I am addicted. No doubt in my mind. From early childhood, I have grown up around sports. My fathers has been a high school football coach for as long as I can remember and the love of sports has definitely passed into my blood. Sports for me are a drug--I love the adrenaline during competition and the great emotions which coincide with passion and success (dopamine). While I don't play sports in college, I follow college and professional sports everyday of my life. ESPN.com is my home page on my laptop. Not world news, not my email. I have even joined in on the booming business of fantasy sports, where you draft your own "dream team" to compete against other indivual's teams. You can play for free or you can play for money--as many across America do. However, there are many people, especially foriegners, who don't understand America's obsession with sports. While there are many countries across the globe with a love for the game of soccer, the United States by far has the greatest passion for sport. Where does this love of the game come from? What motivates Americans to spend so much money to watch a football game or baseball game? Is it something biologically? Is it engrained within our DNA as a country full of immigrants who were once underdogs? During college basketball's season of March Madness, there is no bigger story than who will be upset in the first and second rounds and who will be the Cinderella of the bracket and crash the big dance. American's love a cinderella story and George Mason's run to final four a few years ago has become a defining moment in the history of college basketball. Below is a website which has a link and description of a book which speaks of this "All-American Tradition."
http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/696
Becoming a teacher is a direct result from my passion to be a coach in high school. What do you think the role of sports play in a high school? Down south, such as in Texas, it is a religion? Is that a good thing? For me playing football was an educational experience I will never forget as it helped me grow physically and mentally as an individual. Still, though, where does this addiction to sports come from in America? Perhaps it's our motivational drive to succeed, to have achievement and affiliation. Let me know what you guys think...
Here is a blog already created by a foriegn guy commenting on America's addiction to sport...many replied with all different sorts of reactions:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/non_aviation/read.main/1754975/
Austin, you and I are on the same page about sports. (just last night I spent three hours at the UNI basketball game instead of studying for my 2 tests or blogging for motivation and emotion) It is something that captivates and sometimes takes over the lives of many people. You bring up a very interesting point about how other countries don't appear to be as involved and "obsessed" about sports as we do. I found an interesting article about why golf is so addicting to play, and as addicting as golf is for me, I feel the main theories it can be applied to various sports.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Reasons-why-Golf-is-such-an-Addictive-Sport
The article suggests that golf allows the player to: exemplify ability, have competition, and get some physical enjoyment.
I believe addiction to sports can be explained biologically in that the ups and downs of athletic competition invoke emotions that we can't get anywhere else. Both the ups and downs allow our brains to produce massive amounts of neurotransmitters that we have trouble finding in other places. For example, I think it would be possible for people to exert more testosterone while playing contact sports as each person is trying to prove dominance over the other. As for the enjoyment of winning, I think this could be a perfect situation for excess amounts of dopamine to be present.
Drug attics depend on drugs to produce a euphoric feeling, others use competition and sports.
In regards to people being obsessed with watching sports without actually playing I'm not sure what the driving force is. It seems like the people that are more infatuated with watching sports are the same people who love playing it, so there could be the same biological/neurotransmitter explanation, just at a less intense level.