Sports Obsession. I Don't Get It.

[badstar]

It is truly a sad state of affairs when I open my email...and have to delete 15 messages from a supervisor that are all about football playoffs.

Can someone PLEASE explain to me why people are SO obsessed with sports that it supercedes EVERYTHING? I'd really like to understand this because honestly, It drives me berserk. All I ever hear about here is football. Besides computers of course.

Call me unreasonable, but I should NOT have 3 times as many emails about football in my inbox as I do that are actually relevant to work.

Comments

[ex-acousticd43.livejournal.com]

I think men have this whole competition thing about them. I honestly don't understand the obsession either.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

granted my office...or at least my department, is probably 75% men, there are plenty of women here who share the obsession. actually, it seems that sports-obsessed women are a lot worse than the guys.

[mmc327.livejournal.com]

Don't these people know who follows sports and who doesn't? These people know enough about computers that they could set up an email group for sending those emails.
Then again, it sounds like they're using company email for personal matters.
I wonder...do they send out emails asking who wants to go out to a bar after work?
I guess they're getting in their idle chat in this way because they can't stand around in a group somewhere and talk football.
But wow...coming from your supervisor? I guess it isn't against your company's practices like it was at most of the companies where I had email access.

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

As a male resident of an office that is 80% women, most of whom go on incessantly about the latest episode of American Idol or Survivor or whatever "reality" crap was on the previous night, I think this issue has less to do about gender and more to do about living vicariously through people on television. (And I say this as a dyed-in-the-wool football fanatic!)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

yeah, good idea. i sent an email to the supervisor suggeting that. not my supervisor, but another on in the compnay.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Ask to not get emailed with non-work related materials, or you'll be forced to report him to management. Just to screw with his head.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

uhg...yeah, true- those things are just as annoying. i'm not sure that it's fortunate that i only hear this stuff in my office about sports, or not. on one hand, it's all irksome. on the other....at least there's variety :-P

[fuego.livejournal.com]

heh...those people get the emails...and they're just as football obsessed as the rest of them.

i emailed suggesting that an opt-in list be created.

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

Back when I was out in the cubes instead of back here in my corner (gods, I do love this part of having an office), just trading emails about it wasn't enough: the women would gather around someone's desk (usually one of the people right next to me) and yammer about AI for, literally, 45 minutes to an hour before someone would walk by and give them the "OK, ladies, back to work" look. That's actually one of the reasons I started wearing my iPod at work: I couldn't concentrate with the inane "Oh, did you hear this person, they sounded awful" conversation going on, literally, right behind my head.

Of course, sending mail to "everyone in the office" is not a shortcut for us because the "everyone in the office" d-list includes the President Of The Company, and there's no "everyone in the office but him" list. *grin*

[mmc327.livejournal.com]

Anybody who would spend 45 minutes to an hour talking about what I call American Karaoke has got to be a loser. Then again, I may be a sports fan, but there's no way I would spend that much time talking about the games on TV the previous weekend or night while at work.

[forexample.livejournal.com]

Sports is a camaraderie thing. I don't watch sports but I keep up with important info (i.e. the local teams' news) to smooth conversation with random samplings of men - including my family. It doesn't sound selfish to talk about sports when talking about kids, house, and other personal things would.

As for your boss sending you things, it's because he can. All hail the pointy hair boss.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about "interest" or "small talk" that gets me

i'm talking about obsession. the "oh my god the world is gonna end because i can't watch the game i'm gonna die cause the team is gonna lose if i don't watch it oh god no" type of thing.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

must be pointy-haired in spirit. cause he's not pointy-haired

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

There are playoffs going on?

Man, I've been on the moon, I guess.

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh, i know what youre talking about!!! i used to teach at a preschool (you can imagine how many guys worked there), and i couldnt relate to about 90% of the conversation just because i dont watch those shows. and when they werent babbling about reality tv, it was obsessively reading trashy mags about the country's hottest 20 guys, or who all the beloved celebrities are fucking. blech. not my cup of tea. made it quite difficult to make friends, actually.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

a guy who not only doesn't care that there are playoffs occuring, but is cmpletely oblivious???

i think i love you.