Tags
Agents, Coaches, Fans, Players, Sports Enthusiasts, Sports Fans
I’m ‘working with’ an eighth grader at a local school who for a major two year project he will complete this year is trying to determine “Why People Like Sports.” (Not so different, I guess, from a question a friend asked asked me as we were leaving a Nats’ game earlier this year: why are these games so important to us?)
Anyway, my young friend is looking for “sports’ enthusiasts – players, coaches, agents, fans – who are willing to be interviewed for this project.
The end result will be “a radio documentary/podcast about the root of why people like sports.” I participated in a 20 minute interview last month and mentioned that I’d be willing to help find others who might also be willing to be interviewed.
These interviews can be conducted “by phone, email or whatever is most convenient,” including in-person interviews if you are in the DC area.
If you are willing to help out, my young friend has a list of questions he is ready to ask you. Just let me know (Samesty84@gmail.com) if you are willing to participate and what is the best way for him to be in touch with you. I’ll pass on your contact info to him. Also, if you know anyone who works/plays in sports for a living, he would very much like to interview some of those folks also.
Maybe we will learn why so many of us are obsessed by which ever sport has taken on a life of its own in our own lives.
Land Wayland said:
I think I might be a good candidate. My father was a star fullback in college and later was a football referee for high school and college games. I spent so many Friday and Saturday nights watching football that (at age 9) I became a very good sports commentator to spectators around me in the stands. In 1956 my mother was the first manager of a Little League team in its history and I was one of her coaches. I grew up participating in sports of all types and it was a rare day when I did not play some kind of a game. I began playing baseball when I was six years old and was a very good pitcher and hitter in Little League and high school. (In college the pitches curved and I was through). I broke my wrist playing basketball. In high school, I ran cross country on the State Champion team and finished fifth. I was very good at hop scotch, jump rope, jacks, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, darts and bowling. I could ride my bicycle facing backwards. I dislike skiing, swimming, bobbing-for-apples, wrestling and chasing frisbees.
So bring on the questions.
jere said:
Just to touch on the part about the kid wanting to interview the actual athletes: I think there’s a huge difference between the way fans view sports than the way the athletes themselves do. Mike Francessa said the other day that he’s interviewed several athletes who literally don’t watch their own sport except for games they’re playing in. So if this person is wondering why we as fans love sports, I don’t think he’d miss out on anything if he doesn’t find any pro athletes to talk to. (Of course they could provide an interesting perspective, being on the other side of the fan/athlete equation.)