What His Favorite Sport Says About Him

Baseball lovers are often patriotic, patient and obsessed with statistics, and they’re almost always superstitious. So if your guy has unwashed lucky socks or a mildew-y playoff shirt, just be grateful he doesn’t own a “magic gold thong” like former Yankees slugger Jason Giambi.

This is hands-down the most frustrating sport known to man. If it’s your guy’s favorite game, he’s either a (fairly) competitive golfer, a glutton for punishment, or he doesn’t even like golf but pretends he does for a five-hour respite every weekend. In any case, he had better be patient and have a steady income, because a decent set of clubs and green fees aren’t cheap, especially if he’s the kind who will snap a club in a fit of frustrated rage (which is about all of us).

Soccer players are not conformists; soccer is the most popular sport in the world, yet it remains an afterthought in the U.S. in non-World Cup years. Soccer players learn to travel at young ages for competition, and the good ones are team players. And, given the international popularity of the game, your beau might even know a thing or two about the locals if you travel abroad.

Not all football lovers are jocks and former players. TV audience figures and overall league revenue say that the NFL is the big dog in the U.S., and with such a large appeal, its hard-core fans are diverse. These men tend to have a macho sensibility and value a sense of “team.” They also like prolonged beer-and-nacho-filled sessions on the couch during games. So yes, don’t make plans for a die-hard football fan on a Sunday in the fall.

Also known as table tennis, this is an Olympic sport. If this is your guy’s favorite game, he probably has a knack for most table games, like foosball and billiards. Maybe he’s a retired fraternity brother, or just a regular guy who doesn’t care much for the more commercially popular, TV-friendly sports. This guy will do his own thing and probably wouldn’t appreciate it if your younger brother turned his table into a platform for “beer pong.”

As its name suggests, this is actually three sports – swimming, biking and running– merged into one excruciating but highly gratifying event. These competitors are driven, thrive on challenge, and they like variety. So does that mean they’re unable to commit? Who knows, but if you’re going to date a guy into triathlons, be prepared with a wetsuit and comfortable running shoes.

It takes a certain kind of individual to thrive at poker. These people are patient, cunning and calm under pressure. Any bum can throw clay chips and insults across a table (and they often do). Yet poker fanatics are often loners who don’t mind sitting at a table for hours at a time with a bunch of strangers or, even more lonesome, in online poker games. You better know what you’re dealing with before you go all in. Zing!

A bowling fanatic doesn’t care much for the mainstream, which is ironic because bowling is a popular hobby. There’s a good chance the bowling lover is dorky, perhaps in a charming way. Or maybe the guy just likes chucking heavy balls down an alley on disco night, or hanging out with buddies in matching neon-green bowling shirts. If you stick around, you might get a shirt of your own.

If this sport is your man’s numero uno, he probably played as a youngster or grew up in a cold-weather city. Hockey is considered one of America’s four “major” sports, but the NHL has struggled for mainstream attention in recent years. Nevertheless, the sport’s core fans are as passionate, tough and loyal as its players (which is to say, very!).

Basketball boasts two popular brands – NCAA basketball and the NBA – and men may prefer one, the other or gobble up both. Its fans and players don’t all hail from urban areas, by the way; just ask Larry Bird, “the Hick from French Lick” [Indiana]. Basketball fans are competitive, prefer a faced-paced, energetic game, and probably like to play in their spare time. Or at least slam-dunk a Nerf ball in a plastic hoop.