“Dear Sports Fan is an advice column for people who live with people who live for sports.”
That is the elevator pitch I’ve been using since Spring 2011 when I started writing about sports on dearsportsfan.com as a way to explain myself to friends and family who do not share my avocation. It’s a clever line and often produces a chuckle after a moment of confused and frantic parsing. What comes next is what drives me to continue writing the blog and what leads me to believe that there is an exciting and profitable niche for it. After the initial chuckle, what comes next is almost always a statement of need. “I could use this to have something to say about sports in the teachers’ lounge.” “Oh, my girlfriend should read that. She hates it when I watch football.” “Do you write about baseball? I like other sports but I’ve never understood how anyone can watch baseball.” My desire to help non-sports fans live in harmony with the sports-obsessed mainstream has superseded my initial goal of explaining myself to the sports skeptics in my life.
And the mainstream is a little sports-obsessed, isn’t it? It seems as though the fragmentation of culture that has happened over the past twenty years in most aspects of life has not touched sports, which by comparison looms larger than ever. Siblings, partners, or family: someone in most people’s lives is a sports fan. Go to a restaurant or bar, and more likely than not, sports is playing on a television in the background. Head over to the kitchen at work to get a snack, and you’re likely to run into a clump of colleagues talking about a controversial call in last night’s game or a player who let their fantasy team down. Sports broadcasts are predictably the most-watched programming on television. Everywhere you turn, there are sports drinks, sports clothing, sports radio, sports blogs, or sports stars selling everything from cell phone plans to undershirts.
To someone who grew up largely without mainstream television and music, I’m understanding and thoughtful about what it feels like to be outside the dominant culture. I see how people who are not conversant with sports may feel alienated or shut out from some social opportunities. And as a sports fan, I also feel like there is some potential enjoyment that everyone can derive from sports. My goal is to serve an audience of people who are not sports fans (but who have friends, family, or colleagues who are) by making Dear Sports Fan the best source of information about sports created specifically for them.
Dear Sports Fan provides accessible explanations of fundamental elements of sports, like “What is Being Offside,” that mainstream sports media assume their readers already understand. We arm our readers to engage in small talk about sports with the Cue Card recaps of yesterday’s top sporting events and to take part in deeper conversations about trending sport stories through posts like “Plot in Football: A Case Study.” Essays that explore the cultural context of sports, like “Sports and the Star Spangled Banner,” and some of its more bewildering aspects, like “Can You Help Me Understand the Playoff Beard,” offer light-hearted, analytical, and nonthreatening avenues for curious readers to approach sports.
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Founder:
Ezra Fischer
I’m a life-long sports fan who adapted to blowing my knees out in high-school soccer by focusing more on theater, singing, and pretending to put out a school newspaper. I love the moment when a non-sports fan understands and appreciates a small point of strategy, a rule, or a sports plot. I’m a fan of the New Jersey Nets (NBA) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) and remain agnostic about pro football and generally unmoved by baseball. I root faithfully for Rutgers sports and any United States national team, especially soccer, hockey, and water polo.
Contributors:
Al Murray
Dean Russell Bell
Ilene Levine
John DeFilippis
Lisa Filipek
Sonja Boet-Whitaker
Other Information and Notifications:
Dear Sports Fan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.