Growing up, my brother and I were both very active (and yes, our parents were very busy). I played soccer, basketball, and tennis, and even danced for a while. Meanwhile, my brother also played soccer, basketball, and tennis, as well as baseball and track. Needless to say, we were practicing,…
The first time a client came into my office, explaining that he was feeling depressed after his favorite hockey team lost the championship game, I thought he was exaggerating—that, or just being sarcastic. But he was serious. And over the course of the hour he explained his feelings of loss,…
I’m sorry to do this to you, but we probably can’t analyze the date of your birth without frankly discussing your parents’ sex life. What influenced their sexual behavior roughly nine months before you were born? Peak birthday season (August and September) just ended. If you were born during those…
When even the word “Olympian” means god-like, it’s hard to ignore the superhuman connotations behind the Olympics. And when we think about the great Olympians of our time like Michael Phelps or Simone Biles, we usually think about the ways in which their physical gifts and strength set them above…
Even if you can’t relate to the sports fanatics who paint their teams’ colors on their bellies and go on week-long alcohol benders when their teams lose, you can still identify with the tragedy writ large on 7-year-old Prince George’s babyish features when England lost to Italy in the Euro…
As soon as talk about a looming global pandemic swept across the States, everyone took a hard, isolated hit. For fans of sports teams, this was an especially hard transition in a unique way. Most major sports seasons were halted or altered—which meant that fans of these sports teams weren’t…
Merril Hoge is a former professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire his career early due to the lack of care he received following two concussions in the same five-week time period. Despite the life-altering injuries Hoge sustained playing the sport…
Playing sports might protect boys from depression. A study from the journal Biological Psychiatry examined how exercise might impact the development of depression in children. It analyzed over 4,000 kids ages 9 to 11 and saw that sports participation was linked to fewer depression symptoms specifically in boys. Researchers found…
Most youth football helmets lack sufficient front padding. This, from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, which rated every youth football helmet on the market. Only seven of these helmets received a perfect score for effectively reducing head acceleration during impact. Those with lower ratings typically had front padding that was…
A new study shows that the violence we see in soccer super-fans isn’t characteristic of their personality or every day. This aggression is instead rooted in a psychological construct called identity fusion, which refers to the sense of oneness and belonging one feels in a group of individuals. These findings…
For some, it’s just a game. But for others, it’s a lifestyle. I’m talking about the players of course, but there’s another group that fits the bill: die-hard sports fans. For players and die-hard sports fans alike, there’s more on the line than a game lost and a slight blow…
Sports are a longtime love of mine—I may not tune into Sunday night football every week or follow my basketball team the whole season through, but I respect, support, and even envy what the players do for a living. When I was just 5 years old, I laced up my…