In Reply to: Thoughts on American sports culture posted by ClockBlocker on November 26, 2025 at 00:53:23
Because ... let's be honest, compared to most people on this board, here and the bball and fball forums, I qualify merely as a casual sports fan.
But yes, once you open sports up to betting, any loss, any subpar performance, any injury begins to mean something personal to people, fans or otherwise. Once you combine that with social media, and the overall semi-intoxicated state that we seem to be in collectively, this is a dangerous combination.
I may just feel lousy after a loss, which to me just means I'm going to question myself whether I want to watch the next game, but for people who are already a bit unhinged, already feeling a tribal loss for social reasons, a player underperforming and losing me money when money is an actual issue in my life, yeah, a loss goes much farther being a little bummed out. It's a personal injury that could put a lot of people down a dangerous path.