To hate talking about and watching sports

[Welshine]

Lighthearted mostly but does anyone else absolutely hate watching and talking about sports. I’m fairly active, enjoy yoga and running but I find watching and more so talking about sports drains me.

Both my DC are home visiting, DS from Australia with his girlfriend and DD with her boyfriend. For the first few days it was fine all that chat was about what they were doing in life and just general catchups, but since then sports seems to be the prevailing conversation.
Rugby today will dominate, as we are Welsh and DDs boyfriend is English we will end up watching both matches. We’ve also had so much F1 chat (no I do not care that so and so is at a new team or so and so is a reserve driver), tennis has come up a lot with in-depth speculation about tournament withdrawals and potential injuries. Football always comes up, my kids are big Newcastle fans (their dad is a Geordie) so that managed dominate the midweek chat. It’s exhausting and seemingly non stop!

Does anyone else feel like this or do most people enjoy sports chat and watching it?

I absolutely hate sport! I'm the same as you I love yoga and running but I can abide all the other rubbish that is constantly on the tv at home

I don't watch it all time
I don't talk about it all the time

But sport overall is great

You don't have to watch any matches at all, do stuff you enjoy,or they can watch it in a pub.
I couldn't be less interested in people exercising so I never, ever listen to anything about it. Not friends with or related to anyone who's into sport.

Yeah, imagine that, different people like different things. Who’d have thunk it.

I love sport, watching it and talking about it. Currently have an fa cup match on while I’m pottering round.

I mean, you helped raise those kids…

I do think anybody droning on about something they are interested in but you are not does get a bit annoying . I love cricket , watch loads , go to games but I keep cricket chat to highlights with my family because nobody else is interested . That said I will watch both Rugby matches today .

I hate it and sound of commentary on the tv really grates on me. The people on sports programs never just talk in normal tones, they are always 'hyped up'.
The salaries they pay people at the top of their game is obscene IMO, just for playing sport they enjoy.

Yes. It's like everyone talking about a show you haven't seen, and can't catch up on now, but for the rest of eternity.

I wish I could care about and be interested in sports. It's such a gap. But just cannot.

That just sounds like normal family conversation to me. People like different things and will talk about that which interests them. Have you tried talking to them about other things or mentioned that you are not that fussed on talking sport? At the moment there is a lot to talk about with both football and rugby, so maybe they are excited (as a fellow Newcastle fan I share that excitement).

My partner doesn't care for sport so I don't mention it much when it's just us, but I do talk to other friends about it when DP is around as I enjoy talking about it and he can change the conversation if he likes or talk to another friend.

I loathe sport and all the culture that surrounds it.

Agree, sports obsessives are boring

I often think people become obsessed with a sports team just lack personality and it gives them something to talk about.

Each to their own I suppose, but I do think sport can bring people together and give them some common ground. Having one DS who loves football, I have seen the easy social interaction it allows him.

YANBU

DH only gets more into sports as he ages and it’’s annoying. I go into the kitchen wearing headphones so I don’t have to be told about it yet, he still does! I have said over and over, it is not my thing and he talks to other sports fans like him about it so why he continues to talk to me about it knowing my views and will literally say “I know this isn’t your thing, but…” boggles my mind. I’ve been polite and now I’m leaning towards silently walking away every time he does.

Why talk at someone when you know they don’t care?!

Of course lots people don’t like sport, just like lots of people don’t like all sorts of other things.

I don’t think you can expect people who share an interest not to talk about it, though. I used to work with a woman who got huffy when people in the office talked about football because she wasn’t interested.

I never watch sport and I never talk about it.

I can't think of many topics I'd have less of an interest in, or opinion on, than sport, tbh.

I don’t come from a team sporty type family (more sailing/riding) but OMG I married into one! I used to struggle going to stay at theirs because they have two very large TVs, one in the kitchen and one in the sitting room and sport is always on. Doesn’t matter if they’re not even watching it particularly, they have it on in the background loud and I used to feel quite overwhelmed feeling you couldn’t have a chat without the commentator droning on and our hosts keeping one eye on the TV. Lots of their chat revolves around sport and family members play for various local teams so who is doing what, how they played.

I tend to agree with you.

I used to run,play badminton,squash, even full contact karate when I was younger, and stool ball,but watching sport bores me. DH watches a few things, I just bury myself in a book.

I think if many family members are in to sports then it is inevitable that there will be some related discussion and it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. However, tedious if that is all they ever talk about so that you are effectively excluded from conversations.

Some years ago I worked on a team that consisted of eight blokes and me. They were all quite nice guys really and I got on well with them at work. However, occasionally there would be social events where we all went out for a lunch or a meal in the evening. This would be perfectly fine for a while but, inevitably, at some point someone would mention football and it all went downhill from there. Very quickly the rest of the team would abandon any other subject and football dominated the conversation.

It also seemed that once we got to that subject the conversation then never moved on, that was it now, just football. With the best will in the world I really had nothing to contribute and could do nothing but sit on the sidelines while the conversation went around me. It did sort of annoy me after a while that, even though they were all quite nice fellows, not one of them had the good manners to notice I had been sat there in complete silence for the last half hour bored out of my skull.

Obsessives about anything are boring if you don’t share their obsession - but society does seem to treat sports obsession as more acceptable than, say, train-spotting.

Absolutely hate watching sport unless people that I actually know are competing. Can’t understand the obsession with overpaid rugby and football players!

Surely they are just finding common ground for them to talk about though? My DP loves rugby and will watch all the games he can. I tend to find something else to do or have a nap. I find the commentators quite relaxing!