by Shilo Dawn Goodson

Created on: June 16, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

In general, this depends upon the person. Many people, as they get older don't play sports anymore and once they leave school, they don't watch their high school or college teams anymore, but those who really love sports will continue to watch the sports and enjoy the sports.

Most of us probably know someone who's older and isn't willing to admit that he or she is too old to be playing a sport anymore. Everyone knows the sort. It's the grandpa or older father who plays football with his grandson or son. The game turns pretty competitive and violent. Then what happens? Yep, grandpa or dad ends up at the hospital getting a broken leg fixed. This guy loves sports just as much as he did when he was thirty years younger, and he's not willing to admit that he's not in the same shape he was in thirty years ago. He's also the sort who's right back there playing football with son or grandson as soon as the leg heals.

Even when someone has graduated from college, there are those who are completely devoted to "their team." They stay around the town even though the jobs there aren't exactly prevalent or at least only move to a nearby community. They just want to be around to see all "their team's" games. These are the same men who donate thousands of dollars to the school athletics program just so they can get good seat reserved for them for football games. They are the sort of guys who have trouble walking into the football stadium as they really should be using a walker. These guys, though, are the ones who make it to every game no matter what. They're the ones getting most angry as the referees make what they feel is a bad call. They are the ones there when some of the so-called dedicated fans miss the game because it's hailing outside. Do these guys love sports as much as they did when they were twenty? If anything, they love sports even more.

Then there's the guy who loved sports when he was a teenager and throughout college but go busy with other things and this love dwindled. As he gets to retirement age, this enjoyment of sports comes back, because he has more time to watch them. He's not the guy who when to every game his college team played. He's not the guy who stayed around his college town so he wouldn't miss a game. He is, thought, the guy who now plans his days around if his favorite teams have a game that day or not. He knows exactly when his team is going to play, and although he doesn't go to the game personally, he watches it live on his television. He may even decide to upgrade his cable just so he can get ESPN or another network that plays his team's games. Does he enjoy sports less now that he's sixty-five instead of twenty-five? No, he enjoys it just as much, maybe even more. Sure, his interest may have dwindled for a few years (or maybe it didn't), but it wasn't so much about age as circumstances, and it's been a circle of enjoyment, returning to where it began.

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