Sports general discussion thread

[isleepinabed]

Is anyone interested in less popular sports? During the last Olympics I was reminded of how much I like volleyball and table tennis (as well as some athletics, especially 1500, 5000 and 10000m ).

These however, are seldom available to watch outside of major tournaments.

During the year I also enjoy watching tennis and, particularly, snooker (ok, probably a pseudo-sport or more of a parlour game than a sport).

What I particularly enjoy about all of these is that the standard of play is always good. Even when players are out of form the matches are still (generally) exciting. They're also relatively untainted (perhaps tennis less and less) by some of the worst elements of popular sports: aggressive crowds, petulant attitude, and being difficult to relate to multimillionaires on a personal level, apart from the overall excessive commercialization.

Anyone else?

 

[Alm]

I do watch snooker. Plus curling / bowls is something I like to watch.

Edit: and darts

 

[Colif]

Most events don't have you asking will I die doing them

Unless you one of those crazy enough to throw selves out of perfectly good airplanes or off mountains

 

[March's Ghost]

Is anyone interested in less popular sports?

Save for MLB, I am probably more interested in some less popular sports. Still, I hardly watch any sports anymore. My particular favorite is archery. I can also enjoy fencing and martial arts too (no MMA though). Sometimes I have a rather unavoidable attraction to women's beach volleyball for some reason.

 

[Frindis]

I watch some rock climbing/bouldering on YouTube, like videos from Magnus Midtbø. I recently started bouldering myself and find it to be fun and challenging especially since I don't have the typical skinny climbing body. Next week I will start to box again so that will be interesting after a 20+ year boxing hiatus. I'm mainly doing it for the exercise as boxing is really, really good training for the whole body. I might to some light sparring, but have no wish for training for full sparring or a fight.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Tennessee had to play our biggest rival in the Sweet 16, and we just finished curb-stomping them. Life is good.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1718619927102328999

View: https://x.com/RoushKSR/status/1718619927102328999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1718619927102328999%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

 

[Colif]

New sport bound to appear using these

 

[Zed Clampet]

New sport bound to appear using these

That's really awesome. It would be a lot cooler if it didn't sound like 100 lawn mowers, but it's still cool. Unfortunately, they are sold out for 2025 and 2026.

 

[Colif]

I have watched this before

Where have all the Bob's gone?

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Zloth the Chiefs signed former Vol Will Brooks as a free agent safety.

This guy was a walk-on and played on special teams his first years. Then last year, his final year, he actually won a starting position in the secondary, which is extremely rare for walk-ons. He then proceeded to have an excellent year, leading the team in interceptions and coming in second in passes defended. He returned two of his interceptions for touchdowns.

Probably will be a longshot for him to make the team as a free agent, but I'll be rooting for him, but the last safety we sent you, Eric Berry, did pretty good.

Eric Berry would have been our career INT leader if not for Monte Kiffen changing our defense before his senior year.

 

[Zloth]

This guy was a walk-on and played on special teams his first years. Then last year, his final year, he actually won a starting position in the secondary, which is extremely rare for walk-ons.

Wait, the VOLUNTEERS only rarely let the walk-ons play!? I demand they change their name to the Olympians (as they are the sons & daughters of the Titans).

 

[Zed Clampet]

Wait, the VOLUNTEERS only rarely let the walk-ons play!? I demand they change their name to the Olympians (as they are the sons & daughters of the Titans).

Any resemblance of the Titans to an actual football team at any level is purely coincidental. In Tennessee the Titans are an afterthought. We just stole their play-by-play guy to come do our play-by-play.

It's a little weird, honestly. I don't even know any Titans fans. I pull for Washington, myself, although that's been 35 years of hell.

 

[Zloth]

Any resemblance of the Titans to an actual football team at any level is purely coincidental. In Tennessee the Titans are an afterthought. We just stole their play-by-play guy to come do our play-by-play.

How much do you hear about the titan Chronus compared to Zues?

 

[Zed Clampet]

How much do you hear about the titan Chronus compared to Zues?

Good point. And both the real Titans (mythical) and the imaginary Titans (football team) are epic losers. At least Cronus never drafted Will Levis.

 

[Colif]

 

[Zed Clampet]

Going to very briefly tell a feel-good and potentially inspiring story that I've been watching unfold for the last. First, to clarify a couple of things for non-Americans: college football is huge in the US, and UT (University of Tennessee) is considered a "blue blood" of college football. At various times during my lifetime, there have been more former Vols in the NFL than any other college.

So a classmate of Guido's played running back (runs with the ball and also goes out for passes) on their high school team. Despite running for over 8000 yards (2nd most all-time), UT didn't offer Desean Bishop a football scholarship. He really wanted to play for them for various reasons, so he didn't sign with another school, and he just waited, hoping the situation might change. It didn't happen, but he wouldn't let his dream die and decided to "walk-on" to the team. "Walk-ons" are not scholarship players and usually don't get any playing time.

To jump to the happy ending, this is his third year, and when Tennessee takes the field tomorrow in a nationally televised game against Syracuse, Desean will be the starting running back for the Tennessee Vols. He never caved to "it is what it is".

 

[Zuruchon]

Going to very briefly tell a feel-good and potentially inspiring story that I've been watching unfold for the last. First, to clarify a couple of things for non-Americans: college football is huge in the US, and UT (University of Tennessee) is considered a "blue blood" of college football. At various times during my lifetime, there have been more former Vols in the NFL than any other college.

So a classmate of Guido's played running back (runs with the ball and also goes out for passes) on their high school team. Despite running for over 8000 yards (2nd most all-time), UT didn't offer Desean Bishop a football scholarship. He really wanted to play for them for various reasons, so he didn't sign with another school, and he just waited, hoping the situation might change. It didn't happen, but he wouldn't let his dream die and decided to "walk-on" to the team. "Walk-ons" are not scholarship players and usually don't get any playing time.

To jump to the happy ending, this is his third year, and when Tennessee takes the field tomorrow in a nationally televised game against Syracuse, Desean will be the starting running back for the Tennessee Vols. He never caved to "it is what it is".

My little cousin has not been getting playing like in the school football team, and he is really worried. He told me that he could do better if given the opportunity by the school coach. This story has pushed me to keep inspiring him not to give up. He has been training alone, hoping to get an opportunity one day. I just hope his story also gets a good ending like the above.

 

[Frindis]

Impressive!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omygIH6t-m4

 

[Zed Clampet]

There is a popular sports saying in the US that has to be one of the most incorrect popular sayings I can think of. "It's the Jimmy's and Joe's, not the X's and O's". In American football, plays are drawn up using X's and O's to represent the players. The point of the saying is that coaching is not as important has getting the right players.

After many years of watching sports, I can tell you that having great players is nice, but a great coach can take a group of scrubs and win championships. Just one example, the thing that made me think of this today, is that Tennessee has always had mediocre to poor baseball teams. And then we hired Tony Vitello, who is a generational coach. He is absolutely extraordinary. We went from bad to the best almost immediately. We won championships.

We knew what we had, and we paid him more than most Major League managers. But his dream was always to coach in the majors, and the San Francisco Giants gave him that opportunity. We immediately promoted his second in command, and multiple people told me that we wouldn't miss a beat. After all, every kid in America wanted to play for Tony, and now we had the best roster in all of college baseball.

We are now about a dozen games into the season, and we suck again.

Finally, it should come as no surprise that the saying about Jimmy's and Joe's was coined by a poor coach who was trying to deflect criticism.