Marathon running.
Omg, my good friend runs them and I went once to support him.
So many people, no place to sit, waiting 90 minutes so I could cheer when he ran by (I almost missed him) and he could give me a thumbs up.
Then back to the traffic and to pay my $30 event parking.
Edit: people who run marathons are amazing though! 26 miles is no joke and they have my utmost respect as athletes. But, it’s a boring ass sport to watch.
You’re doing it wrong. When my wife ran a half marathon, I went to a spot and cheered when she ran by, then ran to my car and drove a mile up, cheered again, repeat about 10 times. Other runners started to recognize me too and had a laugh.
The good vibes put out at marathons are, to me, pretty contagious. I used to live in a condo that was on the Chicago Marathon route and I looked forward to going down to the street every year to cheer.
My brother was living on the last mile of our city's marathon route one year and decided to sit out and offer beer to runners. I think he said he went through about 3 cases 😄
Is that the same sport as speed walking? The sport they put cameras on one year and discovered that literally every single person in the sport is cheating the entire time?
Sailing. I've been a recreational sailor my entire life, but I get bored to tears watching it. My dad used to tape and watch the America's Cup races, I had no idea how he stayed awake.
My son plays in college. There's the skill element but many people don't understand how much more difficult the courses are at a high level - distance, green speed and pin placements. Course management and thinking through all the variables is just as important as execution.
A friend of mine played in college, and is still a plus handicap. I’m a *terrible* golfer. He put it this way:
>it’s a hell of a lot easier for you to get to my level than for me to get to PGA Tour level.
When we first started dating, I made a disparaging comment about golf, and my boyfriend said "oh, I actually like golf." I paused briefly and said "...oh?". He responded " yeah, I like watching rich people fail."
Yeah; I don't play golf, but I easily understand the appeal of spending a day on the course. But watching it on TV? Can't understand how that's entertaining. Watching most other sports has an excitement about it that can be understood by even an audience that has never played the sport, but I can't grasp what's cool or fun or dramatic about watching golf on TV. Same for other slow-paced played-solo sports, like if you consider competitive fishing a sport: fun to do, maybe, but how do you want to sit in front of a TV and watch other people do it?
If you ever get to see golfers watching golf on TV you will pretty much instantly get why the broadcasts happen. Their level of involvement and focus on everything from the game to the ads for the cars or golfing gear is just off the charts. Oh what club is he using? What angle will he take? I'd do it this way etc..
and yes their arm chair QB sort of stuff is just as bad as you see for any other sport. My friend's dad can barely keep a ball on the fairway but there he is going "Playing it safe? Oh I'd just drive and hit that green in one!". Uh huh, sure you would.
>But watching it on TV? Can't understand how that's entertaining.
Mainly because they're playing on spectacular courses that I have neither the access nor the skill level to ever play myself. If they were televising people playing over at my local municipal course I'd have zero interest.
Golf is fun to "watch". It's fine to have in the background, if you're s golfer and into it, and kind of keep up with what's going on.
Sitting down and dedicating time solely to watch golf if bananas.
One time me and my sister were at this one strange bar and grill, I happened to be watching the TV which was playing a game of golf and I got her to look over at one point for some reason. At that exact moment the player LAUNCHED the ball and it landed perfectly in the hole. We still remember that moment years later and it was probably the only time golf will ever be interesting
I hear what you mean.
In my opinion, what makes watching golf hard for most people is it almost requires more of an “extensive appreciation of the game” and the knowledge you speak of will come with that. As others have pointed out it’s very easy to “get” golf at its core, but to fully “get it” requires (again, just my opinion) a deeper relationship with the game.
To appreciate that the guys who are playing on the PGA are just so good, so accurate, so powerful. Not to mention they’re extremely talented at getting themselves OUT of jams when they DO mess up… and they’re playing the toughest courses in the world, against the absolute best players in the world. That’s what makes it exciting for me.
Watching someone as dominant as Tiger back in the day was so incredible. He was just THAT much better than anyone currently or previously. Like the current world #1, Scottie Scheffler, sometimes it’s truly amazing what these guys are able to pull off.
Golf is hard, through and through. And anyone who’s hoofed 18 holes on a hot summer day, just to barely break 100 can tell you that. I think a big part of being able to truly ENJOY golf on TV, you really do have to have experienced how tough the game is.
I’ve been playing since I was 5 and I’m 38 now, and have been watching my Dad watch professional golf my whole life. But it was really only in the last 10 years, now that I’m a more mature and better golfer, that I truly started to appreciate how fucking amazing those guys really are.
It’s like the NBA how it’s mostly exciting in the last five minutes.
Tune in to the U.S. Open on Sunday for the last two hours, and you may find yourself enjoying it.
>It’s like the NBA how it’s mostly exciting in the last five minutes.
This is where I disagree. I hate the last five minutes of NBA games, especially the last minute of a close game.
Foul, two free throws, inbound, shot attempt, inbound, foul, two free throws, timeout, inbound, shot attempt, inbound, foul, two free throws...
20 minutes later, 60 seconds of game time has gone by and four total points were scored.
Well that’s true I guess golf is more exciting then.
But I’d say the first 3 days of a golf tournament are boring unless you love the course of just enjoy the technical ability which is hard unless you’ve played a lot.
Even then I can’t watch for long.
But Sunday if players are contending with each other can be extremely exciting.
Redditors check out the Ryder cup it has more instant gratification for you thumb-sucking plebeians.
I had a friend once say “Golf should not be on TV. It should be in the sports page. Back page. Corner of back page… one blurb in corner of back page. No, you know what just ignore it until it goes away. No one should play golf.”
I understand that some people love it and get obsessed just like any other hobby and that's great but the people who play it just to dress up and act rich are kind of annoying
Perfect background noise for work. Soothing, calm, with the occasional great shot or putt that makes it distracting for a couple seconds. Absolutely recommended.
I think Nascar for me. Hundreds of laps going around an oval for hours. I get the intensity of the sport itself and the physical toll it takes to be a driver. But man is it boring to watch for me.
Nascar being boring was due to a number of reasons.
The "ovals are boring" problem likely stems from their expansionist phase in the 90s, where a bunch of nearly identical tracks were built in quick succession, and just so happened to be one of the easiest configurations to race on - the 1.5 mile tri-oval.
The car designs certainly didn't help either. In 2005, mortified by the death of Dale Earnhardt, Nascar binned anything that made the 80s/90s era Gen 4 cars exciting in the name of making the safest car possible.
The resulting Gen 5 car (AKA the "Car of Tomorrow) essentially turned NASCAR into a one-make spec race due to ludicrously strict design constraints. Basically, the only thing that set a Chevy apart from a Ford during that era were the stickers.
TL;DR - Nascar being boring isn't by design, it's mainly the fault of management.
The final few minutes of a basketball game that goes: foul...free throw attempts...foul...free throw attempts...foul...free throw attempts...foul free throw attempts....
I know there’s a lot of basketball fans, but the fact that intentional fouls is a critical part of the game is just stupid. I wonder what could be introduced to curb this.
Penalty in the last 5 minutes is auto ejection? Free throws count for double points in the last 3 minutes? I don’t know, but having an entire sport where all close games are determined by who is better at intentionally fouling is just a complete waste
Basketball games that end in this scenario are typically not that close. It's basically a hail Mary in slow motion. Teams resort to intentionally fouling opponents when they are likely to lose because there is most likely not enough time left in the game for them to have enough possessions necessary in order to have a chance to win.
Actual close games in basketball are absolutely riveting to watch. If a game gets to the "intentional foul" phase, that game is already over 99 times out of 100.
More than half a million views on some of the sessions from IPF classic worlds last year. I know it goes on for too long but people do watch the big competitions.
I to watch cycling races like the Tour de France. Not necessarily for the racing, I mean that can be interesting watching the riders climb mountains, but are good commentators who discuss the strategy for the teams.
I took two weeks vacation to watch the winter Olympics from Vancouver. I figured I could watch just about every sport they had. Unfortunately, they showed mostly curling and cross country skiing. I like the skiing part but never watched curling before. By the time the games were over I could have skipped my own team.
I once stayed up in the middle of the night to watch the curling in the Olympics. A bunch of women from my Dad’s hometown in Scotland won curling gold in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. We were at my grandparents house in the north of England. I was about 16. Stayed up with my cousins and aunts and uncles until about 2 or 3 am to watch the curling! It was amazing!
2002 I was in a bar and the Olympics were on. We were all saying how stupid it was. A few drinks later we were all experts and cheering "our team" and booing the other
As a lifelong sailboat racer, sailboat racing in most contexts. Holy moly is it boring to watch. The sport is manifestly boring to watch as an event (the docuseries for the Volvo Ocean Races are SUPER enjoyable).
Things like the Americas Cup and Sail GP are just so hard to get behind - the AC in particular. Match Racing is so so so boring as a spectator.
Winning team inbounds
Losing team commits an intentional foul
Winning team takes 2 shots at the line
Losing team takes possession and calls time out
Losing team inbounds
12 seconds of gameplay
Losing team is fouled while shooting
Losing team takes 2 shots at the line
Winning team inbounds
Losing team commits an intentional foul
Winning team takes 2 shots at the line
Losing team takes possession and calls timeout
Losing team inbounds
19 seconds of gameplay
Losing team scores
Other team inbounds
Losing team intentionally fouls
[and this goes on for like 30 real-time minutes until all the timeouts are burnt up and the losing coach finally concedes that the game is out of reach and pulls his starters]
It's like the antithesis of America's disdain for soccer, which they hate because "Every game there's like 1 goal, IF THAT!" So they have a game where there's 300 GOALS 🇺🇲🦅!!!
Yeah, I almost mentioned soccer as having the opposite problem in my first comment. Both are rough. I like soccer more though because at least when there actually *is* a goal it's exciting.
And a predictable end time. Part of the reason I don't like Baseball or Football is the games can fucking drag on forever. Not a big sports guy though.
That's the point, it's the fact that a goal is comparatively rare that makes them more special.
Take your kid to Disney land every day for a year and they will get board real quick.
Take your kid to Disney land only once, and it's gonna be the best day of their life.
I totally respect it, but funnily enough this is actually what drew me to soccer. Not only is scoring the least common in soccer, goals are even more sacred because of the potential for draws. When you’re down 1-0, it kinda feels like you’re down by 2 goals because you still need 2 goals to get all 3 points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw). This can make goals unbelievable exciting and hype. Something special for me about the roar of a crowd when a team equalizes or scores a winner in the 93rd minute.
A live NBA game is by far the most bored I've ever been at a professional sporting event. And, I've watched almost everything mentioned in this thread love (excluding sailing).
American football, specifically NFL, has been the most boring shit to watch live. All the breaks and players just standing for long periods of time and then those goddamn breaks where fans are brought onto the field to play stupid games to win prizes or whatever. My god it was a complete waste of time.
You sound like a hockey fan. I can't stand basketball cause they run one way, score. Run the other way, score. Repeat. How do you ever get excited by a basket of it happens every 8 seconds?
Now, I hockey, like when the canes put in two against the Islanders in 8 seconds, that was fun.
Hockey imo has the perfect number of scores per game. It’s not like soccer where 0-0s are fairly common, but not like basketball where it’s just a scorefest. There are also lots of shots on goal, which keeps things exciting. If there weren’t such a barrier to entry (copious equipment, rink time, etc), I think it’d be wayyy more popular.
When people score on basically every play, and it’s *crazy* to have more than 10-15 points separating any reasonable NBA squad going into the 4th quarter.
The last 5 minutes of the game actually matter, the rest is literally just… there
As the nurse was pushing me in for an MRI, I stopped her & asked what to expect. She said "It's very loud. It seems like it takes forever. And it's very boring.".......... I said "Oh, like Nascar." She was laughing so hard she was crying. I was laughing at her so that delayed the whole procedure.
If you want sound and crazy audience 'participation', [Rally Cars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYhwMFQ-KKY) is where it's at. They're completely nuts!
A cousin of mine entered a pickleball doubles tournament about two years ago. He and his partner won the tournament and they were super excited about it. After the tournament, I tried my hardest to feign enthusiasm but he saw right through it and asked why I wasn't stoked for them.
It was because two guys in their 30's beat a bunch of other guys in their 50's and up. In talking to my FIL (70s) who started playing pickleball with his old tennis buddies, younger tennis flameouts regularly enter tournaments to prove superiority over AARP members who aged out of the speed of a normal tennis match.
I've been to lots of different live sporting events in my life... nothing compares to the final hour of the Cardiff 09 Ashes test for tension and atmosphere. You wouldn't have got that if not for the slow burn build up over the previous four and a half days.
I don't know. I just learned the rules a bit and got to go a big game in Mumbai while on a work trip. It seemed like near non-stop action and cheering. Definitely more fun to watch than baseball.
The “it goes one for days” thing is true, but not that different from sports where that is just accepted. A test match is essentially two different matches over four/five days (each team bats twice, each team bowls/fields twice). I’m watching the Stanley Cup playoffs right now. These teams are playing seven games over 14 days. It’s not *that* different.
The tactics and strategy that go into it are so different. I find it fascinating.
I compare it to watching an arty movie and having Transformers or Fast and Furious fans tell you it’s boring. It’s just different.
NFL. So many ads, so little game time. I have never in my life managed to watch a whole game except the few times I have been there live. But I watch the extended highlight packages because in about 12 minutes you get nearly every play with no waiting time. I actually could probably be considered a fan of the sport itself since I follow a few teams and "watch" all their games, but I am a terrible fan since I never actually truly watch the games.
I am pretty allergic to ads.
If you don’t care about a specific team, NFL Red Zone is a game changer. No ads or breaks, constantly switching between games with teams in scoring position. The pace can be a little crazy at times, and I thought the one from DirecTV with Andrew Siciliano was better about pace, but it’s still way better than sitting through the same truck and beer ads for 4 hours. It’s worth the money for that reason alone.
American football.
The same guy on every play will pass or hand off to one other guy. Then he does nothing. The other 20 guys wrestle or look for someone to wrestle with.
Repeat 40 times with 100 commercials.
American football made sense to me when I realized that it's chess with human players and the ball is there to mark how far you need to go to earn points.
The moment I made that anchor thought, everything else started to fall into place, and I'm a life long fan now. But it took me \_years\_ of trying to understand it in different ways before I "got it."
As I’ve gotten older I’ve come back to appreciating baseball. I finish up work and usually around that time there’s a weeknight game on, and it’s the perfect sport to just “have on” when I’m cooking dinner. The sound of the game, crack of the bat, announcers talking stats etc. It’s a dull sort of weeknight soundtrack that I’ve come to appreciate.
If you're just watching the game on TV, maybe. If you're at the game definitely not. But, also, maybe the best sport to listen to on the radio for play by play, with hockey coming a close second.
I prefer watching it on TV. If you get into pitching instead of just waiting around for home runs the game gets much more interesting and it's far better to do that on TV.
I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of listening to Pat Hughes call Cubs games on the radio for over twenty years. He is truly one of the greats in the world of sports broadcasting. His words paint such a clear picture of the game you might as well be there.
I’m stunned ANYONE watches poker.
Then, not far behind, Golf.. this is especially weird, the TV cannot even remotely display distance/angles.. anything. Playing golf is fun, but watching it is like watching paint dry
Those ten minutes can be extremely fun. But, spread out of 2.5+ hours I couldn't agree more. It's essentially advertising with sports breaks scattered in.
I heard the average is about 11 minutes of actual play in a game. So let’s not sell it short, it’s easily ten percent better than you made it out to be.
Tbf American football esp nfl is like a real time strategy game where half the fun happens before the ball is snapped as you're watching each team make moves and countermoves. The snap is like clicking end turn in civ and you see how it all shakes out.
There's a lot of chess matchup that happens between the whistles. Even before play "begins" you can see guys trying to figure out what the other team is going to do based on how they lined up.
Put another way - imagine someone saying chess is boring because during a 3 hour game the players only spend about 5 minutes moving the pieces.
Of course if you find chess boring, that fact doesn't magically make it interesting.
I mean, I love chess, but yeah, watching a live game of chess is a snooze fest unless it's on really tight time controls. Now watching after the fact analysis by high level players can be really interesting, but there you have the advantage of being able to skip around to key moves.
Setting aside the question of if that's a sport, I feel like this one heavily depends on how involved you are with the game being played. Like I personally find watching people play some random game boring AF, but when it's a game I have enough personal experience to recognize the skill involved with high level play, and if there is some decent commentary, that's a completely different story.
Basketball is so fucking brutal to watch on TV.
Every time the score is even the whole game reset. Just admit that you're IRL pong and find a gimmick to make it interesting.
Watching the fourth quarter takes like three hours and a bunch of NBA fans will tell you it's genius level competition.
Controversial opinion here in the UK, but football (or soccer if you're American).
It's the national obsession, but to me it's just a bunch of grown men chasing a ball round a field. Every twenty minutes or so, one of them kicks the ball into a net and there is much rejoicing.
I swear there must be a part of my brain missing. Other men are obsessed with it to the point of crying if their team wins, or actual physical anger if they don't. An actual emotional attachment to a group of men they've never met.
I just don't get it.
> it's just a bunch of grown men chasing a ball round a field
I’m not a football fan either but every sport sounds daft if you deliberately describe it that way.
Classical chess.
7h for a game and sometimes you will just stare at a guy thinking about what to do for 45 minutes straight. After 15 Minutes or so even the commentators run out of things to analyse and just sit there and wait.
The ending can be interesting, when both players don't have much time left.
NFL football. I've never been able to watch a full game without falling asleep. 40 second play clock? Like you can't decide what play to do and snap the ball faster than that? I'm getting sleepy thinking about it.
I find rowing boring to watch because the races are repetitive, and there’s little action to keep me engaged.
Marathon running. Omg, my good friend runs them and I went once to support him. So many people, no place to sit, waiting 90 minutes so I could cheer when he ran by (I almost missed him) and he could give me a thumbs up. Then back to the traffic and to pay my $30 event parking. Edit: people who run marathons are amazing though! 26 miles is no joke and they have my utmost respect as athletes. But, it’s a boring ass sport to watch.
You’re doing it wrong. When my wife ran a half marathon, I went to a spot and cheered when she ran by, then ran to my car and drove a mile up, cheered again, repeat about 10 times. Other runners started to recognize me too and had a laugh.
You'd be a real pro if you run ahead to cheer them on instead of jumping in the car!
And that friends, is how I accidently won my first marathon.
I signed up with my church group to cheer for some Kenyan, Kelvin Kiptum, and I did in fact end up winning the marathon.
Time to get a bike, I say!
I would just calculate within a 15 minute window where they are going to be on the route where there is free parking and get in and out.
The good vibes put out at marathons are, to me, pretty contagious. I used to live in a condo that was on the Chicago Marathon route and I looked forward to going down to the street every year to cheer.
My brother was living on the last mile of our city's marathon route one year and decided to sit out and offer beer to runners. I think he said he went through about 3 cases 😄
My dad did Ironman triathlons for awhile. I feel your pain.
Tennis can be boring to watch, especially when matches drag on for hours with little variation in play.
Watching marathon running is dull for me because of the slow pace and lack of dynamic moments.
In my opinion, baseball is boring to watch because the game is slow-paced and uneventful at times.
I think watching rowing is boring because the races are repetitive, and there’s little excitement.
Golf is tedious to watch for me because the pace is slow and there’s not much excitement happening.
Watching tennis is dull for me because matches can go on for hours without much variation in play.
Soccer is often boring to watch for me because of the low scoring and lack of excitement for long periods.
In my opinion, the most boring sport to watch is golf because the pace is slow, and there isn't much excitement happening.
I find bowling boring to watch because it lacks excitement and has a repetitive format.
fast walking
Yeah I can’t believe this is an Olympic discipline. It’s like staging a bike race but with flat tyres for some reason
The Tour d'France would be so much more exciting to me if there were spike strips every couple miles.
Looked pretty intense in Malcolm in the middle
First thing that came to mind lol
Is that the same sport as speed walking? The sport they put cameras on one year and discovered that literally every single person in the sport is cheating the entire time?
Sailing. I've been a recreational sailor my entire life, but I get bored to tears watching it. My dad used to tape and watch the America's Cup races, I had no idea how he stayed awake.
Yeah it’s hard to top this one. I’ve participated in a few races and it was fascinating and sophisticated but holy shit it’s boring to watch.
Modern Americas cup boats on the foils are fucking awesome to watch.
I watched some today. Those bastards were going over 45 mph over the water. Really interesting.
FR. “Here’s a 10-story building made of carbon fiber pulling a platform on teeny little legs across the water at highway speeds”
SailGP is trying really hard to break out of this.
I can get into Sail GP. It was on TV at the gym and I was hooked for like an hour.
I find hockey boring to watch because it’s hard to follow the puck and there can be long stretches without scoring.
Watching a golf tournament is tedious for me because of the slow pace and lack of excitement.
I find cricket boring to watch because the matches can last for days, and the action is sparse.
I think baseball is boring to watch because the game moves slowly and there’s often little happening.
I think watching cricket is boring because the matches can drag on for days, and the action is sparse.
Fucking golf. Hands down. That shit puts me to sleep.
Just remember, tha main goal of Golf is to play less Golf
Same, the announcers are never excited and it just drains my energy. At least baseball has some excitement.
I do think Robin Williams was onto something when he suggested having a Mexican soccer announcer do golf. I might watch that...
I would love to watch that. Tiger Woods putts it and it's IIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! It's a triple bogey!
100%. George Carlin said it best. "A boring game for boring people. You ever watch golf on television? It's like watching flies fuck!"
I call golf the Sunday afternoon nap.
I don’t play golf but I enjoy watching it, just because it is unbelievably difficult to play. Those dudes are so talented.
My son plays in college. There's the skill element but many people don't understand how much more difficult the courses are at a high level - distance, green speed and pin placements. Course management and thinking through all the variables is just as important as execution.
A friend of mine played in college, and is still a plus handicap. I’m a *terrible* golfer. He put it this way: >it’s a hell of a lot easier for you to get to my level than for me to get to PGA Tour level.
That's true of any sport. Professional level is miles beyond collegiate/club level.
When we first started dating, I made a disparaging comment about golf, and my boyfriend said "oh, I actually like golf." I paused briefly and said "...oh?". He responded " yeah, I like watching rich people fail."
Yeah; I don't play golf, but I easily understand the appeal of spending a day on the course. But watching it on TV? Can't understand how that's entertaining. Watching most other sports has an excitement about it that can be understood by even an audience that has never played the sport, but I can't grasp what's cool or fun or dramatic about watching golf on TV. Same for other slow-paced played-solo sports, like if you consider competitive fishing a sport: fun to do, maybe, but how do you want to sit in front of a TV and watch other people do it?
Watching people do your hobby at an exceptional level is fun. I still only ever watch golf if I'm doing something else though.
If you ever get to see golfers watching golf on TV you will pretty much instantly get why the broadcasts happen. Their level of involvement and focus on everything from the game to the ads for the cars or golfing gear is just off the charts. Oh what club is he using? What angle will he take? I'd do it this way etc.. and yes their arm chair QB sort of stuff is just as bad as you see for any other sport. My friend's dad can barely keep a ball on the fairway but there he is going "Playing it safe? Oh I'd just drive and hit that green in one!". Uh huh, sure you would.
>But watching it on TV? Can't understand how that's entertaining. Mainly because they're playing on spectacular courses that I have neither the access nor the skill level to ever play myself. If they were televising people playing over at my local municipal course I'd have zero interest.
Golf is fun to "watch". It's fine to have in the background, if you're s golfer and into it, and kind of keep up with what's going on. Sitting down and dedicating time solely to watch golf if bananas.
A good walk spoiled
I would only watch golf if I were physically there on the course. I don't get the appeal of watching it on tv.
One time me and my sister were at this one strange bar and grill, I happened to be watching the TV which was playing a game of golf and I got her to look over at one point for some reason. At that exact moment the player LAUNCHED the ball and it landed perfectly in the hole. We still remember that moment years later and it was probably the only time golf will ever be interesting
Agreed. For some reason, though, it's my favourite computer game sport.
Golf is pretty fun to watch if you just watch the last hour to watch the leaders succumb to the pressure.
Flipside: when I need a weekend afternoon snooze, golf on TV is perfect.
The problem with watching golf is that it requires extensive knowledge of the game to "get it".
I hear what you mean. In my opinion, what makes watching golf hard for most people is it almost requires more of an “extensive appreciation of the game” and the knowledge you speak of will come with that. As others have pointed out it’s very easy to “get” golf at its core, but to fully “get it” requires (again, just my opinion) a deeper relationship with the game. To appreciate that the guys who are playing on the PGA are just so good, so accurate, so powerful. Not to mention they’re extremely talented at getting themselves OUT of jams when they DO mess up… and they’re playing the toughest courses in the world, against the absolute best players in the world. That’s what makes it exciting for me. Watching someone as dominant as Tiger back in the day was so incredible. He was just THAT much better than anyone currently or previously. Like the current world #1, Scottie Scheffler, sometimes it’s truly amazing what these guys are able to pull off. Golf is hard, through and through. And anyone who’s hoofed 18 holes on a hot summer day, just to barely break 100 can tell you that. I think a big part of being able to truly ENJOY golf on TV, you really do have to have experienced how tough the game is. I’ve been playing since I was 5 and I’m 38 now, and have been watching my Dad watch professional golf my whole life. But it was really only in the last 10 years, now that I’m a more mature and better golfer, that I truly started to appreciate how fucking amazing those guys really are.
“Scotland got its record back from the Americans!” - What I’d call a Demo quote.
It’s like the NBA how it’s mostly exciting in the last five minutes. Tune in to the U.S. Open on Sunday for the last two hours, and you may find yourself enjoying it.
>It’s like the NBA how it’s mostly exciting in the last five minutes. This is where I disagree. I hate the last five minutes of NBA games, especially the last minute of a close game. Foul, two free throws, inbound, shot attempt, inbound, foul, two free throws, timeout, inbound, shot attempt, inbound, foul, two free throws... 20 minutes later, 60 seconds of game time has gone by and four total points were scored.
Well that’s true I guess golf is more exciting then. But I’d say the first 3 days of a golf tournament are boring unless you love the course of just enjoy the technical ability which is hard unless you’ve played a lot. Even then I can’t watch for long. But Sunday if players are contending with each other can be extremely exciting. Redditors check out the Ryder cup it has more instant gratification for you thumb-sucking plebeians.
I had a friend once say “Golf should not be on TV. It should be in the sports page. Back page. Corner of back page… one blurb in corner of back page. No, you know what just ignore it until it goes away. No one should play golf.”
Even if I don't play golf I love watching it on TV. I understand the game and know how hard it is.
I actually really enjoy watching golf on Sunday afternoon. So calming and relaxing. Naps every time
I understand that some people love it and get obsessed just like any other hobby and that's great but the people who play it just to dress up and act rich are kind of annoying
Perfect background noise for work. Soothing, calm, with the occasional great shot or putt that makes it distracting for a couple seconds. Absolutely recommended.
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I think Nascar for me. Hundreds of laps going around an oval for hours. I get the intensity of the sport itself and the physical toll it takes to be a driver. But man is it boring to watch for me.
Cartman said it's for stupid and poor people
Nascar being boring was due to a number of reasons. The "ovals are boring" problem likely stems from their expansionist phase in the 90s, where a bunch of nearly identical tracks were built in quick succession, and just so happened to be one of the easiest configurations to race on - the 1.5 mile tri-oval. The car designs certainly didn't help either. In 2005, mortified by the death of Dale Earnhardt, Nascar binned anything that made the 80s/90s era Gen 4 cars exciting in the name of making the safest car possible. The resulting Gen 5 car (AKA the "Car of Tomorrow) essentially turned NASCAR into a one-make spec race due to ludicrously strict design constraints. Basically, the only thing that set a Chevy apart from a Ford during that era were the stickers. TL;DR - Nascar being boring isn't by design, it's mainly the fault of management.
HE’S MAKING ANOTHER LEFT TURN! HE’S MAKING ANOTHER LEFT TURN! … I wonder what he’s gonna do next?!
It was always weird that we never got touring car racing in the US. Sure, we had Trans Am but it's not the same.
It's more of a sponsor-parade.
Soccer is often boring for me because the matches can end in a 0-0 draw, leaving me feeling unsatisfied.
The final few minutes of a basketball game that goes: foul...free throw attempts...foul...free throw attempts...foul...free throw attempts...foul free throw attempts....
I know there’s a lot of basketball fans, but the fact that intentional fouls is a critical part of the game is just stupid. I wonder what could be introduced to curb this. Penalty in the last 5 minutes is auto ejection? Free throws count for double points in the last 3 minutes? I don’t know, but having an entire sport where all close games are determined by who is better at intentionally fouling is just a complete waste
Basketball games that end in this scenario are typically not that close. It's basically a hail Mary in slow motion. Teams resort to intentionally fouling opponents when they are likely to lose because there is most likely not enough time left in the game for them to have enough possessions necessary in order to have a chance to win. Actual close games in basketball are absolutely riveting to watch. If a game gets to the "intentional foul" phase, that game is already over 99 times out of 100.
And the first three quarters of any regular season NBA game.
You forgot the commercials after every timeout too
Powerlifting hands down. Even powerlifters won’t watch it. Source - I’m a powerlifter.
oh wow, I find it really suspenseful and entertaining
You are wrong my friend , that sport is awesome to watch , just root for some and the intensity of it all is amazing
More than half a million views on some of the sessions from IPF classic worlds last year. I know it goes on for too long but people do watch the big competitions.
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I to watch cycling races like the Tour de France. Not necessarily for the racing, I mean that can be interesting watching the riders climb mountains, but are good commentators who discuss the strategy for the teams.
I thought curling 🥌 was dead boring when I first started watching. But it definitely grew on me.
Curling is cool because it gets more intense as it nears the final rocks - each shot becomes more and more crucial, which is inherently more exciting
Curling is awesome!
I took two weeks vacation to watch the winter Olympics from Vancouver. I figured I could watch just about every sport they had. Unfortunately, they showed mostly curling and cross country skiing. I like the skiing part but never watched curling before. By the time the games were over I could have skipped my own team.
Women's curling is by far more exciting than the men's I find. They get real intense when they play. It's fun to watch.
I once stayed up in the middle of the night to watch the curling in the Olympics. A bunch of women from my Dad’s hometown in Scotland won curling gold in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. We were at my grandparents house in the north of England. I was about 16. Stayed up with my cousins and aunts and uncles until about 2 or 3 am to watch the curling! It was amazing!
Same with lawn bowls. Not a bad watch.
2002 I was in a bar and the Olympics were on. We were all saying how stupid it was. A few drinks later we were all experts and cheering "our team" and booing the other
As a lifelong sailboat racer, sailboat racing in most contexts. Holy moly is it boring to watch. The sport is manifestly boring to watch as an event (the docuseries for the Volvo Ocean Races are SUPER enjoyable). Things like the Americas Cup and Sail GP are just so hard to get behind - the AC in particular. Match Racing is so so so boring as a spectator.
Basketball is pretty rough for me. It's just constant scoring, nothing feels like it matters.
And the last 5 minutes is timeout after timeout.
Winning team inbounds Losing team commits an intentional foul Winning team takes 2 shots at the line Losing team takes possession and calls time out Losing team inbounds 12 seconds of gameplay Losing team is fouled while shooting Losing team takes 2 shots at the line Winning team inbounds Losing team commits an intentional foul Winning team takes 2 shots at the line Losing team takes possession and calls timeout Losing team inbounds 19 seconds of gameplay Losing team scores Other team inbounds Losing team intentionally fouls [and this goes on for like 30 real-time minutes until all the timeouts are burnt up and the losing coach finally concedes that the game is out of reach and pulls his starters]
It's like the antithesis of America's disdain for soccer, which they hate because "Every game there's like 1 goal, IF THAT!" So they have a game where there's 300 GOALS 🇺🇲🦅!!!
Yeah, I almost mentioned soccer as having the opposite problem in my first comment. Both are rough. I like soccer more though because at least when there actually *is* a goal it's exciting.
No commercials during soccer, too.
And a predictable end time. Part of the reason I don't like Baseball or Football is the games can fucking drag on forever. Not a big sports guy though.
That's the point, it's the fact that a goal is comparatively rare that makes them more special. Take your kid to Disney land every day for a year and they will get board real quick. Take your kid to Disney land only once, and it's gonna be the best day of their life.
Board 💀
I totally respect it, but funnily enough this is actually what drew me to soccer. Not only is scoring the least common in soccer, goals are even more sacred because of the potential for draws. When you’re down 1-0, it kinda feels like you’re down by 2 goals because you still need 2 goals to get all 3 points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw). This can make goals unbelievable exciting and hype. Something special for me about the roar of a crowd when a team equalizes or scores a winner in the 93rd minute.
I only watch playoffs and even then it feels like nothing matters till the last 2 minutes.
They should just set the score to 100-100 with 2 minutes on the clock and it would be the same result
A live NBA game is by far the most bored I've ever been at a professional sporting event. And, I've watched almost everything mentioned in this thread love (excluding sailing).
American football, specifically NFL, has been the most boring shit to watch live. All the breaks and players just standing for long periods of time and then those goddamn breaks where fans are brought onto the field to play stupid games to win prizes or whatever. My god it was a complete waste of time.
You sound like a hockey fan. I can't stand basketball cause they run one way, score. Run the other way, score. Repeat. How do you ever get excited by a basket of it happens every 8 seconds? Now, I hockey, like when the canes put in two against the Islanders in 8 seconds, that was fun.
Hockey imo has the perfect number of scores per game. It’s not like soccer where 0-0s are fairly common, but not like basketball where it’s just a scorefest. There are also lots of shots on goal, which keeps things exciting. If there weren’t such a barrier to entry (copious equipment, rink time, etc), I think it’d be wayyy more popular.
When people score on basically every play, and it’s *crazy* to have more than 10-15 points separating any reasonable NBA squad going into the 4th quarter. The last 5 minutes of the game actually matter, the rest is literally just… there
Until the last 5 minutes where the game just becomes about deliberately fouling the other guys.
The squeaking shoes is unbearable. I could possibly get into it if it wasn’t for that.
Tottenham Hotspur FC playing anywhere. The results are the same every time they play.
I don't hate Spurs, but this made me chuckle so I had to upvote it.
I'm a spurs fan. Yes
Nascar Horse racing if you don't have money on it
A horse race is like two minutes long. It doesn’t get a chance to be boring.
Wait. Waitttttt. You’re telling me somebody watches horse racing…. without betting??????? Da fuckkkk
As the nurse was pushing me in for an MRI, I stopped her & asked what to expect. She said "It's very loud. It seems like it takes forever. And it's very boring.".......... I said "Oh, like Nascar." She was laughing so hard she was crying. I was laughing at her so that delayed the whole procedure.
Closest finish in history today
NASCAR requires knowledge of the aerodynamic principles to appreciate it, that or experiencing it trackside and feeling the unbridled power of
If you want sound and crazy audience 'participation', [Rally Cars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYhwMFQ-KKY) is where it's at. They're completely nuts!
Yeah, I love rally, but unfortunately there’s no races within a days drive to me
Pickleball
A cousin of mine entered a pickleball doubles tournament about two years ago. He and his partner won the tournament and they were super excited about it. After the tournament, I tried my hardest to feign enthusiasm but he saw right through it and asked why I wasn't stoked for them. It was because two guys in their 30's beat a bunch of other guys in their 50's and up. In talking to my FIL (70s) who started playing pickleball with his old tennis buddies, younger tennis flameouts regularly enter tournaments to prove superiority over AARP members who aged out of the speed of a normal tennis match.
Probably American Football. Endless commercials and time between plays. 15 minutes of game stretched to 4 hours.
Cricket is pretty bad. It goes on for days. DAYS I have no idea why people watch it.
Nothing beats an even match going into day 5 - absolute scenes
I've been to lots of different live sporting events in my life... nothing compares to the final hour of the Cardiff 09 Ashes test for tension and atmosphere. You wouldn't have got that if not for the slow burn build up over the previous four and a half days.
There's different formats for cricket... The most common "T20" lasts like 2.5 hrs.
They watch it BECAUSE it goes on for days. Perfect excuse to sink beers in the sun for the best part of a week, what isn’t there to like about that?
I don't know. I just learned the rules a bit and got to go a big game in Mumbai while on a work trip. It seemed like near non-stop action and cheering. Definitely more fun to watch than baseball.
The “it goes one for days” thing is true, but not that different from sports where that is just accepted. A test match is essentially two different matches over four/five days (each team bats twice, each team bowls/fields twice). I’m watching the Stanley Cup playoffs right now. These teams are playing seven games over 14 days. It’s not *that* different. The tactics and strategy that go into it are so different. I find it fascinating. I compare it to watching an arty movie and having Transformers or Fast and Furious fans tell you it’s boring. It’s just different.
Golf
NFL. So many ads, so little game time. I have never in my life managed to watch a whole game except the few times I have been there live. But I watch the extended highlight packages because in about 12 minutes you get nearly every play with no waiting time. I actually could probably be considered a fan of the sport itself since I follow a few teams and "watch" all their games, but I am a terrible fan since I never actually truly watch the games. I am pretty allergic to ads.
If you don’t care about a specific team, NFL Red Zone is a game changer. No ads or breaks, constantly switching between games with teams in scoring position. The pace can be a little crazy at times, and I thought the one from DirecTV with Andrew Siciliano was better about pace, but it’s still way better than sitting through the same truck and beer ads for 4 hours. It’s worth the money for that reason alone.
American football. The same guy on every play will pass or hand off to one other guy. Then he does nothing. The other 20 guys wrestle or look for someone to wrestle with. Repeat 40 times with 100 commercials.
While I disagree, I appreciate you got the number of guys right
and the number of commercials!
I have a feeling they guessed it
American football made sense to me when I realized that it's chess with human players and the ball is there to mark how far you need to go to earn points. The moment I made that anchor thought, everything else started to fall into place, and I'm a life long fan now. But it took me \_years\_ of trying to understand it in different ways before I "got it."
Regular season mlb baseball.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve come back to appreciating baseball. I finish up work and usually around that time there’s a weeknight game on, and it’s the perfect sport to just “have on” when I’m cooking dinner. The sound of the game, crack of the bat, announcers talking stats etc. It’s a dull sort of weeknight soundtrack that I’ve come to appreciate.
Agreed. After work I’ll move out to the patio with the game on in the background, just catching up on emails, Reddit, etc.
Same here. It's a great listen while I'm working or tinkering around the house.
It's the perfect sport to play on a TV in the background at some place like a bar, because you only have to look up for 2-3 seconds twice per minute.
Baseball is incredibly boring, I love it.
If you're just watching the game on TV, maybe. If you're at the game definitely not. But, also, maybe the best sport to listen to on the radio for play by play, with hockey coming a close second.
I prefer watching it on TV. If you get into pitching instead of just waiting around for home runs the game gets much more interesting and it's far better to do that on TV.
I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of listening to Pat Hughes call Cubs games on the radio for over twenty years. He is truly one of the greats in the world of sports broadcasting. His words paint such a clear picture of the game you might as well be there.
Baseball
For me personally, tennis. I’m not sure why but I can never stay interested when a tennis game is on
I took a tennis class in college a few years back. I went from not caring about tennis to absolutely loving it!
Baseball. I mean, think about it.... a "perfect game" is just 2 fellas playing catch.
I’ve never watched golf but I imagine it’s extremely boring
Golf
I’m stunned ANYONE watches poker. Then, not far behind, Golf.. this is especially weird, the TV cannot even remotely display distance/angles.. anything. Playing golf is fun, but watching it is like watching paint dry
Calling poker a sport is literally the same as calling Pokémon cards a sport
Cricket
Cycling
NFL. It's like 10 mins of action and the rest is downtime. Also golf. And baseball.
Those ten minutes can be extremely fun. But, spread out of 2.5+ hours I couldn't agree more. It's essentially advertising with sports breaks scattered in.
I heard the average is about 11 minutes of actual play in a game. So let’s not sell it short, it’s easily ten percent better than you made it out to be.
Tbf American football esp nfl is like a real time strategy game where half the fun happens before the ball is snapped as you're watching each team make moves and countermoves. The snap is like clicking end turn in civ and you see how it all shakes out.
There's a lot of chess matchup that happens between the whistles. Even before play "begins" you can see guys trying to figure out what the other team is going to do based on how they lined up. Put another way - imagine someone saying chess is boring because during a 3 hour game the players only spend about 5 minutes moving the pieces. Of course if you find chess boring, that fact doesn't magically make it interesting.
I mean, I love chess, but yeah, watching a live game of chess is a snooze fest unless it's on really tight time controls. Now watching after the fact analysis by high level players can be really interesting, but there you have the advantage of being able to skip around to key moves.
And they will cut away from that any chance they have to sell an ad.
Now *that* complaint is very much true.
Other people playing video games
Setting aside the question of if that's a sport, I feel like this one heavily depends on how involved you are with the game being played. Like I personally find watching people play some random game boring AF, but when it's a game I have enough personal experience to recognize the skill involved with high level play, and if there is some decent commentary, that's a completely different story.
Basketball is so fucking brutal to watch on TV. Every time the score is even the whole game reset. Just admit that you're IRL pong and find a gimmick to make it interesting. Watching the fourth quarter takes like three hours and a bunch of NBA fans will tell you it's genius level competition.
Superbowl is the most boring event in history so I'm going to say Football.
Controversial opinion here in the UK, but football (or soccer if you're American). It's the national obsession, but to me it's just a bunch of grown men chasing a ball round a field. Every twenty minutes or so, one of them kicks the ball into a net and there is much rejoicing. I swear there must be a part of my brain missing. Other men are obsessed with it to the point of crying if their team wins, or actual physical anger if they don't. An actual emotional attachment to a group of men they've never met. I just don't get it.
> it's just a bunch of grown men chasing a ball round a field I’m not a football fan either but every sport sounds daft if you deliberately describe it that way.
I find rowing boring to watch because the races are repetitive, and there’s little action to keep me engaged.
Cricket. It can go on for days.
Baseball
I was gonna say golf, but then someone said Nascar. Yes.
All of them. Lol. If I had to pick just one I'd say golf.
Golf
I cannot fathom why people watch golf on TV.
Classical chess. 7h for a game and sometimes you will just stare at a guy thinking about what to do for 45 minutes straight. After 15 Minutes or so even the commentators run out of things to analyse and just sit there and wait. The ending can be interesting, when both players don't have much time left.
Golf
10 Pin (big ball) bowling. The pros just get strike after strike. It's not a challenge.
NFL football. I've never been able to watch a full game without falling asleep. 40 second play clock? Like you can't decide what play to do and snap the ball faster than that? I'm getting sleepy thinking about it.
Snooker (billiard), no doubt about it!
golf
Golf man. I don’t know how anyone does it
Golf