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Nerdarchy > Nerd Culture  > Nerds, Give Sports a Chance

Nerds, Give Sports a Chance

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Football Nerd sportsI’m going to preface this by saying I know not all nerds hate sports. Hell, I’m one of them. What I’ve noticed is that a lot of nerds either borderline or outright relish in the fact they don’t know anything about sports. Some go as far as to mock people who love sports. My sister is one of those people.Her disdain for any sport is palpable, and she talks down to sports the way most people would about Dungeons and Dragons, Cosplay, or LARPing.

I’m going to make a somewhat controversial statement: loving sports and being a nerd aren’t incompatible. In fact, nerds should by all accounts love sports. If you remove jock culture v.s nerd culture from the equation, there’s nothing to hate at all. Honestly, this isn’t Revenge of the Nerds. Jocks don’t hate nerds. Plenty of jocks are nerds. As nerd culture continues to grow, and it’s more acceptable to be a nerd, more jocks will become nerds. Besides, by not reaching across the aisle, we’re no different than those we hate.

Fantasy Football nerdWhy should nerds love sports, then? Well, there are a number of reasons. Top of the list is stats. The sheer volume of stats that are tracked by various sports is mind boggling. The stat array in the Madden NFL series is insane. They account for 42 different factors, ranging from awareness, speed, strength, the throwing accuracy of different ranges, and even stamina and susceptibility to injury. Show me an RPG character sheet that has a different stat for arcing longsword swing vs thrusting longsword swing. None of that includes the stats tracked by each sport. In the NBA, they have a name for getting a double digit total in three of five of their main stats: assists, blocks, points, rebounds, and steals. It’s a triple double, and it’s a very important achievement for the game. Having a lot of them is a signifier of your ability as both a player and as a teammate.

Speaking of teammates, just about every sport is like the ultimate adventuring party. Everyone has their roles, and everyone has their archetype for their roles. I’m not going to sit here and try to make a 1:1 comparison, because it’s largely impossible, but I’m going to do a short breakdown using gridiron football (which I like as the distinction against the football the rest of the world plays). The most well-known position is the quarterback. Most everyone knows who they are, but there are various kinds of quarterbacks. You have pocket quarterbacks, mobile quarterbacks, strong arm quarterbacks, durable quarterbacks, accurate quarterbacks, option quarterbacks, and so forth. Linebackers are going to tend towards being good against the pass, the run, as a spy, and in coverage, as some examples. These are no different then your average class, archetype, and role specializations. Each has their thing they do, and each focuses their efforts on that thing they do best. You’re not going to see a sorcerer in a sword fight, and you’re not going to see a punter running the football.

D&D Teams sportsSports teams have to be worried about team composition, too. It’s not enough that you have players who are good in their area, each team has to match up players who are going to compliment each other, and make up for each other’s weaknesses. Are you not so great against the run? Get a couple of high caliber safeties, and maybe cornerbacks, which will allow the team to put more attention up front. Is your quarterback deadly accurate in short range and medium range passes, but can’t throw it deep? Pick wide receivers who are better at getting more yards. Sound familiar? If you’re a Barbarian, you want magic users to do big boom damage, and if you’re a Cleric, you need tanks to keep them away from you. No matter where you go, party composition matters.

Sports and nerd interests share possibly the most important value: community. In fact, that’s pretty much the main point of sports. It’s really not about who’s best at hitting things with sticks, or who is the fastest. That’s almost incidental. Sports are tribal. They bring people together. They’re a common language understood by everyone on the planet. Yes, there are incidents where things get violent, but that’s the exception, not the rule (at least in America). As a fan of the NFL, and someone with at least tertiary knowledge of most major sports, I can connect with a lot of people. Even if it’s a matter of comparing and contrasting different sports, or the difference between professional and college sports, much less having a deep conversation about the sports we both know enough about, sports are a great common ground to connect with other human beings. Nerd culture works in the same way, just supplementing that with things like video games, D&D, anime, comic books, movies and TV, etc.

sports

On an individual community level, sports operate a lot like nerd interests. What’s the point of doing these things? You get a chance to hang out with your friends and screw around. In that way, sports are absolutely no different than nerd culture. Whether you’re watching the Super Bowl, playing an epic game of D&D, or watching the latest Marvel movie with each other, the point of it all is the shared experiences with your friends.

So, I know that sports seem scary, and you might think they belong in the domain of your (perceived) enemy, but they’re actually pretty great, and not unlike the things you already love. Just a little different. Besides, maybe if you show interest in the things other people like, maybe they’ll be willing to check out the things you like. Take it from me. If I were the kind of person who disparages the things I don’t understand, my new party wouldn’t have given D&D a chance at all. Now it’s become something they look forward to. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a sport that’ll make you feel that way, too. Just don’t stop looking after one try.  Shop around and see what grabs your attention.

As always, Stay Nerdy, my friends.

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Joshua Brickley

Despite looking so young, I'm in my mid-30s (36, to be exact). Up until I was 21, I focused a lot of my attention on stage acting, mostly local and school theater. At some point, I felt a need to change my life's direction, so I joined the Air Force. After 10 years, where I was an Intelligence Analyst and Mission Coordinator, I was medically retired. I went back to school and got my Bachelor's in English, focusing mostly on literary theory and rhetorical criticism, at the University of the Incarnate Word. In this next chapter of my life, I'm turning my attention towards tabletop RPGs.

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