Memes

No one thinks they have an impact on the game while watching from home..? People follow sports for a lot of reasons, some sillier than others, but I'll just list some of them:

Gives a sense of community. If you've ever lived in a college town there's something really cool about everything in the city stopping in it's tracks because everyone has this common interest.

Gives some nostalgia. If you grew up going to games with your family or friends it reminds you of that time.

Just to have some stuff to talk about 🤷 you know everyone at work is going to be talking about whichever sport is popular near you so it's nice to be able to talk about it too.

To watch an impressive show of athleticism similar to the Olympics.

To play fantasy. I'm not really into it, but a ton of people love the competition of fantasy sports.

Because they bet on the games. It definitely ups the stakes when there's money on the game.

And a sad reason that's somewhat common is that some people who don't have anything good going on in their life like to latch on to a successful team to feel more successful themselves.

Most people who watch sports or follow a specific team recognize that it's a little silly, but who cares because it's fun and a whole lot of people are doing it with you.