@wildpotato Alabama totally creamed Notre Dame in the college championship last night. It was pathetic. The Irish just rolled over and played dead from the beginning.
So the guy was referring to that game.
Personally, I think @LuckyGuy has the best answer. It’s a conversational gambit. You are expected to return with some other piece of information. @jonsblond and @Seek_Kolinahr suggested something similar.
My problem is that I have a hard time imagining how the conversation goes. I mean, what is there to say? ‘Bama absolutely killed The Irish. There is no conversation there. It’s over before it starts. So I’m wondering what else is there to say? How does this particular gambit get things going? Where is there to go? What could you say that would get you more than ten more seconds of talk out of it?
And beneath that, is there something else going on? I know @livelaughlove21 doesn’t believe in subtext or hidden meaning, but I do, and I think there is some kind of bonding thing going on. Somehow this conversation builds relationships. But what does it build? How does it build it? Why do men tend to talk about sports and build relationships through seemingly innocuous and mundane things? How does this work?
Women, for example, will gossip. They’ll talk about relationships. They’ll share information about who is doing what and what their personalities are like. Like we do here, on fluther. But men, while they may be doing bonding, are not sharing information that seems very useful or relevant to life. So what am I missing here? I think I am missing something because men spend hours talking about sports. There are radio networks and TV networks devoted to sports information and talk. Hell. I listen to that shit sometimes. But I don’t get why it seems so important. I figure there is something going on here I don’t understand.
So, yes, we are talking about football, but that’s not what I want to know. I want to know what the football talk is really about, beneath the stupid facts we see on the surface. That’s not enough to keep the conversation going. There has to be something deeper. But what?