Apart from a small number of short, irregular forum posts, the following article is quite literally the first written work I’ve contributed to any ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ website. I hope it’s ok to put here; I’ve been a dedicated reader of this site for over a year now, and feel like some of its users might find some interest in what I have to say. What follows is simply a humble observation I’ve made over the past few weeks concerning the similar nature of football fanaticism and the devotion of ‘nerds’, yet the dissimilar treatment they have in society.
Firstly, a bit about myself – I’m basically a self-titled Closet Nerd. In a group of 10 other guys (we’ve all been friends since high school), I’m the only one with an interest in anything ‘nerdy’. I collect and read comics, I collect and paint Games Workshop models, and I have a larger knowledge of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars than I care to say. I’m also a decent movie and TV show buff. But all of this happens in the shadows, with my friends barely knowing just how deep this ‘nerdism’ goes. Most of them don’t really have anything relatable. Perhaps the closest is a few of them who like Harry Potter, but not more so than the average Potter fan. What most of them ARE into, though, is sport. The English Premier League (EPL), to be exact.
You see I’m currently living in London, and a few friends from home recently visited me so we could watch some football matches together (that’s soccer if you’re in the U.S. or Australia). Now I’m also a fan of football but nowhere near as great a closet nerd. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching the odd game and have played for most of my life on the weekends, but my true passions are for the aforementioned hobbies.
I’m not sure how many of you have seen an EPL match, but those of you who have will understand me when I say this: they can get quite atmospheric as packed-out crowds roar, and I mean really roar their teams on and bellow insults to the opposing teams’ fans. My gullible friend wanted to wear his teams colours to one of their away games, and was stopped before he was anywhere near the gates by an official who warned “If you wear that red in there, you’ll be coming out covered in a different kind of red, if you know what I mean”.
At most meal times my mates and I would talk about football tactics or classic games we’ve played or watched. On trains they’d always slip into conversations about recent matches and their fantasy teams. And every morning they would wake up, get on their phones and look up the latest results, fixtures and team information whilst I’d browse this very website and others like it. And it was then that I realised – what’s so different about these two interests?
Football is about following the work of several major players. It’s about keeping up to date with the latest results and events. There are invariably things you like, and things you don’t. It’s also got that sense of randomness that keeps its followers hooked. But couldn’t we substitute the word football for comics or comic book movies and still make these criteria be true? For that matter, they both also enjoy a large, dedicated group of very vocal followers. The screams and shouts of a football match are hardly different to those at panels at Comic-Con. And herein lies my interest in this subject – why do people generally favour the fanaticism of one over the other?
You know what I mean by this. The majority of Western society views the following of sport as a much more appropriate pastime. The popularity of sports bars and the more-readily available news and updates on matches are but two ways that we can see this. Furthermore, if someone like me wanted to impress the average girl, would they prefer to hear that you’re a comic nerd or a Liverpool fan?
So what’s the reason? I’ve thought quite a lot about this recently and several potential answers come to mind. Is it the accompaniment of watching sports with alcohol, thus making it, dare I say, more ‘cool’? From a gender perspective, is it because sport is physical and therefore males should naturally be interested in that over something we can enjoy on our couch? Maybe. But I think there’s one reason above all others.
Sport has been around for much longer than comic books and their movies have. It’s had the time to become more popular and ingrained within our society. And guys, that is the simple reason; it’s more popular. Because the fan-base we are all members of is in the minority, it’s viewed as ‘weird’ by the rest of society. Now I’m not saying that our culture is simply divided between sports fans and comic geeks, but generally speaking there is a clear dominance of sport to traditional geeky interests.
This isn’t meant to be a revolutionary idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you have thought of this before. It’s simply to give comfort to those who, like me, sometimes feel embarrassed to talk about the things we want to talk about, or to reveal just how much we actually know about the CBM we’re about to watch with our friends.
To conclude, I guess that my main reason for writing this piece is to give encouragement to the ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’ out there – especially my fellow closet nerds. Our enjoyment, dedication and (often) deeply-rooted opinions of comics, the comic book film industry and all other ‘nerdy’ hobbies out there is hardly different from the fanaticism of sport. It’s simply less popular – not inferior.
Please feel free to leave your comments below, I’m interested to hear what you have to say on the matter.
And thank you for taking the time to read my editorial.