Sociology and Understanding Human Behavior – Socl215

September 8, 2011
Phase 4 Individual Project
Sociology and Understanding Human Behavior – SOCL215 The sports sociology exists because of the strong relationship between sports and society. As a culture, we as Americans value sports for the entertainment, physical activity and many other benefits it provides to us. I believe that is the reason so much research has gone into discovering how and why it affects us as a society. Sports are enjoyed all over the world, particularly soccer and baseball in many parts of the globe. I am a really big fan of and enjoy football. It is my favorite sport. During the fall and winter months much of my life rotates around being able to watch professional football games and to cheer for my favorite team, the Carolina Panthers. It’s my favorite sport because I enjoy the energy, the socialization, competition and action. Because it is so widely revered in America, it is not very difficult to find another football fan or sports bar. Football is widely represented in the media which also helps to be a fan. ESPN (Entertainment Sports Programing Network) covers games if you may have missed a game or play as well as offer news about teams and players. During the local news broadcast a sports segment is always included. And in local as well as nationally published newspapers a sports section is included. I however am not a typical viewer/fan in the football demographic. Most fans are middle aged white men that make $55,000. However the number of women watching football is on the incline. According to the New York Times the number of women watching “Sunday Night Football” has increased 23 percent over the last two years. (Baker, 2011) The fan base for football is expanding for minorities as well. I think this is because more minorities are playing the sport.
To get a better understanding of how sports and society affect one another I went to a local high school football game. I have always gone to football games as a fan,

References: Baker, K. (2011, January 28). Gridiron Girls. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from nytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/magazine/30FOB-wwln-t.html?_r=1 Delaney, T. (2003). Sports and Deviant Behavior. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from philosophynow.org: http://www.philosophynow.org/issue41/Sports_and_Deviant_Behavior Response to Peer Discussion Board Suggestions and Questions: I think the number of women watching football is unsurprising because many women have men in their lives that love football and expose women to the sport. I grew up watching the New York Giants because my father and our family favored that team. I stopped watching football so often until I met my husband and now we watch every game that is played by his favorite team. If I didn’t have these influences didn’t exist in my life, I wouldn’t watch sports at all. I’ve always enjoyed independent research. I like to work with groups and on my own which is a wonderful benefit to going to Colorado Technical University. I like being able to physically research and see for myself the ideas and concepts that are in our textbook. It makes the subject of Sociology feel more “real.” An interesting point is that fan behavior is not only affected by the game it is also affected by the team or sponsor they play for. I think it’s very true that some fans are definitely “fair weather.” Meaning a fan likes a team or supports a team because they win or are winners. I believe in supporting a team even if they lose or are not a very popular team. Another point I didn’t mention was how fans affect the player moral in a game. I think that if fans are cheering for a team and have good energy that this can affect a team in good and bad ways; good because the team will try to perform better and bad because they may not perform as well because they feel they don’t need to try as hard. There can also be the opposite effect of a team that is not doing well and is not being supports. They can either succumb to the negativity or work harder to overcome it.