You love his Weekend Links. You throw rotten vegetables when we don’t post them soon enough. So now: bonus Jon, in the form of a Commenter Of the Week guest post!

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Those who read the Weekend Links or participate in the comments section know that I’m well-known for being a fan of just about every sport under the sun. Seldom does a reference to hockey pass without at least one snide comment in my direction; rarely is soccer, or any number of other sports, mentioned without a joking reference about my interest.

Really, though, here’s what I can’t understand: how are you people NOT interested in these sports? In my town growing up, you pretty much had to stick to football, basketball, baseball, and golf; there weren’t really any other offerings at school, unless you enjoyed running track or cross country, and I did not.

I was in college before I attended a hockey game, or played soccer, or held a cricket bat. This is one of the most common excuses I hear from people who don’t like what they consider “minor” sports; they say, “Oh, I never played hockey, so I don’t understand it,” or “I just don’t get soccer, and I guess that’s why I don’t like it.”

To me, that just makes me more interested. I’m captivated by sports that I don’t understand. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed learning hockey; what once was a whirl of color, two teams chasing a blurry puck, now makes sense to me. I’m excited when I happen upon, say, sevens rugby on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, precisely because I get to learn something new.

And this is why I’m confused by those of you who look down on “minor” sports with disdain. Are your lives so wild that you can’t bear the slight mystery of a sport you don’t get? How can these sports not fascinate you?

I love watching baseball, football, and basketball; I understand them innately. They’re comfortable, like a favorite pair of sweatpants. But the charge I get from watching something new, from another different way to savor that sporting exuberance … I can’t understand why all sports fans aren’t drawn to that.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.