Home team losses increase domestic violence

I'm about to break every rule regarding what you're supposed to love when you live in Buffalo by stating: I hate sports. I don't like playing sports, I don't like watching sports, and I don't really care to hear about sports.

I really don't have any other reasoning than the fact that I lack a Y-chromosome. Needless to say, hearing about the Bills and the Sabres is unavoidable.  Recently one of my friends brought up football in a way that I was not only interested in, but hadn't heard before.

Upset losses of the home team result in an 8 percent increase in police reports of domestic violence, according to a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

I know sports nuts are usually pretty hardcore about the teams they support, but I can't be the only person who see's something wrong with this statistic.

The study also reported that the increased violence was specifically male-on-female and there was no corresponding effect on female-on-male violence.

Basically the image I get in my head is some pissed-off, semi-to-completely annihilated football fan beating his wife because his team lost.

Why do people get so attached to the teams they support? They don't do any work for the team. The only effort involved on the fan's part is turning the game on and cracking a beer.

Perhaps I don't understand because I was never able to get into the sports culture, but when I see things like the Vancouver Riots I really have no interest of ever getting into it.

What's the point of rioting through the streets or beating your spouse? It isn't going to change the fact that your team lost, it isn't necessarily going to inspire them to want to play better at the next game or even in the next season, and you're just going to look like an asshole. Congratulations, you've successfully accomplished absolutely nothing.

I don't discount that having hoards of fans cheering teams on can help to "pump the team up" during a game, so to speak. But all of the pent up anger and frustration some fans experience with a loss is a huge and dangerous side-affect of being an avid sports fan.

There are tons of sports fans who can handle a loss graciously, but in my experience that's a small fraction of a large group.

All I ask is that fans find a safe way to take out their frustration like, oh I don't know, tossing around the ol' pigskin maybe, since they love the sport so much anyway.

For everyone who has the misfortune to love a sports fan, I sympathize with you. Remember, the next time the Bills lose: hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife, and run from yo' husbands too, cuz they beatin' err'body up in here.

Bridget DeMeis can be reached by email at demeis.record@live.com.