Among American intellectuals, baseball seems to be popular. Stephen Jay Gould, who was pretty philosophical, wrote a book called Full House (Life's Grandeur in the UK) that extensively uses baseball in the argument. Something about batting averages and probability, I can't really remember.

And I think there have been several American writers of literary fiction, intellectual types, who've been into baseball.

Maybe when people are young they split into nerds and jocks (to use the American parlance). Those who like computers and books maybe don't play sports much. But later, when the nerds have gotten over their teenage traumas, they feel free to take an interest in sport.

I doubt it. I played football, basketball, baseball, and soccer growing up nearly every year. I’m also interested in philosophy, and social sciences in general. There’s actually a lot of strategy involved in game planning, schematics, etc. in football at the professional level. It isn’t uncommon for coaches to have somewhat of a background in logic or analytics.

Do martial arts count as a sport?

@Mp202020

Actually, there is much relevance of sports to philosophy. Right now as I speak there is a debate going in American football about the “fake slide”: when a quarterback, instead of passing or handing off, runs the ball himself, and, during the run, when he sees he is about to be tackled, instead of sliding to a halt and being down, fakes the slide, fools the defender, and runs around him...

...Now, I don’t know how much you know about American football, but when the quarterback slides you’re not supposed to hit him—it’s one of those modern rules to protect a vulnerable player’s head. So he’s supposed to slide, and you’re supposed to respect that...

...but what if he takes advantage of your respect and disrespects it by a fake and then runs around you for a touchdown?...

...lotsa ethical considerations here!

Sports and Kardashian's ass are good ways to resolve social conflicts. It is unlikely that a person attached to her television will take to the streets to demand rights or justice.

that’s a great point! Although that seems more in the realm of strategy (chess etc) rather than contemplation of reality.

not really to me, the art of combat seems fundamentally different than the art of something like soccer. One is to be the symbolic force of your will (I’m better at putting the ball in the goal than you) and the other is a more “real” or objective representation of will (I do anything I can to overcome your will physically, you the same).