I am a massive football (soccer) and rugby fan. Every weekend I wake up and watch the EPL games, or if the sevens are on I will watch the Rugby Sevens or if the six nations are on I will watch the six nations. I even flew to Paris with my dad to watch the rugby world cup. So why do sports play such an important role in my life, it’s not like a movie or a book where I am getting some insight, it’s not like programming where I am creating something, it’s not like writing where I am imposing myself upon the world, so why. Compared to the activities I enumerated watching and playing sports feels barbarian, yet I am totally infatuated with it. It is an irrational pleasure to watch 22 men compete in complex formation to try and place a ball into a 8x24 structure, or wrestle each other for 80 minutes to try and place a ball over a line.

Stepping back on sports, it’s comical, but yet it draws the eyes of the entire world. Every year, billions tune into to watch a multitude of competitions. Why? Well, people watch sports for

• entertainment
• social connection
• appreciation of skill
• escapism
• emotional investment
• tradition
• national pride
• aesthetic appreciation
• personal identity
• economic interests
• health inspiration
• drama and narratives.

That is the official answer, but for some reason that doesn’t feel like enough to me. If I was to think rationally than yes all of those make perfect sense, but one doesn’t think rationally about these things otherwise no one would watch them. Like I said before, this naked description of human motivation feels lifeless. Sports for me are an almost spiritual entity, almost like there is a foreign amorphous power that is called upon when you realise that you are one of the 100s of millions tuned into to see Leicester city lift the trophy or the all blacks quash the dreams of Johnny Sexton. I can explain it with all of those things I listed above, but I don’t think it diminishes its power.

Again, I don’t really know what I am saying here, but here’s to another week of concomitantly uploading a blog post.