Good Sport

I'm not a sports fan. As a kid, I never played them outside of gym class; as an adult, I've never watched them on tv. I don't follow teams or athletes and, except for one major league baseball game, I've never attended events.

But I love hearing sports news on the radio.

For as long as I can remember, the words "and now, with your sports update" have made me inexplicably happy. And I'll admit, I never thought to wonder why until it suddenly occurred to me: in my life, sports news has never changed. The tone, the language--it's familiar, like poetry learned by rote. I'm not concerned with the content but I'm comforted by the sound.

So I have three questions:

  • Is this a common feeling (and it just took me a long time to figure it out)?

  • If you're a sports fan, is its familiarity (reliable rules, a home team) as important to you as performance or competition?

  • Outside of sports, what other things that give you this same feeling?