How Being A Sports Fan Creates the Male Bond

How Being A Sports Fan Creates the Male Bond By Features Desk Friday, November 20, 2020. The sense of a community, of shared interests between the people around you, is just as important to a fulfilling life as a man as it is to anyone else. However, in a world where we’re increasingly being separated by our jobs and digital technology, it gets harder to make those friends as we get older. However, there is one particular interest that a lot of guys can all easily get into. We’re talking, of course, about sports. Here, we’re going to look at the different ways that being a sports fan can help you find your community, online and in person.Taking partWhether you’re at your physical peak, a little over the hill, or long past your best days, there are likely to be leagues around you accepting amateurs of all ages and all fitness levels. Some of the more physically demanding sports like football don’t have much in the way of amateur football leagues, but solo endeavors like tennis and boxing are a lot easier to find around you. It’s a chance to not only get to hang out with guys with similar interests, but it can help you stay fit and active. Having some sort of goal, like getting better at certain sports or skills, makes it easier to stay motivated and to stick it out rather than just going to the gym for the sake of physical fitness. Depending on what gyms you go to, you might even get to see someone turn pro.Talking it outFor just about every sport, every league, and every team, there’s going to be people who are willing to talk about it. You might be able to find a few of those friends offline, but there’s no better place to look than online. You can check out some of the top sports subreddits, go to the comments sections of respected online sports publications, or even look for official team forums and you’re going to find a whole host of people wanting to share their takes (good and bad) with a wider community. Keep up with updates, get involved in debates, and you might be surprised how easy you start to get to know members of these communities. From there, you can get into all other sorts of hijinks together, like fantasy leagues and watch parties.Joining fantasy leaguesAre you the kind of person who has an encyclopedic knowledge of just about everything and everyone involved with the sport you follow? If you like to show off your insights and even want to inject a little competition into it, then joining a fantasy league, either in real life or online, is easy. Typically, they involve creating fantasy teams by predicting which players are going to perform best over the season, but it can even involve guessing the best NFL coaches, team performance averages, and more. Basically, the better your knowledge of a sport from top to bottom, the more likely you are to excel in creating a fantasy team for a league. If there aren’t any near you, you can always set one up, yourself.Hosting the gameNot everyone is going to be into the idea of getting as involved as participating in a fantasy league or in trying to actually get active and involved with the sport physically. For a lot of guys, simply watching the games is as deep as it gets for them, but this can still become an excellent way to create those opportunities to get to know your friends and have some shared interest that keeps you coming back together. You can either take turns hosting the game or if you’re up for it, you can make it something or a tradition that it’s always hosted as yours. Get some cold ones in, order some pizzas, and just chill while watching the game.Showing your supportWhat drives sports fans? For a lot of people, it’s an inherent love of competition. Others like to break down a topic into its most technical aspects. Then there are those who compete and those who simply want to feel part of their team, providing their support and driving their guys to victory. One activity that can bring people of all passions together is actually going out to watch the games. It’s not always cheap, but it’s the best way to get as close to the sport as possible and to feel the thrill of the live arena that simply doesn’t exist when watching it anywhere else.Trying out new sportsSometimes, you might be into a sport all the way but can end up finding out that you’re the only one in your friend group who likes it as much as you do. You might be a big baseball fanatic, but they’re a lot more into basketball. You don’t have to pretend to like anything that you’re not into, nor do you have to abandon the sports that you’re genuinely a fan of. However, getting into a new sport can help you see a whole other side of sporting fandom, and help you connect with communities that you haven’t been a part of, before. Take the time to watch a few games, chat to your friends about what really makes the sport competitive, and see if there aren’t any great documentaries you can watch that helps you get a better understanding of the passion behind it.Link – Pixabay LicenseShowing the collector’s sideIt’s an interest that’s a little different from what guys typically enjoy about sports, but if you have a penchant for being something of a “completionist” or that rarity of certain items are something that you’re interested in, then becoming a collector on the side might be a hobby that could interest more than you might think. There are all kinds of collectibles that you can get into, with trading cards being some of the most popular, but there are Super Bowl pins, rings for people who have been in certain teams, signed photos, and a ton more. Aside from helping you meet other collectors (who also typically tend to be pretty avid sports fans) you could even make a little extra cash out of it. After all, a lot of people who are into collecting are also into the buying and resale side of things, and that can occasionally be quite lucrative indeed.Becoming an authorityIf you have plenty of insights to share and you love to give your takes, but you find there aren’t as many people willing to listen to them because the people around you aren’t as into the sport, then you can always turn to the internet. However, rather than simply getting involved in things like discussion boards and forums, you can start creating your own community. If you have the passion, the charisma, and the writing ability to pull it off, then you could start your own sports blog. If it gets big enough, you can even get some sponsorship and advertising deals that can make it something of a business for you. Otherwise, you could look at starting a podcast where you and a friend or two talk over the latest news. It’s a pretty crowded space, but you would be surprised just how much hunger there is for new perspectives, especially those that go against the grain of traditional sports commentary.You don’t have to be a sports fan to be able to easily make friends with other guys. However, there’s no denying it makes it easier. ——————————————————————————Main Image: Jannik Skorna @jaenix on Unsplash.com

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