There was a conversation at work the other day concerning women whose husbands watch sports (specifically, the NFL) obsessively, refusing to miss a game during the season. I'd always thought that this was fairly common, if not the norm, because my father's reaction to leaving the house on Saturday or Sunday in the fall was usually somewhere between "bewildered" and "shocked and appalled". It wasn't until I got to college and found that none of my male friends enjoyed watching sports that I realized it's not universal behavior.
The wives in question began debating whether it is a byproduct of the internet age, with the instant access to information, the ability to track multiple games at once, and, of course, fantasy leagues bringing a new dimension to fandom. I argued that these obsessions have always existed, the only difference is that now people have more opportunities to indulge them. My dad would watch whatever game they were showing, all that mattered was that football was on. He didn't need to have a rooting interest beforehand, he just genuinely liked the game. Hell, this was a man so into horse racing that he would watch the televised results at night to see how he would have done if he had gone to the track (this was after his bookie retired).
I imagine that I would be the sports fanatic in a marriage. I just hope any future husband of mine isn't too into "doing things" on Sundays.
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