestGump]

65. Not even, dude

:D



Not only one of the most beautiful campuses around, and a great place to hang out (also very strong in several academic fields, including mine -- I almost went there), but I love a school that is largely collectively inept at traditional big-time collegiate athletics and celebrates the fact. :D

[Strong Atheist]

66. "I love a school that is largely collectively

inept at traditional big-time collegiate athletics and celebrates the fact."

Another heart attack! We agree, for the first time!

[GOPisEvil]

63. I'm thinking about enrolling in classes at UCSC.

They are follow-up classes to the classes I'm taking now. I can enroll at any one of a variety of schools with UCSC being one. I'd like to enroll in a CA school for future professional reasons. :)

So, let's see...SMU, possibly...nah, they just had to stop paying their players. :D

[ForrestGump]

67. You'd love UCSC

I mean, you'll probably have waist-long hair as soon as you can grow it out, and become a flute-playing vegetarian who carries one of those little macramé handbags, but you'll love it. :-)

Magnificent campus, too, built by Governor Reagan in '67 as a "riot-proof" camus with no central assembly points...what a doofus, the end resut of his doofusness being one of the most out-and-out beautiful campuses in the US. They have a rule that limits construction of any campus building to a height lower than that of the surrounding redwoods, I believe.

[GOPisEvil]

68. Well, I will be an online student, but I have been to the campus.

I really, REALLY liked the campus. I even have a t-shirt. :)

[ForrestGump]

70. Cool!

You're a cyberbanana slug! :D

[Richardo]

69. "Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp"

What we affectionately called UCSC from down south at UCLA.

Go Banana Slugs!!

[Arugula Latte]

71. "Slime 'Em!" nt

[ForrestGump]

75. I've been slimed!

[Strong Atheist]

86. "If you don't like sports, don't watch."

I would LOVE to, but it's like *, you can't get away from it. I have no t.v., but turn on the radio to ANY station, and before long someone is talking about it. Papers have HUGE sections devoted to it, and frequently put this stuff on the front page where you can't miss it. The office has pools where you are expected to put in money (You don't like sports? What are you, some kind of freak?). My post was started due to all the threads here in the lounge about which team is beating which team, blah, blah, blah. Who freakin' cares?

[Fox Mulder]

54. I'm a male and I love sports.

:)

Especially extreme winter sports.

[Strong Atheist]

57. "I'm a male and I love sports."

Yeah, you are comfortably in the majority on that one.

[DanCa]

56. I have not watched sports since George Foreman lost his 2nd title.

The sports world just doesn't intrest me anymore.

[Strong Atheist]

59. Boxing. Completely barbaric. Two men (or, with

equal rights women I suppose) try to kill each other by beating the s*** out of each other, while other people pay to watch it. How enlightened.:eyes:

[sarahinmexico]

61. sports are...

enjoyable when convenient and unimportant when not.

[Strong Atheist]

64. Welcome to D.U!

:toast:

Sensible enough answer, I suppose ...

[Strong Atheist]

72. Well, it's been fun, but I have to go

pick up my cat from the vet and go home. Looks like the "least important" is winning with both sexes. Good. Se ya all later!:hi:

[RevCheesehead]

73. Given the choices, I had to say they are important.

I live in Packer Country... it's in the water.

and I live for Duke Basketball! :evilgrin:

[Strong Atheist]

87. Ah, another area where we are going to have to

agree to disagree ...

[SteppingRazor]

74. I think you've missed the point, juding sports by "importance"...

I don't think sports are particularly important, in the same sense I think politics are important, but football's a helluva lot of fun to play and to watch, if you've got a team you love. And then there's the sports gambling aspect, which adds a sweaty edge to an already competitive game. All in all, both playing and watching sports can be a lot of fun. I don't think sports are necessarily important, but I think to gauge them on their importance misses the point. Games and books -- what the OP stated are his interests -- aren't necessarily important either (depending on the subject matter of the book in question).

[last_texas_dem]

77. Unimportant to me

I'm male and voted for "unimportant." I decided not to go for "least important thing in the universe" 'cause, as a poster suggested above, there are a few less important things in the universe. Watching sports is possibly the most overrated activity in the universe, but that's just IMHO. Honestly, my not being into sports has nothing to with being a snob about them, as someone suggested above. I have just genuinely never been interested in them, and I really tried to be when I was a child. It's being expected to care about them simply because so many others (the vast majority of men, I figure) do that bothers me.

[Greyhound]

78. Would've voted least important thing in the universe if it weren't

for the The Boncos!

[AntiCoup2K4]

79. So what does an atheist who hates sports do on Sunday??

Sleep all day? :shrug:

[Strong Atheist]

88. Relax! Don't HAVE to go to church,

don't HAVE to watch the latest game (for fear of "missing" something):evilgrin:

[Kathryn STone]

80. I have lived here in TX for 5 yrs not a native rop

it's the football center of the universe. A while back Jerry Jones (Cowboy's owner) had gotten permission to raise the sales tax in Arlington (where the baseball stadium is) and do that thing where you can take people's houses from them.
Me as a girl, dude ladies you can flame me, but it's a man's world and the majority of men love sports. I try to watch it w/ my SO. But the best thing that has happened to me is my dad taught me how to play golf. I have sticks in my trunk.
I dunno it's hard here in TX but even Bill Moyer's says TX is off on it's own planet. cheers.

[Oeditpus Rex]

81. Other: Baseball is the most important thing in life

Football is stupid. Take off the helmets and 90 percent of the pads, and then we'll talk.

Basketball was great when it had rules.

Soccer's great when it's not 88 minutes at midfield.

And why isn't there an Australian Rules Football Network? :shrug:

[khashka]

102. We are in total agreement.

Football sucks.

Basketball now sucks.

Soccer (Football) totally sucks. Although, Beckam is good and deserves his due. But he's a little over-hyped.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Aussie Rules Network! Please????? The only sport I truly enjoy watching.. Those guys just totally amaze me.


Khash.

[Lavender Brown]

82. Football has never been my cup of tea, but I like baseball and basketball

but I don't really follow either of them that much. I love going to games - watching on TV not so much. I LOVE the Olympics! Only a month away :bounce:

[NewJeffCT]

83. I used to be a sports fanatic...

In the 70s & 80s, it was baseball. I remember I used to brag that I never got a Jeopardy question on baseball wrong. However, the movie "Field of Dreams" killed my love of baseball. I still follow it a bit, mostly out of habit and because my parents are big fans, but I don't have any passion for it.

In the 90s, it was college hoops. I became so knowledgeable that I even wrote articles for national publications, and also had a few writers plagerize my stuff, too. I was also an expert on high school basketball and often did a better job than the so-called 'experts' at predicting a young man's future success in college & the NBA. I also predicted way before anybody that Kevin Garnett would bypass college & go straight to the NBA despite his professed desire to play in college.

(By the way, best player I ever saw was Randy Livingston of New Orleans... going into either his sophomore or junior year, he was just phenomenal. Unfortunately, he blew out his knee either in his senior year of high school or just after that and was never even close to what he was before...)

But, when my beloved UConn Huskies won the big game in 1999, it was like I had climbed the mountain and then fell off a cliff. I have not been to a game in person since after traveling as far as Florida to see them play before. I don't think it helped that as UConn was marching to their national championship in 1999, I was in the middle of a disastrous and depressing first marriage.

Since then, I got remarried and fathered a daughter in 2003. Now, I have no time to follow sports, as her birth has rekindled my interest in politics.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

84. There is only one football...

And retarded Americans call it soccer. :shrug:
Duckie

[0007]

85. LOL! What a bogus thread.

I rather watch girls any day. Men sports are fun also to watch. In fact it is nothing to take serious one way or the other.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

89. Don't follow sports at all.

[Strong Atheist]

90. Good. How do you avoid it? It's everywhere! nt.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

91. Well, I don't get out much.

And I'm too busy with other stuff to watch sports even if I was interested.

[Strong Atheist]

93. Ah. Enviable. It is EVERYWHERE, I

can't avoid it.:(

[TheBaldyMan]

92. As Bill Shankly once said "Football is not a matter of life and death ...

.. it's far more important than that"

[khashka]

94. Football bores me to tears....

Only sports I really enjoy are

women's tennis - but only the big match ups

Aussie Rules football - because of the violence. Those guys really get knocked around - with no padding or anything. That's a real man's sport. And it's very erotic :evilgrin:


Khash.

[ComerPerro]

100. Sports are unimportant, but God knows I'll watch if they're on

Don't care so much about football. But love a good hockey or baseball game.

[NaturalHigh]

104. I spend about eight months out of the year...

getting mentally prepared for Oklahoma Sooner football.