Sports in their various forms are a large part of the majority of countries around the world. However, many citizens of the United States are obsessed with sports. Whether it is a Pittsburgh man who’s whole day revolves around one sporting event or a woman in Boston that schedules her three-week paid vacation in October to ensure that she does not miss any playoff baseball, both illustrate the millions in the U.S. that are obsessed.

Why do we love sports so much? For many reasons, we love to root for underdogs almost as much as we like rooting for a dynasty. There's nothing like a good underdog story and some of the best ones come from sports. Rudy, for example, everyone knows the story of the undersized teenager who dreamed of playing college football at Notre Dame. It took him years of getting beaten up during practice and playing and training harder than anyone on the team before finally earning the right to dress in the last game of his senior season. After he thought his dream came true when he ran out of the tunnel in front of 100,000 screaming fans, he got into the game on defense in the last minute and recorded a sack, bringing his dream full-circle. The American Film Institute nominated Rudy, along with Hoosiers, and Rocky, to the top 100 list of most inspirational movies of all-time1.

Another reason we love sports so much is that we like to break the monotony of our daily routine, and sports do that for us. For example baseball gives us something to look forward to pretty much every night after a long day of school or work, while football give us something to look forward to all week long. Whatever the sport may be, it gives us a break from our daily grind for at least a few hours, and that is something any person would enjoy.

We also love sports because we love to idealize people and things. Children often idealize many people, but as we grow older the list of people we look up to may shrink. However, the individuals that many adults still idealize are professional athletes. It may have started as children from our sandlot days dreaming of hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, but these idealizations never leave many of us. We love to wear the jersey of our favorite athlete, often in hopes that for one day we can resemble the person to some extent. We may complain that athletes make to much money, but what we are really saying is that we wish we could be that person. However it is not only the money we idealize, but also things such as the camaraderie that is built in sports or the fame that comes along with being a star athlete.

Another reason we become so obsessed with sports is because of our allegiance. A love for sports is often built at a young age as we cheer our schools team on against the rival school. For this reason many come to love sports out of their allegiance to their school, which otherwise they would not have. Once an allegiance is formed to a sports team, it is very hard to give up. Many individuals find themselves getting satellite television to watch their home team from across the nation. Even if a team performs poorly for many years, there is always hope that this year will be the year that they turn it around.

From our obsession and allegiance a community of fans is born. People come together through sports. A sporting community exists in every city, town and neighborhood. High school football is everything in Texas. Pittsburgh Steelers fans take over a local bar in Seminole, Fla. to watch the game every Sunday. As different as they are outside that bar, when they step inside they all have a common goal, a common interest and a noticeable bond.

Two men walk on opposite sides of the street in downtown St. Petersburg. One man, walking south in the shade alongside a red-brick building, bears a New York Mets cap. Across the street, on the sunny side, another man walks behind meter parking, tapping his forehead and pointing to the Mets fan across the street. With no spoken words, the two have a bond formed by the hat's NY logo.

Sports create a cultural niche for us to settle down in to break away from the redundancy of the up-and-down daily routine. It's mysterious and surprising stories and heroes make it everything most of our lives are not at times: exciting. So next time you come out of the bathroom and your girlfriend is watching highlights, don't be upset. When your husband is checking fantasy stats on his cell phone at church, you know why. When he pauses love-making to watch the top ten plays of the week, well, he's crossed the line; but anything short of that is in bounds. It's a tough thing, this life. And when the going gets tough, as it often does, at least we have sports.

1. "America's Most Inspiring Movies." 100 Years 100 Cheers. 2005. American Film Institute. 29 Sep 2007 <http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/cheers100.pdf?docID=202>.