On Saturday, BYU is playing in arguably its biggest game in program history since knocking off Michigan in 1984 to go undefeated and win the school’s first national championship.
But it’s precisely because of this game’s magnitude that some people won’t be watching.
If you’re a diehard fan who can’t imagine not standing witness to every scene of your favorite team’s season, the idea of missing any game — let alone a “big game” — might seem downright baffling.
This article is for you — or maybe for your loved ones who don’t share your enthusiasm for the roller coaster ride of high-stakes competition.
Where you might be tempted to write off these friends or family as lackluster fans or people who can’t just enjoy themselves, a 30-second scroll of this research below should give you a little more empathy.
1. Understandable fan anxiety and sadness
Daniel L. Wann is a sport psychologist at Murray State University focused on fandom and the “consequences of sport team identification.” Among other things, he has measured “competitive state anxiety in sport spectators.”
Although being a fan is unquestionably good for many people — both in terms of relationships and healthy distraction — Wann acknowledged some emotional costs during a 2024 American Psychological Association podcast episode.
Based on putting anxiety scales on fans, Wann has found something that should surprise few: Close games reliably produce spikes in state anxiety and stress responses in spectators.
Much of this is for understandable reasons, since fans “know that there’s at least a 50-50 chance that when they’re done, I’m going to be sad.”
For those experiencing acute stress at poor performance, this can feel a bit like watching a scary movie knowing that, at any moment, the good guy might be killed.
But sports fans keep coming back, Wann notes. “We can look back on the glory years and it makes us feel better about the fact that our team is terrible now, or we can look to the future and see the future as being even more exciting than it is now.”
“If you were to take away the emotional response of being a sports fan,” Wann said, “you would take away the point of being a sports fan, right? I mean, to be a fan is to be emotional, the elation from the win, the disappointment in the loss, and every potential emotional range in between those two things.”
When losses happen, that can make fans “cranky, upset, aggressive, hostile, violent, in a bad mood, surly,” something he claims to have “expertise” as a long-term fan of the Cubs and the Kansas City Royals.
Fans may also experience a “sort of sense of helplessness that can intensify the frustration when they lose,” he said.
Psychologist Patrick McElwaine writes that “losses can feel painful — the brain processes sports losses similarly to real-life disappointments.” McElwaine admitted that his own “mental health has been deeply intertwined” with how the Philadelphia Eagles are doing.
None of this should be read as simply harmful, however, since that deep emotional connection is a reflection of how sports can bring communities together.
“When we root for a team, we form a social identity,” McElwaine wrote. “Our team’s success feels like our success, and their struggles feel like our struggles. The sense of belonging that comes with being a fan is psychologically powerful, fostering community, reducing feelings of loneliness, and even boosting self-esteem.”
2. Acute physiological stress has an impact
Other researchers have measured acute physiological stress in fans, through pulse oximeters and other methods.
A 2010 review in The American Journal of Medicine titled “Sporting Events Affect Spectators’ Cardiovascular Mortality: It’s Not Just a Game” illustrated just how much evidence there was that emotionally intense games can lead to short-term increases in heart attacks among diehard fans with existing heart disease.
The authors, including a doctor with the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, summarized: “Sporting events have the potential to adversely affect spectators’ cardiovascular health” — detailing how “physiologic and clinical triggers, including mental stress, anxiety and anger, often precipitate acute myocardial infarction.”
This is far more likely, they emphasize, in those with “known coronary artery disease and when stressful features are present, including a passionate fan, a high-stakes game, a high-intensity game, a loss.”
Lest this feel like overwrought hand-wringing by scrupulous heart doctors, a 2022 review summarized statistical evidence of an increased risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events in both men and women while watching major soccer matches. For instance, the researchers state:
- “About 14 excess cardiovascular deaths occurred among men on the day of the match when the Dutch football team was eliminated from the European football championship in 1996.”
- “During England’s 1998 World Cup, there was an increase of 25% in the admissions for acute myocardial infarction on the day England lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out.”
- “Hospital admissions due to myocardial infarction increased during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
The risks are very small, and these researchers highlight that sporting events can be opportunities “for people around the world to socialize, connect, celebrate and enjoy.”
For many people, elevated heart activation may not be a bad thing. Guardian journalist Luisa Dillner wrote in 2017, “I haven’t been to the gym for two weeks, but it’s fine: I just need to watch sport on television.”
Citing research from the University of Montreal on increased heart rates among hockey watchers, she summarized: “For television-watchers, the increase was an average 75%, while for those watching live it rose by 110%. This is equivalent, say the researchers, to moderate and vigorous exercise respectively. Heart rates were highest during overtime and if there were scoring chances.”
3. Other ripples, like emotional eating
The vast majority of people, once again, aren’t going to experience any dangerously elevated levels of emotional or physical health risk by watching a big game. Other, more mundane consequences can arise, however.
A 2021 study by a researcher at the University of Florida explored how “specific game situations” may “activate spectators’ intensive emotional experiences, potentially contributing to and shaping their eating tendencies.”
By way of illustration, the study states: “The game situation of close losses may cause fans to experience feelings of sadness or anger and to undoubtedly activate the coping process … to deal with the loss of their favored team.”
In this way, “fans may then crave food intake to alleviate their negative feelings and shift attention away from disappointing situations.”
None of this means big games are harming people. But it does mean they may not be for everyone.
So, if your spouse or sibling or neighbor doesn’t find it “fun” to sit through the game, maybe give them a break.
They have their reasons.