falcolombardi wrote:from more to less, how would sports be rsnked by how much nostalgia and preference for older eras they have?
i feel like basketball and boxing would be on top and maybe soccer at the bottom
I would put baseball and boxing at the top of the list. These are both sports that peaked in popularity a long time ago and whose old-time fans in general are content to trash the modern game.
I'd imagine the same is true of hockey where they've let defense crippled the game effectively making it impossible for Wayne Gretzky to get surpassed.
Definitely wouldn't put basketball high on the list because in a very real sense is been "currently peaking" for a long time. I think what you're alluding to here is the fact that people still are attached specifically to Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Wilt Chamberlain, but frankly to me this seems like like healthy, balanced nostalgia to me. It just means people care about the game enough to be looking to discuss multiple eras.
In American sport, I'd put American football as the least nostalgia-driven of the major team sports, and there I'd say that the key is that they've specifically catered to a fanbase that doesn't remotely understand the game in front of them and hence doesn't really care about the past. Also the way they treat history as if nothing existed before the Super Bowl has really effectively killed off the legends of the half century plus that came before where football was literally a preparation for war. Now add in that Tom Brady's clear cut GOAT status is making people care less about the Joe Montanas of the world.
I'm surprised that soccer is at the bottom of your list but feel like you know better than me. What I always find interesting about historical soccer is the way they didn't seem to pay attention to anything other than goals statistically. It's like they were trying to prevent historical study.
