Has Your Fandom in Sports Grown or Dropped as you Age???

Mine grew much more from when I was a kid. Part of that is because as I aged, I understood the games more.

I think the lows get worse but the highs stay up there. I'm 21 years old and after that Rutgers game I was the happiest I had been over sports in a very long time. Ryan Glasgow threw his glove into the crowd and I caught it, I was wearing it all night like a little kid.

Definitely decreased.  I never miss watching or at least listening to a Michigan football game live, but the losses don't stay with me like they used to.

As for other sports I can completely take or leave them.  When I was younger I'd watch college football all day long, watch the NFL all day long, watch weekday games, watch college and NBA games, you name it, but as I've gotten older I've moved towards watching less and less things on television.  37, single with no kids, so it wasn't a matter of having kids and having to focus on them but I'm generally on a computer anyway, so I'd rather spend my evening and weekends outside and being active rather than spending more hours staring at a screen.

I really enjoyed sports until my mid-20's, but I don't care very much anymore. I watch Michigan football and the ocassional basketball game, but I don't invest much time, emotion, or money in sports. I have too many other things to do.

My fandom for Michigan Football has jumped drastically with the return of the prodigal son

My fandom for the Lions and Tigers is still there

The amount of information and blogs like this help

The affect on me that outcomes of these games have has dropped off the table - no matter what happens to Michigan each Saturday I still have to go to work Monday and I still have stuff to do around the house, etc.  It isn't life or death but while it is being played I love it even more

I read a lot more Michigan sports blogs now than I did when I was in college in the late 90s. However, having kids and my career have reduced my free time to watch sports in general and pretty much the only one I still follow is Michigan football.

My Michigan fandome has increased signifficantly over the years.  While I went to every FB game when I was in school (1994-98), and attended a handful of bball and hockey games each year, after graduation, I went through a short period in which I followed, but not closely.  That period coincided with law school and meeting my wife.  From 2001 forward, my fandom for Michigan has steadily increased to the point where it is an absolute obsession.  I haven't missed a single FB game since 2001 (although since kids, I DVR all games, go on complete media blackout - shut off phones, no places with TV, no internet - and watch with my wife when the kdis go to sleep).  I have even said no to family wedding when the conflcit with M football.

On the flip side, I used to be a really big NBA, MLB and NHL fan, and over the years, my fandom in those has fallen off a cliff.  I haven't watched a full baseball or pro basketball game in ages, and aside from the 2-3 Islander games that I take the family to, I haven't watched a complete NHL game other than the playoffs either. 

It depends on the sport if you ask me about it. 

As far as Michigan football is concerned, it wasn't really a factor for me growing up. My Dad and younger brother loved it, but I never really got into college football before I went to college. Was much more wrapped up in the NFL, and it also helped that when I was growing up, my team (the Bucs) were actually pretty good on a year-in, year-out basis. 

But I have never followed the Bucs even remotely as close as I follow Michigan now. Not even close. Part of that is attributed to the fact that they're now maybe one step above the Lions/Browns, but I still wouldn't care for them as much even if they were good. 

My knowledge of Michigan football and what's going on has increased while my interest in the NFL has slowly decreased. I'll watch an NFL game, and I'll tune in for the playoffs, but compared to college, it just feels too sterile and corporate. I don't feel even remotely the same passion for the pro game that I do the college game. The NFL is pure business. And I get it. Its a pro sport. But college, man. Those kids play for each other, for their coaches, and for the fans. And the bands. You just can't beat it. 

Used to follow baseball a ton. Was a HUGE Braves fan back in the 90s when they had that stud pitching lineup of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. But I just lost interest for whatever reason as I grew up. Probably got tired of watching them get swept by the Yankees in the World Series a few times. Baseball is fun to go actually see, but unless you're watching October ball, watching baseball on TV is like watching paint dry. 

Never cared for the NBA. And I don't see any reason to start now. 

I'd say my interest in hockey has more or less stayed the same. Great sport to watch, and probably the best "keeps you on the edge of your seat" sport there is. I can watch any playoff hockey, regardless of the team. The momentum of those games can change in the blink of an eye. I'm admittedly fair-weather Lightning fan, and I have a casual knowledge of what goes on with them. But I don't follow them like I follow Michigan. 

i've been a fan since coach Bump MF Elliott!! 

while always the avid fan, over the last couple of decades, my fandom has become more and more ridiculous. 

sleepless friday nights; reading this and other blogs many times a day; stressing over the decisions of 17 y.o. recruits; rewatching games multiple times. not just this season's games. I have a dvd collection of our games going back to the 60's

i'm in honolulu so a noon kick off is a 6 am deal.

and it's a thing, not just me, and not rare. i think that it is a senior phenomenon. a few of us here ages 60, 70, 80. we are more obsessed now than ever. for some it has become an affliction of sorts. 

and it's not for lack of what to do. i'm not retired. I practice sports medicine (MD '75), surf, bike, make art, hike, have 4 grown children and 2 grandchildren right here with me.

BEWARE! proceed with extreme caution. great danger lies ahead!

 

I just don't have time to completely follow 82 or 168 games, so Football is really the only sport I truly follow.  Michigan is definitely my #1 team.  I used to be a huge Lions fan, even during the winless season.  But last year, I just got so sick of them and only watched half of the games.  This year, I've only seen one game, and I just can't bring myself to watch unless there are some major changes to the organization.

But who knows.  When I retire in 20 years or so, maybe I'll become a sports nut.

Sense of urgency grows as I get older

When I was in college I was a die hard UM and Lions fan. I'm 43 now.  I'm still a fan, but I just don't have the time to spend on it. Now the Lions are kind of a passing fancy when I have time. I follow UM quite a bit obviously, but kids and the past 8 years prior to Harbaugh have forced me to put things into perspective. 

I dont' want to be a dick around my kids because UM lost. I get annoyed at the other fans (Sparty in particular has made some arsehole fans) but I don't spend too much time on it. 

 

I think another thing is that I dont' have cable. We've cut costs pretty sharply for school tuition for the kids, and I never watched much TV to begin with. So now I end up without the B1G network. And much fewer games are on live TV. Not being able to see the games takes something away from drama or need to set aside time. I'll clean the house or play ball with the kids with the game on in the background. 

I have lost interest compared to my youth . But there are many reasons . I used to love baseball but once my idol- Nolan Ryan - retired I had no reason to follow anymore  . While I was a Tigers fan, there was no one  on the team i cared about . The year they cancelled the World Series was when i broke away and never looked back.

I used to be a Lions fan but I gave up on that dumpster fire of a team after Barry quit . I stopped caring about the NFL altogether about 6 years ago . I noticed I only cared about what was happening as it related to my Fantasy players .  So I gave up on all of that . Dont care what happens in the NFL .  Havent missed it ,

I only follow College Football and NHL Hockey . U of M football and hockey and the Red Wings are my teams .

I used to live and die as the teams i loved won or  lost.   But I realized in the last few years , you cant win all the time .  There are much more important things to spend my time on .

 

I was a Residential College kid who loved punk and jazz and hated football and the culture that went with it, even though my dad and grandfather had gone to Michigan, and Tommy Harmon's mom had been their maid. When I came back to finish college after living in Europe for five years in 84, Jimmy Harbaugh was a kid with a bad reputation on campus. But in 1997 I was living in SF, and discovered a bunch of Michigan fans in a bar on Sutter Street, and found a new community. I have been rabid in my fandom ever since.

SMH at this thread.

The general theme of this thread is that our age and asssocaited life events has caused us to foresake pro sports to focus on Michigan.

Brian's reading this thread thinking, excellent, I have them right where I want them. 

Dropped for everything aside from Michigan football.

I'd say my M football fandom has about stayed the same. I guess that's a decrease since I was really excited about the RR hire, but I still get really mad about losses. That MSU game hurt me for 3-4 weeks, and I have 2 kids.

Michigan football is my passion and has been since I can remember. Seriously, I would root for Michigan if they were competing in checkers, but football is king for me.  I spend a crazy amount of time reading/listening and learning about my team and those football Saturday's truly are sacred to me. Thankfully, my family "gets it" and we try to make viewing (at home) an event where everyone has a role.  If this involves me being able to yell and even swear, at will, I am all for it.

I am a science project to a lot of men and this makes my fandom odd to many. Michigan is part of my soul.  I have not felt a need to try to impress a man I was interested in, nor do I need to have the rules explained to me, I am simply a huge fan in a petite, feminine form.

One thing I will say...is my love has deepened, but my perspective has sharpened.  I no longer live and die with a win or loss.  The recovery time for crushing losses has shortened.  Don't get me wrong, I was pissed off afer the MSU debacle last year, but I didn't let it ruin my weekend.  I filed that in my mind, knowing that it was a fluke and with Harbaugh...well, we've got this.

Even msu last year. I was laughing at the absurdity of it within a minute. I had 10 seconds of "I'm genuinely going to puke" followed by something in my brain telling me to grow the f up. It stopped immediately and it didn't bother me after. I think it's that we become jaded to sports the older we get due to the money and age. When we're kids they're truly our heroes! Even the college kids are older people to look up to but once you reach adulthood you see that they're just people. It loses that luster it has in childhood and I think that's natural for a ton of reasons.

Shifted. used to care about hockey and hockey only from about 5-12...by 12 I became obsessed with M Football and have continued on that path...picked up soccer on the way...now I spread my time across the three.

I would say it has dropped. But not due to anything other than my interests expanding. I used to be focused on Michigan football and Tigers baseball all of the time. I didn't care for much else. Just those sports and Star Wars. Then I started reading more and watching some other sports. Now I have a much bigger interest in soccer and college hockey than I do Michigan football. I support the Detroit teams about equally, but I would say my biggest areas of fandom are now 1. Soccer (Wolves, USMNT, Roma, Italian national team) 2. Michigan hockey 3. Michigan basketball 4. Michigan football 5. Detroit pro teams

I've learned to not take things so seriously though I'm just as big a fan as ever, thinking/reading about football daily. I have learned to appreciate the highs and lows. As bad as the MSU game was last year, I will always remember where I was and what was happening at that as-tragic-as-a-hobby-can-get moment. My older sister was at the 1994 Colorado game and has painful but lasting memories of it. I remember acting like a fool after we lost to App State. I don't and won't do that in any future, hopefully distant, tragic football losses. They've simply become bittersweet "where were you when...?" moments, the sweetness arriving much later than the bitter.

Michigan Football takes the cake for me.  I never miss a game, and never will miss a game.  I have full custody of my son so time is definitely limited.  I have developed over the last 15 years a love for soccer, and luckily Man City games are early sat or sun morning so I can  usually wake up early and watch those games, but that is really where my super fandom ends.  I'll catch the occasional michigan hoops games, because I follow Michigan in every sport, but rarely have time for NBA or NFL or MLB.  They are a luxury, but if I miss any of those games, it is no big deal at all.  

Sadly it has dropped off, I still watch my games but I do not get as mad as I used to over a loss it would effect me for weeks. I think part of it is just growing up, having a wiife & kids and a 9-5

Everything else - dropped off a bit as priorities and responsibilities change. Michigan Football - have and always will be a crazed, passionate, fanatic.

Grown.  Don't have kids (29) so now that I have season tickets I cannot get enough Michigan sports.  Certain that it'll shorten my lifespan from all the stress but totally worth it. 

Grown. When I was 8-11 I liked michigan but never was really affected by outcomes. Now at age 15 their games make or break my weekends

I think that my perspective has changed a bit.  My first memory of Michigan football was the Ohio State 10-10 game in 1973.  I was hooked!  I spent my childhood drawing Block Ms and putting pictures of Butch Woolfolk on my school folders.  I probably wore a Michigan jersey to school every fall Friday through elementary and middle school in Brighton.

As an adult, i don't go around wearing Michigan clothes or putting stickers on my car, but I spend an inordinate amount of time reading and researching on the internet.  I follow recruiting like I never would have before (easy access to information).  I haven't lived in Michigan in 22 years but I just made a week long trip up there so I could go to the PSU and Wisconsin games.

My "youthful exuberance" is gone......but Michigan football is still deeply in my blood. 

 

For every sport and team besides Michigan. My love and passion for Michigan Football burns with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Harbaugh is going to retire here so the next 10-20 years are going to be fantastic. We are very lucky. 

for me is Michigan football.  I have kids in college and high school, and am in my 50's.  Have a much lower pain threshold now for all my pro teams, and was quite an enthusiast when I was a kid.  The one complete exception now for me is Michigan football, though I enjoy M Basketbally as well.  Partly because of the amateur status, partly because I think Michigan strives to recruit good student athletes, and partly because my family and I just love Ann Arbor, the University, and our coaching staff, I am really into Michigan football.  Also had the privilege of meeting Coach Harbaugh when he was at USD, took my family to the Rose Bowl when Coach addressed the Michigan fans on the Santa Monical Pier in 08 when he was at Stanford and told my girls then thought he might end up as Michigan's Head Coach someday,

Took me longer to get over the MSU game last year than any sporting event in awhile, but I really enjoyed last season, the Citrus Bowl, and am loving where Michigan football is at and where it is heading.

 

I didn't go to U of M, but I noticed that my fandom grew a lot when I was in college. Something about being the same age as the players really connected with me. I had always been a Michigan fan, but in those years I became more of a diehard.

While my fandom has grown, I'm much better at dealing with the results now. The MSU game last year is a good example. I was devastated, but I was able to eventually hang out with friends later that day. And it didn't ruin my Sunday. Things like that used to ruin my entire week.

One might say I don't care as much, but that's simply not true. I am 100% more invested in Michigan sports now. I read MGoBlog daily. Listen to all the podcasts. Design wallpapers and custom fonts. I go to more games. But I'm just more mature in how I handle wins and losses.

and you realize there are a lot more important things in life then football or any sports for that matter. Still watch my teams and cheer loudly for them, but a loss might have me upset for a few minutes, then I just turn off the TV and move on and don't even dwell on it.

Like you pointed out, it used to piss me off for a week, but with age comes wisdom, I guess and especially when you have kids and discover there are a lot more important things in life then what a sports team does.

I used to follow all sports, Pro/College...Big time Red Wings fan...Now my sports following is Red Zone and Everything Michigan Football...Can't really explain it, but lost interest once I retired and moved to Fort Myers, Fl.

that it's dropped a bit...although in the 1990's, being a Michigan Wolverine fan living in Chicago...it could only drop...

But...I don't get into the NFL like I used to, I could care less about the Bulls or the Blackhawks, I am a fairweather Cubs fan and it's nice when Northwestern wins but I could care less one way or the other, really.

Late 50's here, and I live and breathe Michigan football, but whereas I grew up in metro Detroit as a sports junkie, I have pretty much pushed pro sports to the back burner (especially baseball, which I finally concluded was just too slow paced and boring).  For me, free agency and fantasy sports (which undermined my sense of team loyalty) combined with the over-commercialization of pro sports venues (non-stop advertising in the stadium and excessively long commercial breaks) killed my passion for most pro sports.  Now, my favorite pro sport to watch on TV is either DVR'd NFL games or live Euro-league soccer games (especially Champions League), with the beauty of running time preventing commercial interruptions every five minutes, like it is for American pro sports.  And, living in the Pacific Time Zone, live Euro soccer comes on at 11:45am, which is perfect for heading down to the sports bar to grab some lunch and watch half of a game.  But for sports, college football will always be my #1 passion, so give me Michigan football and a cable package with BTN, and I'm a happy man.  

As a military brat I never had any childhood teams to really cling to, it latched on to UM and the Red Wings as my parents were from Detroit and my grandparents lived there so we spent summer vacations and holidays there frequently. But I didn't start paying any attention until after I started college.

Michael Jordan was my original fandom, but that died the 2nd time he retired, didn't really watch any other sports until college when I was done playing them on my own. Became a nominal Wings fan after watching the 1995 Cup Final, then a rabid one in 2002 when I convinced my dad to get NHL Center Ice so we could watch every game that season. I still have Center Ice now and only have PlayStation Vue to watch UM play and the occasional NBCSN game that features Detroit.

So for me it's been a mix of going up for some and down for others. My UM fandom is as big as its ever been, while my interest in the Wings is dipping and all others are dead to me.

Ever since having kids, I have to choose what I want to watch, since time is limited. I no longer have 7-8 hrs on Saturday to watch a few games and definitely don't have the time to do 3.5 hrs on Saturday and then again on Sunday.

My fandom in sports has gone down but my fandom in Michigan Football has remain unchanged. If anything it has gone up.

Increased a lot.

 

35 is the mark for "the older crowd"?