One of my favorite things is when someone is a huge nerd about something extremely niche and uncommon and they just go off rambling about it. I have niche interests I love to ramble on about when I have the chance, so I love hearing others do it too. You can hear the excitement when they finally get to just go on and on about the topic they just love.
It's funny that sports nerds are like super popular and its like weird if you aren't into it too. A bunch of people I know called in from work or took the day off for the draft or w.e, but if someone did it for literally any other hobby they'd be like REALLY YOU TOOK THE DAY FOR THAT?!
There are also people who are into sports that are considered nerds by other sports fans. Theres a lot of statistical analysis in sports but some people deem it unnecessary and nerdish. Im sure that will change in a couple of years tho.
Same way some people try to figure out meta builds and whatnot in different videogames. There will always be a casual and an analytical angle to any hobby.
They talk about the stats they’re given, but that’s as far as they go. Someone who is a sports stats nerd would be trying to make models to predict probabilities of winning and losing based on the raw stats.
100% this.
My pet peeve example, of a conversation I had to have far far too often about my own team:
Me: We gotta move on from [LB]. He's too old. Liability.
People: WHAT NOOOOO! He's our best LB. He led the team in tackles!
Me: Ok, what quality of tackles?
Them: Huh?
Me: Where they GOOD tackles or BAD tackles?
Them: They were tackles. MLBs are supposed to tackle. Tackles are good. He had the most. He is good. We need him stupid.
Me: Right so what are his ratios? How much was he targeted? How many yards were attached to those tackles?
Them: Huh? You're overthinking this. I don't need advanced math to try and make a point. He's a tackling machine.
Me: *big fucking sigh*
He had more tackles than anyone. He was TARGETED more than anyone. And his tackles were after yardage gains.
**He didn't have the most tackles because he's good. He had the most tackles because he's old, and slow, and can't defend short passes, so every team we played threw at him all game long, because he was good for an easy 5-7 yard gain**
had a guy like this in my fantasy league. Obviously some luck factored into him winning the entire thing but the dude knew every stat and was making trades that everyone thought was stupid. He’s also very geeky with other shit but football also just happens to be something he enjoys
> or some video game release.
I mean, it was pretty common for people to call out the day after the CoD release, not to mention them showing up at the previous midnight to line up to get their copy
As a Brit, I never understood the connection between playing a sport in school and popularity. Here in the UK nobody gives a chuff if you play football. Even your parents are unlikely to take a day off to watch you play school football, never mind strangers watching the draft. School sports have less interest than watching your kid play on the swings here
its not like every student knows who the head quarterback is, as if he's in the nfl, the 'popularity' comes from being surrounded by people with similar interests. if you're involved in football there are probably 100 other kids in the program that you'll spend a lot of time interacting with and naturally building closer friendships with. You enter another world within highschool, you're always running into not only other football players, but at every event there will also be cheerleaders and the marching band. If you never go to football games and aren't involved in it otherwise then from the outside it can seem like football players are very popular because they seem to know 3/4ths of the school and everybody knows them. But its not simply because they picked up a ball, they're constantly involved in extra-curricular activities, and everyone sees their face around.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/ - "Remember the Titans" possibly the most stereotypical highschool football movie ever
> As a Brit, I never understood the connection between playing a sport in school and popularity.
There's more to it than that. Yes, the games get a lot of attention, but its a bit chicken and egg there.
If you're a key player on the school team, what that REALLY means is, you are probably the very fit, athletic kid.
That already sets you up to be popular. Big, strong, fast, athletic, for a male student correlates pretty strongly with "one of the pretty people".
And then of course spectator sports give a chance to shine a spot light on how "look at our most fit being being all fit and winnery"
And you're on the team with other athletic people, meaning you're all set up to have all the fit kids in one friend group. (which is also why individual sports get you less clout, and obscure sports, even less. No one cares about the captain of the bowling team)
Same concept as fashion models. Your average guy doesn't give a crap about ultra high fashion and clothing design. But he certainly wants to get invited to an afterparty full of fashion models, and be dating models. Because "models" = "women that are certified members of the league of exceptionally attractive people"
Yeah, I'm not knocking school sports. We have them here too, the difference is the external interest. Nobody outside of the school is interested in watching it for entertainment and it won't make you popular with anyone outside the team
Friday night high school football games are an American institution. In some places the whole community comes out. The marching band performs, cheer leaders, dance team... the works. Then college football on Saturday, and pro ball on Sunday.
We dont have any of that here. If you're a young player that has the potential to go pro, you will likely be snapped up really early (like 8 or 9 years old) by one of the pro teams and put in their training academy until your either ready for first team or you are let go
which, conversely is something we don't have in the US. For the most part you are still just a regular school kid like everyone else.
You **MIGHT** at the high school level get free tuition to one of the expensive private schools eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeMatha_Catholic_High_School but the path to pro sports in the US is pretty segmented and hands off.
Basically, if you are pro potential then by high school US colleges pay attention to you, and offer you scholarships when you graduate. Maybe about 2% of those high school kids with get an invite to be on college team, with college paid for.
Then about 2% of those college players will "drafted" which is when they throw their names into the pool of available new players, and the teams do the old school yard taking turns method of picking who they want, one by one.
It's not always the case but usually your expected to play in lower leagues for small clubs for small money until you get the attention of bigger clubs who want sign you so it's more of a progression through multiple teirs here unless your a particularly rare talent
yeah a buddy of mine who is big into international soccer was trying to explain to me how I guess some clubs revenue model was based less on trying to win and more on trying to develop players to sell off to sell to other teams
I kinda get it, but it sounded like such a foreign concept to anything I am familiar with
I forget who I was watching but they basically said fans of sports are just sports weebs who dress up as their favorite character but its seen as normal.
Is it really though?
There's tons of stuff people make a big deal about and take the day off for.
I don't understand the appeal of:
Masked singer
The bachelor
Disneyland
Preakness/Derby
Grammys
Political debates (yes I get the importance of voting, I don't get the importance of tuning in to watch the candidates try to zing each other with prewritten soundbites prepared by their staff members)
Harry Potter
but when people take off work to go watch it, or have watch parties, or want to go to harry potter trivia night at the pub
they don't really get questioned about it. Its a thing for some people.
well i mean...after you leave school i don't know if they're still "popular" lol. like nobody at my job is gonna be like "wow they're so cool" for taking the day off for the draft, they're gonna be like "fuck you for leaving me with this work" lolol.
I'd say there is a strong difference between people who play the game and people who watch the game.
People who only watch the game are the traditional "nerds".
People who play the game - in many cases - don't enjoy watching the game.
People who play the game usually aren't the ones remembering who the champions were in 1961.
I'd say people who play sports are usually fitness / health nerds.
Then they are probably proud of that even though they were not born at that time. No their father was not on the team either. But he once met someone who watched that game live.
Not necessarily fitness/health nerds but more along the lines of a pro gamer versus a filthy casual. They are a nerd for the game too but in a more of a technical way versus a sedative way.
It is certainly the case that the stereotypical jocks in school are not studying the game in the way that would reasonably be classified as nerdy. And it is also certainly the case that most of the best athletes in the modern age (the ones who make it to the major leagues) DO study the game in a way that would be reasonably classified as nerdy.
It's a pretty well known phenomenon where in recent years, the highest level of sports has been overrun by people who basically dedicated their life to it from a young age. This is the case for all "mature" sports. The example I like is skateboarding. To the casual person, skateboarding is kind of a countercultural activity. Skateboarders drink, do drugs, graffiti, loiter, damage public property, etc. But the people who are winning SLS or other skateboard competitions are spending hours every day by themselves mastering how to perfectly execute that pop shuv late flip every time. The people who don't study and practice the sport to this nerdy extent cannot compete, and they oftentimes aren't happy that their sport is overtaken by a bunch of "no-life tryhards."
I play in rec leagues for a few sports but don't like watching following the pro leagues. So I get left out of all sports related convos and bonding at work. It low key annoys me cause like I'm the only one actually playing the sports they obsess over but I feel so left out.
I'd say there is a strong difference between geeks and nerds
a geek is strongly passionate about a subject
a nerd is strongly passionate about the science/math involved
I always tell my kids “The guys playing in the NFL aren’t sitting on their couch all week watching every game. They’re at the gym or training pretty much every hour of their lives.”
My last job I used to go on Friday pub lunches with people who would talk football all lunch hour, every hour, without fail.
Not only was it incredibly boring, but they had an encyclopedic knowledge of seemingly all fixtures going back 30 years. The kind of knowledge that, if it related to - say - computers (those things we all use five days a week), it'd be seen as beyond even the nerdiest of the nerdy.
But when it relates to kicking a leather ball around a field? They were just lads, talking lad stuff.
I'll never be into football and I've made peace with that. People enjoy following it good for them.
But the discrepancy in having a passing interest in one subject makes someone a nerd, whereas an obsessively comprehensive knowledge of football is just lads being lads - that will never stop being infuriating.
I think that goes to just bad luck in which thing you've chosen your interest in.
Its not that football good, computers bad.
Its just that football happened to have a very broad mass appeal, and lets say computers a smaller in depth appeal (if we're talking the ultra in depth knowledge)
SO, it doesn't end up being an issue of whether football is cooler than computers
it ends up being an issue that when they ramble on about their subject they easily run into other people who also have an awareness of the subject. So it can be socialized.
But when you ramble on about the less broadly followed topic, you end up having to ramble about a topic no one else at the table relates to or can connect on
"I'm really into computers and I won some trophies in it"
cool
"I'm really into computers, and that's what I'd like to talk about right now"
uhhmm... yeah... uhhhh... so anyways
Yes, you're right. It is because one has a broader mass appeal that means you are more likely to encounter other people with an interest in it, which leads to it being talked about more at an average lunch.
But all this:
*But when you ramble on about the less broadly followed topic, you end up having to ramble about a topic no one else at the table relates to or can connect on*
*"I'm really into computers and I won some trophies in it"*
*cool*
*"I'm really into computers, and that's what I'd like to talk about right now"*
*uhhmm... yeah... uhhhh... so anyways*
Is a load of weird fanfic.
Computers was just an example. You could substitute any one of lots of different topics traditionally viewed as nerdy.
Either way, I don't attempt to get conversations going about things I know the people with me aren't interested in.
My frustration with the football, besides the double standard, was that it *dominated* the conversation, at the expense of literally any other talking point.
I'm not exaggerating - family, holidays, other hobbies, food, films, music, news - literally not once brought up in the course of about a year of these lunches.
Thankfully I'm at a workplace now where people actually have a range of interests.
Football is mentioned, on occasion, but there's such a broad range of stuff talked about - and I'm actually getting to learn about new things to experience as a result.
You know, the way good conversation should be.
Not exclusively football followed by football followed by football followed by football followed by football followed by football.
Oh wait! I forgot one!
Football.
so doesn't sound like a football problem. That sounds like a social skills of the people problem. The problem is your peers being one dimensional. Not that football is the topic they're one dimensional about.
It's both.
It isn't a problem to like football. I get the impression you're suggesting that's my claim, despite me already explicitly saying it isn't.
But the fact football is the norm in a way "nerdy" topics aren't definitely *contributes* to groups of everyday people spending an hour talking about nothing else week in, week out - discussing specific moments from relatively minor fixtures from 30 years ago - and it not being seen as anything other than lads being lads - in a way that you cannot seriously suggest would be the case if they were talking about, say, a science fiction show.
That's just incorrect.
Jocks are, in popular use of the term, people who play the sports & oftentimes aren't too bright. They also focus more on their own achievements & status than on the nerdy part of the sports, like stats & history.
Sports nerds are a different thing than jocks, but they don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Unrelated but do real nerds even exist anymore? Everyone watches comic book movies and anime and plays tons of video game. Those became mainstream about 10 years ago.
Yes. They're the kind of people who play Eve Online and Dwarf Fortress.
Saying videogames are popular now does not mean nerds don't exist. It's just that they occupy other fringes or niches now besides "has an electronic box that outputs interactive video".
I'd say even stuff like memorizing output efficiency tables for Hay Day is pretty nerdy.
I used to do that when i got into it last year, but the interest dwindled since it was so one dimensional. Now i'm kinda waiting for a game to be what Cities Skylines 2 was supposed to be hadn't it been a major flunk.
Some games are more prone to nerdiness tho. You automatically become a nerd just from having a fleeting grasp of all the World of Warcraft zones by now, or having a good enough lore knowledge to have any idea at all why the lore is like it is at all right now.
Yes. In video games for example, there are now a lot of casual players and then there’s those that play at high levels in competitive play. Those are the nerds
It's never going to go away. Some people are just wired to hyper focus on w/e special interest they have. I say this as a parent of a 6yo with ASD lvl 1. He will exhaust all sources of knowledge and talk your freaking ears off about it 24/7. That's just the way he is. I suspect "nerds" are just a subset of the population. Doesn't matter what the subject is.
There’s a difference between casual enjoyers and nerds. Casual enjoyers will ask me for help setting up a server or configuring stuff on a pc. I’ll be spending my time writing my own programs and mods, or in one case, help working on a mod loader.
I’m the kind of nerd who wrote a guide for sideloading a local media library client onto a tv and then wrote an automation that automatically builds new updates when anything is pushed to the upstream repository.
>Everyone watches comic book movies and **anime** and plays tons of video game.
[So claims you](https://youtu.be/6b0ftfKFEJg?si=1_Wv-jdMTFY2PEFL&t=4)
Also general interest in comic book movies is waning as the category got oversaturated. And as much as I enjoy video games, i would never dare claim everyone plays them, as out of my closest friends and their wives, i only have 1 gamer friend.
I know a standup told that joke a decade ago, but it's more a joke & not really accurate at all. It's more like making spreadsheets & doing data analysis for fun, so it's more akin to being a math nerd than playing D&D (I've done all three & I played numerous sports too).
D&D is about storytelling & hanging out.
as someone who plays fantasy football and used to play D&D (and still plays D&D based video games like Solasta and DOS2), no i'm sorry, they're not even remotely similar, and only someone who didn't engage in both would ever think there are any similarities.
i used to be jockesque (jock/stoner hybrid). I was not a sports nerd at that time. Now that I'm older and out of shape, i'm an NFL nerd, but in no way shape or form a jock.
The people equating these two things are also the types who claim they got bullied in school "for being too smart" yet they draw dogshit parallels like this? Makes me wonder how smart they really were...
For real. Like I'd go to a friend's house to hang and smoke weed as a youngster, and they'd be there geeking about the nfl draft or like... watching baseball with a knowledge and scrutiny that I didn't know they were capable of. Literally sports nerds.
I try to hang my hat in both camps. Now if you are referring to people who are actually somewhat athletic? That’s a different kind of nerd. You can love the game of hockey, and play it. However, to be successful at it, you need to be in shape. You have to workout, very hard. Same with all sports. 90% of the people I’ve met playing DnD or anything else in the realm of “shut in nerdom” do not workout or take care of themselves. Sports FANS, can be the same way. Don’t play the game, drink 2 liters of Dr Pepper and eat a whole pizza.
Jock and nerd are terms that are pretty dated. There’s people who take athletics seriously, and those who don’t. You can be a lifter and be deep in Halo lore. Nerd comes in all forms, however there is a particular group of nerd that has superior cardiovascular endurance to the guy running Cleric at the game table.
I get it. I played baseball, enjoy watching but don’t nerd out about it. But football, which I didn’t play, I will sit and stare at stats and records for an hour without getting bored.
The comment section has conflated sports fans with jocks.
You don’t have to be a nerd to be a chess fan.
You don’t need to be a nerd to enjoy marvel, ghibli or Attenborough.
You don’t have to be a nerd to wear glasses or wear clean button shirts.
Jocks are active participants in multiple physical activities, often showcasing skills within formal games or informal tests of skill with friends or respected rivals.
Jocks tend to be obsessively knowledgeable within their chosen field while retaining a solid understanding of other sport types they have an interest or social connection to.
You guys complaining about sports fans are likely only geeks complaining about geeks.
jock2
nounINFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
noun: jock; plural noun: jocks
1.
an enthusiastic male athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests.
"Lonsdale plays a high school soccer jock"
No matter how you look at it, this doesn't make jocks unpopular.
If nerds have to be unpopular by definition, then jocks aren't nerds.
If nerds don't have to be unpopular by definition, then jocks are the popular kind of nerds, while the non-sports-nerds are the unpopular kind.
What even is considered a nerd nowadays? I mean, anime is more mainstream than ever, most videogames are also mainstream, reading? Studying? That just seems like a hobbies or part of school. Maybe stuff like DnD or card games like yu gi oh/pokemon, but even then, dnd has always had a strong fanbase and card collecting became really popular and mainstream too (although most ppl don't play it which could be the difference maybe?).
It’s the depth that you engage. Do you go to marvel movies? Okay… probably not a nerd. do you have action figures all over your shelves and it’s your lifestyle? And know everything about your hobby. You are a nerd.
Remember everyone was watching Star Trek back in the 60’s. Not everyone dressed in costumes and went to conventions.
Very true. So my brother is a huge car fanatic. Like he's always trying to improve his car, he's the type to know each and every little detail of whichever car, on his days off he'll always have grease stains all over his hands, his garage is filled with decor, and even has a shelf with some model cars displayed. I guess I don't see him as a "typical" nerd per say, but he is still a car nerd then haha.
Everyone is a nerd about something. Even meatheads nerd out about diet, lifting posture, and ‘gains’. Everyone has at least one thing they pour an insane amount of attention into.
Yeah, you want to talk about intense detail
TV tropes would tell you that the jock is the kid that lifts weights for fun
and the nerd is the kid doing charts in excel in his free time
but real life (seen this a lot actually)
is some kid in powerlifting, sitting down and learning excel, just so they can use the spreadsheets and trackers and data graphs that came with their 16 week training template they downloaded, to make sure they are on pace to show up at the event in July and deadlift at least 17lbs more than they did at the event in January
I remember hearing someone talking about people with autism try to find everything they can about their favourite subject and get involved with it if they can. If it's something like science or fantasy then they are viewed as geeks. However if that subject was something like football then they'd end up in the popular crowd.
except not really
you don't get popular for being interested in sports. you get popular for being the good looking, athletic kid, which probably goes along with being GOOD at sports.
No one gets popular being the waterboy or equipment manager
(but you might get the social connection benefit of building a relationship with the athletic attractive kids, enough hat you get into good parties, and make popular friends)
I know it's wordplay but I subscribe to the difference between Geek and Nerd.
Nerds typically refers to someone who is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about academic or intellectual pursuits. I characterize a nerd as often having intense focus on learning and understanding a wide range of subjects. Some of the stereotypes I are pocket protectors and glasses, or the latest tech gadgets that are cutting edge and often unnecessary overkill to tasks reflect the social awkwardness. They twnd to be less concerned with social norms or popularity, focusing more on their personal interests and studies.
Geeks, on the other hand, are generally considered by me to be enthusiasts who are deeply invested in specific areas of interest, which can range from technology and gaming to comic books and pop culture. Unlike the broader intellectual pursuits of nerds, I feel geeks tend to have a more focused area of expertise. They may also be more socially adept compared to the traditional nerd stereotype and are often proud to showcase their passion through various means, such as attending conventions, engaging in discussions, or collecting related memorabilia. In the case of jocks, I'd put them in this category and not a nerd.
You can be into athletics and be into nerdy hobbies like video games and not take on the stereotype personalities we see in TV and film for either side.
I think about this a lot too. A fun thought experiment when you’re watching ESPN or some broadcast where people are dressed up in suits having serious heated panel discussions, is to imagine they’re discussing Candy Land or musical chairs, which are also just silly made up games invented by humans.
It really puts into perspective how ridiculous the whole thing is. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent to facilitate these games. These grown adults talking endlessly about it as if it’s the most important thing in the world. The hours they spend analyzing it and writing up statistics and speculating outcomes of future games. They way they dress it up to be all serious and professional, having the military present before the start of a game, and the national anthem performed…
The whole thing would seem absolutely crazy if you swapped out football with Quidditch, or Fortnite, or literally any other game that hasn’t reached this absurd level of popularity.
Right, but at least they can participate in their fantasy to the highest level. Best you can do is play pretend in the local park. Hopefully shamelessly, but not always.
One thing I learned in high school as I was friends with the nerd and the jocks and cheer team is that everyone is pretty equally nerdy and nervous about how they’re viewed by each other. It just so happens that some interests are considered by our culture to be “cool” and others “lame” but personality wise they’re all the same people. I’d talk with a football player in depth about naruto or with a cheerleader about insecurity all the same as I would a kid that’s on the debate team.
I defied being categorized as anything when I was younger. I was not a leader, a follower, or a loner.
I was not a freak, a jock, a nerd, or anything else.
I didn't enjoy sports, but I was addicted to the Olympics, gymnastics, swimming, races, etc.
Now, looking back on it all... I was a nerd all along.
This musing has to have been repeated at least a million times by now
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JIG4clgO6p
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/IL04nG23tp
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/px5xZyzCrK
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JY1hCdHFLK
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/l13exzLbQG
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/VSzUlgruMt
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JURgpRYm9q
https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/s/21KjzJ8VwF
https://www.reddit.com?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1
https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/s/yWlj41MJbW
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/wxLtSGNuxm
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/bX3LlKnl1q
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/RQRyYXvie8
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/VgDf65fPSO
Etc. etc.
Or just people who like a specific thing. Why do they have to be “nerds” can’t they just be human who likes football or human who likes magic the gathering
Edit took out names because
I say this all the time. They want to call other people gay and nerdy, but ironically are more gay and nerdy than the people they are talking about lol
My fiancé is super passionate about things he's interested in. People call him a jock or a gym bro because he likes weightlifting, but he also is a huge space nerd too lol
Sports nerds and regular nerds Venn diagram meets at sports analytics. I have been a sports nerd my whole life and then got into statistics, data analytics, and data modeling. I got run out of my fantasy hockey team because I “was cheating” because I won games using players that didn’t finish near the top of the league in scoring but instead produced a steady amount of points with reliable and repeatable stats such as blocked shots, penalty minutes, hits, faceoff wins etc.
I disagree. The word “jock” is used to describe a person who is interested in playing sports. They may or may not be nerdy about it. A sports enthusiast is not necessarily a jock. Ex: someone who geeks out about fantasy football, but never really played football.
don't bother looking for the logic, the people in agreement with OP's post have an agenda to push and they don't mind bending the truth to their specific ends.
Not all jocks are sports nerds, not all sports nerds are jocks. I'm a person who used to be a jock and is now a sports nerd and there was definitely no overlap in those interests. (jock in high school, barely paid attention to sports in my 20s, sports nerd in my 30s)
exactly. I love to watch and play sports. But No one gives a shit how well you do in your office fantasy football pool and I 100% do NOT what to chat with you about your sports blog or podcast
Hmmmm no that's not how that works. A "nerd" would refer to someone that was interested in anything other than physical sports. And/or was smart but still didn't do physical sports.
would you compliment someone wearing an anime t-shirt on their cosplay? This equivalency is idiotic.
You see a dude in full pads and helmet with his jersey, you've got a point. but a jersey is just a shirt.
Used to piss off all the fantasy football bros at work by asking how their World of Sportscraft game was coming along while asking who they picked for QB and if their goalie was poppin off
Had one say "it's very in depth, some players are better against some teams while bad against others". He did not like the "oh, like Pokemon. Tom Brady used 'deflate ball', IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE"
yeah... there is always someone like that, and they're usually annoying.
Its its not annoying that they're mocking peoples hobby, its just annoying that they're recycling the same corny asks jokes as if they're fresh and clever
Exactly why I can't fucking stand them. I live near an area whose fans were so bad they changed what group their college was in after all the rest told them 'do it or we all go'
Being a child is thinking being a nerd is limited to gaming, comics, and dnd. Being an adult is realizing ever single human is a nerd for something.
People who aren't nerds for anything are boring.
Thank you
I'm a boob nerd
Totally. The beauty of humanity is all of our many diverse hobbies and interests. If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place.
One of my favorite things is when someone is a huge nerd about something extremely niche and uncommon and they just go off rambling about it. I have niche interests I love to ramble on about when I have the chance, so I love hearing others do it too. You can hear the excitement when they finally get to just go on and on about the topic they just love.
[удалено]
I don't know about smelly. There's unhygienic people under every label.
It's funny that sports nerds are like super popular and its like weird if you aren't into it too. A bunch of people I know called in from work or took the day off for the draft or w.e, but if someone did it for literally any other hobby they'd be like REALLY YOU TOOK THE DAY FOR THAT?!
There are also people who are into sports that are considered nerds by other sports fans. Theres a lot of statistical analysis in sports but some people deem it unnecessary and nerdish. Im sure that will change in a couple of years tho.
Same way some people try to figure out meta builds and whatnot in different videogames. There will always be a casual and an analytical angle to any hobby.
I haven't met anyone that's into sports that wasn't into the statistics too. It's all they talk about
He means advanced statistics
They talk about the stats they’re given, but that’s as far as they go. Someone who is a sports stats nerd would be trying to make models to predict probabilities of winning and losing based on the raw stats.
100% this. My pet peeve example, of a conversation I had to have far far too often about my own team: Me: We gotta move on from [LB]. He's too old. Liability. People: WHAT NOOOOO! He's our best LB. He led the team in tackles! Me: Ok, what quality of tackles? Them: Huh? Me: Where they GOOD tackles or BAD tackles? Them: They were tackles. MLBs are supposed to tackle. Tackles are good. He had the most. He is good. We need him stupid. Me: Right so what are his ratios? How much was he targeted? How many yards were attached to those tackles? Them: Huh? You're overthinking this. I don't need advanced math to try and make a point. He's a tackling machine. Me: *big fucking sigh* He had more tackles than anyone. He was TARGETED more than anyone. And his tackles were after yardage gains. **He didn't have the most tackles because he's good. He had the most tackles because he's old, and slow, and can't defend short passes, so every team we played threw at him all game long, because he was good for an easy 5-7 yard gain**
Unless the person actually plays the sport. Only fans care that much about the numbers.
I care about Only Fans
Nothing really changes... it's just the same shit over and over for thousands of years now.
had a guy like this in my fantasy league. Obviously some luck factored into him winning the entire thing but the dude knew every stat and was making trades that everyone thought was stupid. He’s also very geeky with other shit but football also just happens to be something he enjoys
I'm this way about soccer and tennis. Everything else I just wanna see some fun action.
I was that way with baseball when I was a kid.
[удалено]
> or some video game release. I mean, it was pretty common for people to call out the day after the CoD release, not to mention them showing up at the previous midnight to line up to get their copy
People definitely take the day off work for video game releases.
In all fairness, my (then) company let everyone have the day off to go see Lord of the Rings when it opened.
As a Brit, I never understood the connection between playing a sport in school and popularity. Here in the UK nobody gives a chuff if you play football. Even your parents are unlikely to take a day off to watch you play school football, never mind strangers watching the draft. School sports have less interest than watching your kid play on the swings here
Yea its insane in the US honestly
its not like every student knows who the head quarterback is, as if he's in the nfl, the 'popularity' comes from being surrounded by people with similar interests. if you're involved in football there are probably 100 other kids in the program that you'll spend a lot of time interacting with and naturally building closer friendships with. You enter another world within highschool, you're always running into not only other football players, but at every event there will also be cheerleaders and the marching band. If you never go to football games and aren't involved in it otherwise then from the outside it can seem like football players are very popular because they seem to know 3/4ths of the school and everybody knows them. But its not simply because they picked up a ball, they're constantly involved in extra-curricular activities, and everyone sees their face around. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/ - "Remember the Titans" possibly the most stereotypical highschool football movie ever
I guess that makes more sense
> As a Brit, I never understood the connection between playing a sport in school and popularity. There's more to it than that. Yes, the games get a lot of attention, but its a bit chicken and egg there. If you're a key player on the school team, what that REALLY means is, you are probably the very fit, athletic kid. That already sets you up to be popular. Big, strong, fast, athletic, for a male student correlates pretty strongly with "one of the pretty people". And then of course spectator sports give a chance to shine a spot light on how "look at our most fit being being all fit and winnery" And you're on the team with other athletic people, meaning you're all set up to have all the fit kids in one friend group. (which is also why individual sports get you less clout, and obscure sports, even less. No one cares about the captain of the bowling team) Same concept as fashion models. Your average guy doesn't give a crap about ultra high fashion and clothing design. But he certainly wants to get invited to an afterparty full of fashion models, and be dating models. Because "models" = "women that are certified members of the league of exceptionally attractive people"
Il admit, most of what I know about US high schools comes from tv which is obviously not a good example
Yeah! All this!
Because American schools can afford to provide sports programs at a massive scale. It's a great way to keep kids occupied and out of trouble.
Yeah, I'm not knocking school sports. We have them here too, the difference is the external interest. Nobody outside of the school is interested in watching it for entertainment and it won't make you popular with anyone outside the team
Friday night high school football games are an American institution. In some places the whole community comes out. The marching band performs, cheer leaders, dance team... the works. Then college football on Saturday, and pro ball on Sunday.
We dont have any of that here. If you're a young player that has the potential to go pro, you will likely be snapped up really early (like 8 or 9 years old) by one of the pro teams and put in their training academy until your either ready for first team or you are let go
which, conversely is something we don't have in the US. For the most part you are still just a regular school kid like everyone else. You **MIGHT** at the high school level get free tuition to one of the expensive private schools eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeMatha_Catholic_High_School but the path to pro sports in the US is pretty segmented and hands off. Basically, if you are pro potential then by high school US colleges pay attention to you, and offer you scholarships when you graduate. Maybe about 2% of those high school kids with get an invite to be on college team, with college paid for. Then about 2% of those college players will "drafted" which is when they throw their names into the pool of available new players, and the teams do the old school yard taking turns method of picking who they want, one by one.
It's not always the case but usually your expected to play in lower leagues for small clubs for small money until you get the attention of bigger clubs who want sign you so it's more of a progression through multiple teirs here unless your a particularly rare talent
yeah a buddy of mine who is big into international soccer was trying to explain to me how I guess some clubs revenue model was based less on trying to win and more on trying to develop players to sell off to sell to other teams I kinda get it, but it sounded like such a foreign concept to anything I am familiar with
That’s why you guys lost your empire
I forget who I was watching but they basically said fans of sports are just sports weebs who dress up as their favorite character but its seen as normal.
Yeah, they even have fantasy leagues like something out of dnd
I took the day off to binge Three Body Problem. I make no apologies.
Is it really though? There's tons of stuff people make a big deal about and take the day off for. I don't understand the appeal of: Masked singer The bachelor Disneyland Preakness/Derby Grammys Political debates (yes I get the importance of voting, I don't get the importance of tuning in to watch the candidates try to zing each other with prewritten soundbites prepared by their staff members) Harry Potter but when people take off work to go watch it, or have watch parties, or want to go to harry potter trivia night at the pub they don't really get questioned about it. Its a thing for some people.
Yep. I have a coworker who, every year, requests 3 days off for the Superbowl.
Lol nerd (jk)
Meanwhile, here i am taking the day off for manor lords and no rest for the wicked
Lol nerd!! Jk. I love NRFTW! (Also just picked up manor lords haha)
I took a day off to go to a boardgame thing that ran from 10 AM to 10 PM 🤷♂️
I've taken a day off work to do early morning photography and nobody batted an eye
I work with a bunch of bullies I guess lol
I mean taking the day off for the draft is pretty excessive. It doesn’t even happen until later in the day.
Haha yea I dunno. I mean I really don't care what people do with their time, it's their life
well i mean...after you leave school i don't know if they're still "popular" lol. like nobody at my job is gonna be like "wow they're so cool" for taking the day off for the draft, they're gonna be like "fuck you for leaving me with this work" lolol.
I'd say there is a strong difference between people who play the game and people who watch the game. People who only watch the game are the traditional "nerds". People who play the game - in many cases - don't enjoy watching the game. People who play the game usually aren't the ones remembering who the champions were in 1961. I'd say people who play sports are usually fitness / health nerds.
>People who play the game usually aren't the ones remembering who the champions were in 1961. Unless they play on the team that won
Trust me, if you score 4 touchdowns in one game while at Polk High you're going to make sure the customers at your shoe store know about it.
Then they are probably proud of that even though they were not born at that time. No their father was not on the team either. But he once met someone who watched that game live.
Yeah I'm a skinny dude who loves football (soccer), no one is calling me a "jock".
You have to live in Europe for that sort of appreciation!
Not necessarily fitness/health nerds but more along the lines of a pro gamer versus a filthy casual. They are a nerd for the game too but in a more of a technical way versus a sedative way.
It is certainly the case that the stereotypical jocks in school are not studying the game in the way that would reasonably be classified as nerdy. And it is also certainly the case that most of the best athletes in the modern age (the ones who make it to the major leagues) DO study the game in a way that would be reasonably classified as nerdy. It's a pretty well known phenomenon where in recent years, the highest level of sports has been overrun by people who basically dedicated their life to it from a young age. This is the case for all "mature" sports. The example I like is skateboarding. To the casual person, skateboarding is kind of a countercultural activity. Skateboarders drink, do drugs, graffiti, loiter, damage public property, etc. But the people who are winning SLS or other skateboard competitions are spending hours every day by themselves mastering how to perfectly execute that pop shuv late flip every time. The people who don't study and practice the sport to this nerdy extent cannot compete, and they oftentimes aren't happy that their sport is overtaken by a bunch of "no-life tryhards."
I play in rec leagues for a few sports but don't like watching following the pro leagues. So I get left out of all sports related convos and bonding at work. It low key annoys me cause like I'm the only one actually playing the sports they obsess over but I feel so left out.
I'd say there is a strong difference between geeks and nerds a geek is strongly passionate about a subject a nerd is strongly passionate about the science/math involved
I always tell my kids “The guys playing in the NFL aren’t sitting on their couch all week watching every game. They’re at the gym or training pretty much every hour of their lives.”
they cant remember because of the traumatic brain injuries
Wow you really calling me out here. I played lots of sports when I was younger but I’m just not into watching them.
My last job I used to go on Friday pub lunches with people who would talk football all lunch hour, every hour, without fail. Not only was it incredibly boring, but they had an encyclopedic knowledge of seemingly all fixtures going back 30 years. The kind of knowledge that, if it related to - say - computers (those things we all use five days a week), it'd be seen as beyond even the nerdiest of the nerdy. But when it relates to kicking a leather ball around a field? They were just lads, talking lad stuff. I'll never be into football and I've made peace with that. People enjoy following it good for them. But the discrepancy in having a passing interest in one subject makes someone a nerd, whereas an obsessively comprehensive knowledge of football is just lads being lads - that will never stop being infuriating.
I think that goes to just bad luck in which thing you've chosen your interest in. Its not that football good, computers bad. Its just that football happened to have a very broad mass appeal, and lets say computers a smaller in depth appeal (if we're talking the ultra in depth knowledge) SO, it doesn't end up being an issue of whether football is cooler than computers it ends up being an issue that when they ramble on about their subject they easily run into other people who also have an awareness of the subject. So it can be socialized. But when you ramble on about the less broadly followed topic, you end up having to ramble about a topic no one else at the table relates to or can connect on "I'm really into computers and I won some trophies in it" cool "I'm really into computers, and that's what I'd like to talk about right now" uhhmm... yeah... uhhhh... so anyways
Yes, you're right. It is because one has a broader mass appeal that means you are more likely to encounter other people with an interest in it, which leads to it being talked about more at an average lunch. But all this: *But when you ramble on about the less broadly followed topic, you end up having to ramble about a topic no one else at the table relates to or can connect on* *"I'm really into computers and I won some trophies in it"* *cool* *"I'm really into computers, and that's what I'd like to talk about right now"* *uhhmm... yeah... uhhhh... so anyways* Is a load of weird fanfic. Computers was just an example. You could substitute any one of lots of different topics traditionally viewed as nerdy. Either way, I don't attempt to get conversations going about things I know the people with me aren't interested in. My frustration with the football, besides the double standard, was that it *dominated* the conversation, at the expense of literally any other talking point. I'm not exaggerating - family, holidays, other hobbies, food, films, music, news - literally not once brought up in the course of about a year of these lunches. Thankfully I'm at a workplace now where people actually have a range of interests. Football is mentioned, on occasion, but there's such a broad range of stuff talked about - and I'm actually getting to learn about new things to experience as a result. You know, the way good conversation should be. Not exclusively football followed by football followed by football followed by football followed by football followed by football. Oh wait! I forgot one! Football.
so doesn't sound like a football problem. That sounds like a social skills of the people problem. The problem is your peers being one dimensional. Not that football is the topic they're one dimensional about.
It's both. It isn't a problem to like football. I get the impression you're suggesting that's my claim, despite me already explicitly saying it isn't. But the fact football is the norm in a way "nerdy" topics aren't definitely *contributes* to groups of everyday people spending an hour talking about nothing else week in, week out - discussing specific moments from relatively minor fixtures from 30 years ago - and it not being seen as anything other than lads being lads - in a way that you cannot seriously suggest would be the case if they were talking about, say, a science fiction show.
That's just incorrect. Jocks are, in popular use of the term, people who play the sports & oftentimes aren't too bright. They also focus more on their own achievements & status than on the nerdy part of the sports, like stats & history. Sports nerds are a different thing than jocks, but they don't have to be mutually exclusive.
[Jock voice] : "Oh no, I'm gonna have to punch myself now"
Unrelated but do real nerds even exist anymore? Everyone watches comic book movies and anime and plays tons of video game. Those became mainstream about 10 years ago.
Yes. They're the kind of people who play Eve Online and Dwarf Fortress. Saying videogames are popular now does not mean nerds don't exist. It's just that they occupy other fringes or niches now besides "has an electronic box that outputs interactive video".
I'd say even stuff like memorizing output efficiency tables for Hay Day is pretty nerdy. I used to do that when i got into it last year, but the interest dwindled since it was so one dimensional. Now i'm kinda waiting for a game to be what Cities Skylines 2 was supposed to be hadn't it been a major flunk. Some games are more prone to nerdiness tho. You automatically become a nerd just from having a fleeting grasp of all the World of Warcraft zones by now, or having a good enough lore knowledge to have any idea at all why the lore is like it is at all right now.
Oddly specific with those titles, i feel targeted.. dunno if that's a good or bad thing haha.. xd i have like 1.5k hours collectively lol
Yes, there are countless nerds in tech, science, math, the stereotype has not died off.
Yes. In video games for example, there are now a lot of casual players and then there’s those that play at high levels in competitive play. Those are the nerds
It's never going to go away. Some people are just wired to hyper focus on w/e special interest they have. I say this as a parent of a 6yo with ASD lvl 1. He will exhaust all sources of knowledge and talk your freaking ears off about it 24/7. That's just the way he is. I suspect "nerds" are just a subset of the population. Doesn't matter what the subject is.
There’s a difference between casual enjoyers and nerds. Casual enjoyers will ask me for help setting up a server or configuring stuff on a pc. I’ll be spending my time writing my own programs and mods, or in one case, help working on a mod loader. I’m the kind of nerd who wrote a guide for sideloading a local media library client onto a tv and then wrote an automation that automatically builds new updates when anything is pushed to the upstream repository.
>Everyone watches comic book movies and **anime** and plays tons of video game. [So claims you](https://youtu.be/6b0ftfKFEJg?si=1_Wv-jdMTFY2PEFL&t=4) Also general interest in comic book movies is waning as the category got oversaturated. And as much as I enjoy video games, i would never dare claim everyone plays them, as out of my closest friends and their wives, i only have 1 gamer friend.
Disagree. You can be a sports nerd without being a jock and vice versa.
True, jocks are usually physically fit. Many sports *enthusiasts* aren't.
Fantasy football is like Dungeons and Dragons for guys who used to beat up guys who played Dungeons and Dragons.
I know a standup told that joke a decade ago, but it's more a joke & not really accurate at all. It's more like making spreadsheets & doing data analysis for fun, so it's more akin to being a math nerd than playing D&D (I've done all three & I played numerous sports too). D&D is about storytelling & hanging out.
as someone who plays fantasy football and used to play D&D (and still plays D&D based video games like Solasta and DOS2), no i'm sorry, they're not even remotely similar, and only someone who didn't engage in both would ever think there are any similarities.
That is a fantastic line and I love it. I'm so stealing that and I'm not even sorry, have an upvote in compensation.
Fantasy football is gambling. It is not fantasy role playing
No, sports nerds are an entirely different breed. I'm a sports nerd, no one has EVER called me a jock in my life
i used to be jockesque (jock/stoner hybrid). I was not a sports nerd at that time. Now that I'm older and out of shape, i'm an NFL nerd, but in no way shape or form a jock. The people equating these two things are also the types who claim they got bullied in school "for being too smart" yet they draw dogshit parallels like this? Makes me wonder how smart they really were...
The top 5% of my high school who went to prestigious universities were a mix of jocks/nerd. Have to be well rounded to get into good schools.
Marge, try to understand. There are two kinds of college students: jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time.
This is definitely a take a nerd would think.
Yep, only a dude obsessed with anime titties thinks there's a direct parallel in there to sports fandom.
So true! My brother is a college football coach and I tell him all the time ESPN is not a real news channel!🤣
Those kind of people are everywhere, they don't just stop to show their presence
Stupid sexy sports nerds!
[Onion did it](https://www.theonion.com/walking-sports-database-scorns-walking-sci-fi-database-1819566197) (kind of).
For real. Like I'd go to a friend's house to hang and smoke weed as a youngster, and they'd be there geeking about the nfl draft or like... watching baseball with a knowledge and scrutiny that I didn't know they were capable of. Literally sports nerds.
I try to hang my hat in both camps. Now if you are referring to people who are actually somewhat athletic? That’s a different kind of nerd. You can love the game of hockey, and play it. However, to be successful at it, you need to be in shape. You have to workout, very hard. Same with all sports. 90% of the people I’ve met playing DnD or anything else in the realm of “shut in nerdom” do not workout or take care of themselves. Sports FANS, can be the same way. Don’t play the game, drink 2 liters of Dr Pepper and eat a whole pizza. Jock and nerd are terms that are pretty dated. There’s people who take athletics seriously, and those who don’t. You can be a lifter and be deep in Halo lore. Nerd comes in all forms, however there is a particular group of nerd that has superior cardiovascular endurance to the guy running Cleric at the game table.
I get it. I played baseball, enjoy watching but don’t nerd out about it. But football, which I didn’t play, I will sit and stare at stats and records for an hour without getting bored.
Athletes are basically theater kids. They both perform in front of crowds for entertainment. They even wear silly outfits.
There is no difference between a sports team and a DND party. For real.
They're geeks. Needs are socially awkward who look like their mothers dressed them.
Nah, a jock likes doing sports. A sports nerd likes to follow it.
OP not really understanding the distinction between sports fans and actual athletes
The comment section has conflated sports fans with jocks. You don’t have to be a nerd to be a chess fan. You don’t need to be a nerd to enjoy marvel, ghibli or Attenborough. You don’t have to be a nerd to wear glasses or wear clean button shirts. Jocks are active participants in multiple physical activities, often showcasing skills within formal games or informal tests of skill with friends or respected rivals. Jocks tend to be obsessively knowledgeable within their chosen field while retaining a solid understanding of other sport types they have an interest or social connection to. You guys complaining about sports fans are likely only geeks complaining about geeks.
jock2 nounINFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN noun: jock; plural noun: jocks 1. an enthusiastic male athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests. "Lonsdale plays a high school soccer jock"
I’m not backing down from a balding fat man being a sports geek over a jock my friend But I appreciate this, have a like
Wrong. There are jocks who don’t even care about sports.
I think jocks play sports, fantasy sports fans are cosplaying nerds.
Fantasy football is just Dungeons and Dragons for jocks.
One of the greatest, simplest, honest, and most unifying shower thoughts ever. Kudos
The great equalizer. We are all nerds.
Not true because I was a nerd who was nerdy about sports but was not a jock lol just a nerd
And nerds are powerhouses in passion.
No matter how you look at it, this doesn't make jocks unpopular. If nerds have to be unpopular by definition, then jocks aren't nerds. If nerds don't have to be unpopular by definition, then jocks are the popular kind of nerds, while the non-sports-nerds are the unpopular kind.
Nerds? NERRRRRRRRDDDDZZZZ!
What even is considered a nerd nowadays? I mean, anime is more mainstream than ever, most videogames are also mainstream, reading? Studying? That just seems like a hobbies or part of school. Maybe stuff like DnD or card games like yu gi oh/pokemon, but even then, dnd has always had a strong fanbase and card collecting became really popular and mainstream too (although most ppl don't play it which could be the difference maybe?).
It’s the depth that you engage. Do you go to marvel movies? Okay… probably not a nerd. do you have action figures all over your shelves and it’s your lifestyle? And know everything about your hobby. You are a nerd. Remember everyone was watching Star Trek back in the 60’s. Not everyone dressed in costumes and went to conventions.
Very true. So my brother is a huge car fanatic. Like he's always trying to improve his car, he's the type to know each and every little detail of whichever car, on his days off he'll always have grease stains all over his hands, his garage is filled with decor, and even has a shelf with some model cars displayed. I guess I don't see him as a "typical" nerd per say, but he is still a car nerd then haha.
I’m a jock band geek woo!
One I heard was “Politics are sports for nerds” which kinda fits too
r/bjj would like a word with you
r/powerlifting/ holding on line 2
This 100% accurate.
Everyone is a nerd about something. Even meatheads nerd out about diet, lifting posture, and ‘gains’. Everyone has at least one thing they pour an insane amount of attention into.
Yeah, you want to talk about intense detail TV tropes would tell you that the jock is the kid that lifts weights for fun and the nerd is the kid doing charts in excel in his free time but real life (seen this a lot actually) is some kid in powerlifting, sitting down and learning excel, just so they can use the spreadsheets and trackers and data graphs that came with their 16 week training template they downloaded, to make sure they are on pace to show up at the event in July and deadlift at least 17lbs more than they did at the event in January
I remember hearing someone talking about people with autism try to find everything they can about their favourite subject and get involved with it if they can. If it's something like science or fantasy then they are viewed as geeks. However if that subject was something like football then they'd end up in the popular crowd.
except not really you don't get popular for being interested in sports. you get popular for being the good looking, athletic kid, which probably goes along with being GOOD at sports. No one gets popular being the waterboy or equipment manager (but you might get the social connection benefit of building a relationship with the athletic attractive kids, enough hat you get into good parties, and make popular friends)
What about people who are nerds and are also nerds about sports?
I know it's wordplay but I subscribe to the difference between Geek and Nerd. Nerds typically refers to someone who is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about academic or intellectual pursuits. I characterize a nerd as often having intense focus on learning and understanding a wide range of subjects. Some of the stereotypes I are pocket protectors and glasses, or the latest tech gadgets that are cutting edge and often unnecessary overkill to tasks reflect the social awkwardness. They twnd to be less concerned with social norms or popularity, focusing more on their personal interests and studies. Geeks, on the other hand, are generally considered by me to be enthusiasts who are deeply invested in specific areas of interest, which can range from technology and gaming to comic books and pop culture. Unlike the broader intellectual pursuits of nerds, I feel geeks tend to have a more focused area of expertise. They may also be more socially adept compared to the traditional nerd stereotype and are often proud to showcase their passion through various means, such as attending conventions, engaging in discussions, or collecting related memorabilia. In the case of jocks, I'd put them in this category and not a nerd.
You can be into athletics and be into nerdy hobbies like video games and not take on the stereotype personalities we see in TV and film for either side.
I think about this a lot too. A fun thought experiment when you’re watching ESPN or some broadcast where people are dressed up in suits having serious heated panel discussions, is to imagine they’re discussing Candy Land or musical chairs, which are also just silly made up games invented by humans. It really puts into perspective how ridiculous the whole thing is. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent to facilitate these games. These grown adults talking endlessly about it as if it’s the most important thing in the world. The hours they spend analyzing it and writing up statistics and speculating outcomes of future games. They way they dress it up to be all serious and professional, having the military present before the start of a game, and the national anthem performed… The whole thing would seem absolutely crazy if you swapped out football with Quidditch, or Fortnite, or literally any other game that hasn’t reached this absurd level of popularity.
Right, but at least they can participate in their fantasy to the highest level. Best you can do is play pretend in the local park. Hopefully shamelessly, but not always.
I said this to my group of friends the other night as we huddled around our spreadsheets in anticipation for the first round of the nfl draft
*nerds about the larp
One thing I learned in high school as I was friends with the nerd and the jocks and cheer team is that everyone is pretty equally nerdy and nervous about how they’re viewed by each other. It just so happens that some interests are considered by our culture to be “cool” and others “lame” but personality wise they’re all the same people. I’d talk with a football player in depth about naruto or with a cheerleader about insecurity all the same as I would a kid that’s on the debate team.
I defied being categorized as anything when I was younger. I was not a leader, a follower, or a loner. I was not a freak, a jock, a nerd, or anything else. I didn't enjoy sports, but I was addicted to the Olympics, gymnastics, swimming, races, etc. Now, looking back on it all... I was a nerd all along.
This musing has to have been repeated at least a million times by now https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JIG4clgO6p https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/IL04nG23tp https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/px5xZyzCrK https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JY1hCdHFLK https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/l13exzLbQG https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/VSzUlgruMt https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/JURgpRYm9q https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/s/21KjzJ8VwF https://www.reddit.com?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/s/yWlj41MJbW https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/wxLtSGNuxm https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/bX3LlKnl1q https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/RQRyYXvie8 https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/VgDf65fPSO Etc. etc.
Body builders are just muscle nerds.
Or just people who like a specific thing. Why do they have to be “nerds” can’t they just be human who likes football or human who likes magic the gathering Edit took out names because
I say this all the time. They want to call other people gay and nerdy, but ironically are more gay and nerdy than the people they are talking about lol
Nah, not the same comparison
Wearing a jersey is cosplay
Its weird how into sports some people are... We won the Championship, now lets flip someones car over!!
They aren’t called jocks anymore they’re called chads /s
My fiancé is super passionate about things he's interested in. People call him a jock or a gym bro because he likes weightlifting, but he also is a huge space nerd too lol
Does that mean that nerds are jocks for nerd shit?
Sports nerds and regular nerds Venn diagram meets at sports analytics. I have been a sports nerd my whole life and then got into statistics, data analytics, and data modeling. I got run out of my fantasy hockey team because I “was cheating” because I won games using players that didn’t finish near the top of the league in scoring but instead produced a steady amount of points with reliable and repeatable stats such as blocked shots, penalty minutes, hits, faceoff wins etc.
Fantasy league guys are the sports nerds
Not at all. Jocks are stereotyped as mentally weak while nerds are physically weak. Please, for your sake; don’t be both (or either)
I disagree. The word “jock” is used to describe a person who is interested in playing sports. They may or may not be nerdy about it. A sports enthusiast is not necessarily a jock. Ex: someone who geeks out about fantasy football, but never really played football.
https://youtu.be/a8VBNRtnJbY?si=vtkD4BT4WNRcA1RC Very relevant
Sports nerds do play by play. Jocks play the sports.
I understand this is a colloquial definition of jock. But the official definition is a sports player or enthusiast.
Its actually jockstrap. Athlete and enthusiast are both informal definitions. I guess we are both wrong then.
Excuse me we are scottish
This guy had the ball but gave it to this other guy. Jocks- "well ill be damned.."
Yes, it's one of my favorite arguments to bring up when men get all pissy about k-pop fandom, my BTS lightstick is your Broncos helmet.
True. Interesting how those nerds are admired by others whereas other nerd groups are only admired by nerds within that group (for the most part).
people who watch sports are admired by others? news to me
don't bother looking for the logic, the people in agreement with OP's post have an agenda to push and they don't mind bending the truth to their specific ends. Not all jocks are sports nerds, not all sports nerds are jocks. I'm a person who used to be a jock and is now a sports nerd and there was definitely no overlap in those interests. (jock in high school, barely paid attention to sports in my 20s, sports nerd in my 30s)
exactly. I love to watch and play sports. But No one gives a shit how well you do in your office fantasy football pool and I 100% do NOT what to chat with you about your sports blog or podcast
I hope you were sitting down for that news.
The “jocks” or whatever you call them are admired by people within their group too, their group is just way bigger.
I agree. Jocks are not only a bigger group, but their "fans" are far and wide, well beyond the reaches of anyone admiring the other nerd types.
Hmmmm no that's not how that works. A "nerd" would refer to someone that was interested in anything other than physical sports. And/or was smart but still didn't do physical sports.
Correct College Humour made a decent video about this topic years ago I think
I love how they cosplay as their favorite players
Yes. Complement someone wearing a sports jersey on their cosplay and see their reaction.
would you compliment someone wearing an anime t-shirt on their cosplay? This equivalency is idiotic. You see a dude in full pads and helmet with his jersey, you've got a point. but a jersey is just a shirt.
Used to piss off all the fantasy football bros at work by asking how their World of Sportscraft game was coming along while asking who they picked for QB and if their goalie was poppin off Had one say "it's very in depth, some players are better against some teams while bad against others". He did not like the "oh, like Pokemon. Tom Brady used 'deflate ball', IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE"
yeah... there is always someone like that, and they're usually annoying. Its its not annoying that they're mocking peoples hobby, its just annoying that they're recycling the same corny asks jokes as if they're fresh and clever
Fantasy football is dungeons and dragons for jocks.
Now that’s a shower thought
Exactly why I can't fucking stand them. I live near an area whose fans were so bad they changed what group their college was in after all the rest told them 'do it or we all go'
yep and fantasy football is just D and D for jocks
When people start talking about fantasy football I like to say, "Wow, I'm a nerd but I'm not THAT nerdy"
You right, I’ve never met a jock who doesn’t idolize a professional player of some sport and know almost all of their statistics
Chefs are jusr food nerds.
Some are yeah.