Gay men, straight men & sports

Mark discusses one difference between gay and heterosexual men's involvement in sports:

The gay males don't talk a lot about sports; I don't know of any who can spout statistics, but they do play sports.

Mark works at a gym with a clientele that is slight more gay than straight. Now I don't have a friend of any sexual bias or gender that participates in sports.

The non-gay males, on the other hand, are forever talking to each other about the prior Sunday's televised game or the upcoming playoffs: who's up, who's down; who should be traded; what plays should have been played, or not played; why one player's stats are going downhill, ad infinitum. Vocally, they are sports-obsessed. But they don't actually play a game.

Probably true, though I half feel it is a TV stereotype. But my own biases keep me from knowing these people. My daddy did watch football on Sunday. He might've even liked to talk to me about it. He certainly would've loved to have a son who gave a damn about something that conventional.

Here in Central North Carolina it is in the air or water. I'm in the middle of one of the most basketball-obsessed parts of the US. I think the sainted Michael Jordan began his stardom here. We were living in an apartment complex when we first got to NC. Some player who went on to become a famous pro made the winning shot in a UNC-Chapel Hill vs. Whoever game one night and the collective shouts from the surrounding apartments was scary.

People who don't give a damn about sports move here and become passionate fans of basketball. Not me. But I've seen friends convert. Sort of the Stepford Sports Fans: straight, gay, male, female. They have been assimilated.

Not that I'm arguing with Mark. This is my verbose way of pointing you to Tangent to Reality.