A Psychological Analysis of Sports

This pertains to professional and national-level sports teams, not your neighborhood pick up basketball. I should also note that i'm not building this on top of any previous knowledge, im just describing things that ive noticed personally.

I've always wondered why people care about professional sports like the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc. Similarly, i've always wondered why people care which celebrity is dating whom, who is feuding with whom, etc. I dont recall exactly where, but i do remember reading that people tend to be very interested in other people's lives when they have nothing of important going on in their own. The person who gives you constant advice on how they think you should deal with your interpersonal relationships is not likely to have any deep and meaningful relationships of their own. (It might have been Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer")

This can readily be applied to America's intense and ultimately stupid fixation with celebrities, which tends to be the case with females more then men. Women who lack meaningful relationships will buy People magazine and live out the relations they wish they had through the beautiful and young celebrities. This is the best explanation i have for why people give a damn how much weight so-and-so lost, or who broke up with whom.

The previous paragraph tends to deal mostly with women, who i think psychologically have a greater dependency on close interpersonal relationships then men. Thats a very broad generalization to make, i know, but i still think it holds true for the most part. In analyzing sports, I argue that men fulfill their inherent masculine psychological needs by living them through professional sports teams. Men have a tendency towards competing with one another for dominance either through war or sport. Themselves lacking any sport to be world champion of or battle to slay their enemies in, the average male projects his masculine psychological tendencies or needs into the professional sports team of his choice as if he were on the team. Thus he feels achievement when his favorite team wins a championship and dejection when they lose, though he played no part in it whatsoever.

I should note that following professional sports teams closely/closely following the lives of celebrities is in no way gender exclusive, its just that the majority of people following one are female, while the majority of people following the other are male.

Sports are also a way for social groups to peacefully compete with one another. Whereas in past eras they may have gone to war, boston and new york now meet each other in baseball games. This property of sport is best exhibited on the national level, where national sports teams are the projection of the national itself in competition with another nation. Tournaments like the olympics, the world cup, etc. are all ways for nations to compete for dominance with each other. In such tournaments, the team each nation fields is a representation in microcosm of the nation itself. Hence, it truly is a matter of national pride how each team performs against a rival nation (miracle on ice, anyone?). Hence, we feel each win and loss of our national teams as if we were somehow involved ourselves. Hence students deeply care about how their college or high school team performs in the football game against it's rival, although the competition really means nothing in terms of which school is better. Its more of a symbolic battle being carried out between the two.

I should also add that some people will argue that professional sports teams represent the city/area. That still doesnt invalidate my claim however, as many people cheer for teams whose cities theyve never been to, and the teams themselves dont represent anything. The government of a city does not sponsor a professional team, nor look through it's citizens for it's athletes. Professional athletes as well as their franchises are mercenaries; they hold no allegiance to their area. Associating the two together was merely a clever marketing ploy by those in charge of the franchise, so that people will believe that they are together when theyre not.