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Thought I'd get to know the furniture around here a bit more, where is everyone from and what sports do you follow and which teams? Now I don't care how much you can deadlift, (and I can DL two fifths of fck all) if you don't follow or play team sport you're not a real man. I say that somewhat tongue in cheek and somewhat sincerely... I can never trust a man who doesn't follow sports.

Kicking off, I'm from Perth, Australia...

I follow AFL (Australian Rules Football) and the West Coast Eagles, also Liverpool in the English Premier League, Australia in Test cricket (I despise all other forms of cricket). I've recently started following NFL as well (kinda difficult in oz, until I got cable and ESPN) and I've got a soft spot for the Pats.

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You'll never walk alone, safe in the wide open arms of hell.

There are lots of types of sports besides team sports. Powerlifting and Weightlifting among them. Besides, the only team sport that matters is Hockey.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

where I come from, hockey is only played by girls.

I'm a Ross County fan in theory but I don't follow them all that closely.

Weirdly, I'm a big fan of the pole vault. Seriously. It looks like a lot of fun

It would be un-Canadian not to follow Hockey, at least to keep track of what Sydney Crosbie's doing.

Just for the sake of argument: Sports = panem et circenses.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

waaaay more cynical than I would expect from a cheerful, good natured gentleman such as yourself.

I would say that on the list of such offenders, sports comes quite far down (television taking an easy first). Participation in sports has all kinds of benefits, psychologically and physically.

Also, it gives the big dumb kids at school something to be good at (I was TERRIBLE at sports at school, but thankfully was very well liked so I was spared the embarrassment of getting picked last).

I'm glad my kids are better at sports than I was. They all enjoyed softball, mainly.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

I would've thought you'd have been quite sporty in your younger days Stu

I was as skinny as a rake (6'2" and 145# at age 16) and completely uncoordinated. I used to like wrestling, though.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

C'mon. Football (American) is the sport of corrupt politicians and men alike. I admit I like watching rugby, I just don't know much about it and it is rarely shown in the states.

Unfortunately, I are an Aggie (that's Texas A&M University to you non-Americans). That makes me a long suffering fan with not much hope in future. We are headed to the one true conference next year (SEC BABY!) and I fully expect us to get our arses handed to us in the foreseeable future.

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Thanks TimD.

And (for those of you from outside North America) when a Canadian says "hockey" he means ice hockey. Most Canadians and Americans don't even know of the existence of the original sport!

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

This confuses me. You know, don't you, that the US doesn't have a king? At least last time I checked. American football isn't played in any organized way in any country that has a king. Plus, most countries that have kings don't like their king to play contact sports. So as it turns out, the only team sports that could be considered the sport of kings are polo and cricket. Maybe fox hunting, but that's fallen in popularity due to the growing public affection for foxes and all other fur-bearing creatures.

I love baseball, but I can't honestly say that I'm following a team. I should support the Seattle Mariners, but how can you get your heart into that? Living in PNG, I should say that I love Rugby League, since most Papua New Guineans love in on a life-or-death basis.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I can assure you it is much more important than that.

(I must admit I have liberally paraphrased a quote from Bill Shankly here).


I tried really hard to get into Ice Hockey, but watching it on TV I just can't pick up the tactics, the required skills, whos playing well who isn't etc... I guess it is one of those things you need to be brought up on from a young age. I wouldn't expect anyone from outside of Australia to have a clue what is going on in AFL, which is what I consider to be the most intense, exciting spectator sport in the world (youtube a few videos if you can be arsed).

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You'll never walk alone, safe in the wide open arms of hell.

Pre depression I followed all the big American sports.

Now, only football. I may catch a college tournament game, or game 7 of the world series. I do watch the World Cup but more for the "I don't want to be left out", not that I know the players at all.
I grew up playing goalie (soccer). Unorganized, I played baseball, football, and basketball. I was an active kid.

College Football: SEC: Alabama. Well, now since I live here.
Pros, don't care. Watch 3-5 games a week, but I just pull for competitive games and great play. I'm a bit turned off by guys who live and die by their teams sucess.

That Alabama/Auburn rivalry is intense! I watched a piece on ESPN about the guy who poisoned the tree and admitted it on talk back radio, man!

I like to follow LSU's games, as I got a buddy in LA and the freshman punter for LSU is from Australia. There is an Aussie kid at Alabama too, offensive or defensive linesman, can't remember. Crazy to think the national championship for American Football had two Aussie kids in each team (for us Aussies anyway).

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You'll never walk alone, safe in the wide open arms of hell.

Here is a two minute youtube that gives as good a rundown of Aussie Rules as you can in two minutes.



The goal you see at 0:46 is probably one of the most impressive individual displays of pure brilliance I've seen in a long time. The guy who kicked the goal, Buddy Franklin, is arguably the best player in the country right now, and after retirement would be in the mix of many arguments over who is the greatest to ever play. He is THAT good.

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You'll never walk alone, safe in the wide open arms of hell.