Geeks and sports are not a typical pairing at all (one is into fitness and the other into computer games). Like water and oil or orange juice and milk. Like two negatively charged ends of a magnet. But believe it or not, there are some sports for geeks.
I mean, after all, there’s always an exception to the rules, right?
Check Out These Sports for Geeks
Professional Gaming
The percentage of those who are good enough at gaming to forge a professional career out of it is extremely small. Even if they manage to wipe out their friends in CoD4, they’re still unlikely to make it as a professional.
However, if a gamer does have a special knack for a joystick, there is always the possibility that they’re good enough to make millions of dollars in gaming competitions and corporate sponsorship.
Segway Polo
Rich geeks ride on Segways around afield using a mallet to hit the ball in a high-tech version of polo. As Segways can reach such speeds as high as 20km/h, and there are five players on each team at any one time, it makes for some big-league Segway pileups.
Apple’s Steve Wozniak is a fan and could legitimately be the poster boy for the sport, which just gives it that extra layer of geekiness.
Fantasy Football
Just two decades ago, Fantasy Football was an afterthought, if not entirely unheard of by the majority of sports fans. Ten years later, only math geeks and stats dorks were vying to work out the complexities of the numbers inside football.
In the 21st century, however, there are countless numbers of football fans gripped by Fantasy Football. The game dominates fantasy sports in general, with 93 percent of those being Fantasy Football players.
Of course, football fans still bet on the outcome of the actual games, too.
Geocaching
Geocaching is essentially a high-tech treasure hunt, involving a geocacher who hides a waterproof container at specific GPS coordinates.
Other geocachers then attempt to find the container through GPS. Each container features a pen and logbook, in addition to low-value treasure, which can be traded should a player find the bounty.
There are endless variations to add excitement to the game, although it’s largely just an excuse to play around with GPS. The treasure, also called a geocache or cache, can be located anywhere in the world.
Currently, seven million geocachers are signed up to various websites, and geocaches are placed in locations in more than 100 countries.
Extreme Ironing
The name gives this one away. In case that wasn’t clear, it’s ironing, but extreme-style. Competitors take their creased shirts and ironing boards on the road to wacky locations, such as diving underwater.
They’d have to explain how you’re supposed to iron a shirt underwater, but that’s the mindset needed to become an extreme ironer.
While these games may not cause those who get involved to break a sweat, they certainly sound like fun. Let’s face it: geeks have a tendency to be socially independent and smart, and not sociopathic or menacing, so football and hockey are pretty much off the cards.
