Why Do Men Like Football So Much?

Many individuals especially women usually wonder why men always feel so excited when it comes to either watching or playing football. 

It has been established that the reason why men like football so much go beyond their physical need to be active. It spans their psychological and emotional needs as well. 

For a non-football fan, the banters, a surge of different emotions, and anticipation that accompanies each game is usually very unrelatable and the question of why men like football so much remain relevant. 

Below, I have been able to compile a list of various reasons why men love football. 

• It provides a community to belong to. 

Oftentimes, men who cheer for a particular football team tend to have closer relationships because they have a passion they can both relate with. It gives a feeling of belonging in a community and that makes one feel better.

If you have a friend group that watches the same thing (in this case football), it also feels really good to discuss the same among your friend group.

• It is entertaining 

Most men have played football at least once in their lives and for those whose health does not allow them to do so, they derive pleasure and relaxation from watching their favorite teams play on the screen. This is just the same way most women enjoy watching telenovelas and movies. By enjoying the sport itself watching it and liking it becomes second nature.

• Its a team sport

Another reason to enjoy it is that it is a consummate team sport, like basketball, where the best teams involve all of the participants and do not depend on a single star player. This is especially true because all players have their unique and special skills that contribute to the overall success of the game.

• Versatility. 

Another major reason men enjoy it is that it can be played in almost any environment one can imagine. And with any kind of object that can be made into a ball. Unlike some sports that have certain physical requirements, football can be played on fields, on a small playground, in a yard, and even indoors. All that is required is a ball or something that looks like a ball and something that can serve as a goalpost.

• The masculine nature

Football is an incredibly intense masculine sport that involves powerful athletes, all playing at an incredibly high skill level and physically dominating their opponent which makes the NFL quite entertaining. Though ties are possible, they’re rare. In football, you win or you win. In summary, Football is the modern equivalent of the gladiatorial games of Rome. What could be more manly apart from that?

For many men, the competitive urge and the need to be combative is usually satisfied through football but in a safe space. Sports such as football have actually become a substitute for violence and war, but without all the killing. Now we have brightly colored uniforms, generals with strategies, heroic warriors raised to mythological levels, positions, and teams named after violent things like predators or destructive acts of nature. But the interesting thing is that it is socially acceptable to play like an animal on the field, as long as civility returns when you’re off the pitch.

• The tactics involved. 

It’s very tactical: each play is a battle in and of itself. Football is complex, with myriad formations and methods of moving the ball.

• It is therapeutic

Science has been able to prove that it is majorly a male thing to be interested and participate fully in organized sports. Most parents who raised both a boy and a girl child can vividly confirm the fact that boys and girls are born fundamentally and behaviorally different.

Men watch football to satisfy deep psychological needs and desires. Just as a good therapy session does, football fills many psychological and social needs in the lives of men. It’s the cheapest form of regular psychotherapy, available to whoever wants it, without an appointment. 

So the next time you see your son, husband, friend, or male colleague being so frantic about his next football game as long as they do not engage in practices that are detrimental to themselves, their families, or those around them before or after the game, please try to understand and share in their excitement.