According to Technorati's Report on the Blogosphere last month, less than 10 percent of bloggers are sports bloggers. I find this rather odd considering that 48 percent of Americans say they are sports fans. Plus blogging should fit like a glove for sports enthusiasts since they typically like to make their opinions known and will look for any forum to do so. What gives? Personally, I enjoy watching sports. So, let me get a few things out of my system before I attempt to figure out the answer to this question.
I also enjoy college football. Every Saturday you'll find me rooting for my alma mater, Auburn University with the kids. War Eagle, baby. College football fits perfectly with my obsession with all things retro - there's simply so much history associated with these teams; I find the history and century-old rivalries add an extra dimension to the game. How can you not enjoy watching the Alabama-Auburn game? Or the Kansas-Nebraska game, or Oklahoma-Texas?
When Michael Jordan was still playing basketball, I watched every single Chicago Bulls game without fail. I feel that same sort of energy watching Lebron James. He has revitalized the NBA for me the past few years, and now there's yet another sport taking up my time in the evenings. One wonders how I find the time with a house full of kids and an 8-5 job to watch all these retro movies and TV shows, plus blog religously each day AND watch sports. To be honest, I can usually compose a post in under an hour, it's therapeutic and relaxing, and I always make time for it, even if it's late, late at night. Sleep is overrated.
But back to the original question of why there's so few sports bloggers. As I said, given that half of Americans are self proclaimed sports fans and the fact that blogging seems to naturally lend itself to the sports enthusiast who typically want to make their opinions known (often, in an obnoxious way). Here's a couple explanations offered on other sites:
1. Other sites have speculated that sports fans simply don't have the time, since they are too busy following their passion - watching sports. I don't buy this theory at all. What about all these movie blogs? Somehow they find the time to both write about and watch movies.2. I've also read that blogging is the domain of computer literate individuals (i.e. nerds who'd rather sit behind a computer than go to the gym). I would also disagree with this. I've gotten to know (albeit rather indirectly) a lot of other bloggers - I see what a lot of them look like, what they're doing on weekends, what their likes and dislikes are, etc. What I don't see is a lot of homely looking nerds living in their parent's basement. What I do see is a lot of witty, socially active, and interesting individuals who live an enriched life. Sure, there's some overweight socially maladjusted bloggers out there who are rolling the 20 sided die right at this very moment and haven't seen the inside of a gym since they were getting hit in the nuts at dodgeball in eighth grade. But these are the minorty.
So, what's my explanation? Well, if you scout around Flickr, Tumblr or any of the millions of blogs out there, you will find a helluva lot more images and information about topics like 1970's giallo films, Star Wars trading cards, and vintage funk albums than you will about any given sports topic. The bizarre, the rare, the odd, the vintage, the shocking, the fringe have found a collective home in the blogosphere (BTW I hate that effing word); it has become the haven for things not necessarily commercial or mainstream. It's global, so not limited to American interests, and it's largely driven by the younger generation. Just as the right wing _________ (insert word here) have found their niche on daytime talk radio, the offbeat has found its niche in the blogosphere. Sports already has its venue on TV, at the stadium, and on the radio.... what's the point of finding a voice through a blog? However, subjects such as Golden Age comics, Star Trek ephemera, horror paperbacks, and vintage lounge music records didn't have a venue before blogging (except in the form of hard to find magazines). Now they do.... and it's like the floodgates have been opened.And that's my explanation. What's yours?
