Chris and sports

Sports is a term that most often refers to competitive games involving intense physical activity that may be important to a culture. Some activities which don't quite fit that definition, such as Esports, are also considered sports by many. Upon first glance, one may assume that Chris has never even thought about throwing a ball or running a mile, but that would be wrong. In fact, Chris has had several interactions with sports throughout his life, both as an athlete and as a fan.

Managerial Career

No doubt Chris's most famous role in the sports world was as the "Manager/Water Boy" of the Manchester High School varsity basketball team. Of course, the role of a water boy and a manager are two very different things, and while a student manager of a sports team may very well sometimes perform simple services for the team such as providing water, it is more likely Chris was simply given the title as a gesture. There are not many other details known about what Chris did during his tenure, other than that he shared this position with fellow student Joseph Herring, who made enough of an impression on Chris to appear in Sonichu #7. Chris only served as manager for a single season. Whether he lost interest or was denied a second season his sophomore year is anyone's guess.

Chris, the Athlete

While Chris never formally played any sports for an organized team, he has played casually by himself and with others, and has bragged several times about his incredible athletic prowess. On his first Match.com profile, Chris claimed that he played many popular sports, and in Kacey Call 9, he would attempt to defend his masculinity by stating the same. It has been claimed by Sonichu himself that Chris's counterpart in C-197 is very talented at some particular sports. In short, Chris's feats on the sporting fields are something he is very willing to brag about, whether they warrant it or not.

Basketball

Chris is not limited to the sidelines of the basketball court. During his time in jail, Chris reported in a letter that he would sometimes go to the basketball court and shoot some hoops with Bionic on Central Virginia Regional Jail's half-court. Tragically, in a letter to Eels and the Eggman, Chris would lament being banned from the rec room, cutting his basketball career short before the NBA had the chance to notice him.

Football

In Chris's home country of the United States, football is the name of a sport that involves tackling and touchdowns. In most other parts of the world, football is what Chris and his fellow Americans would call soccer. Chris has history with both variations of the sport. In his video A few kicks, Chris plays around with a soccer ball as Toucher le ciel plays louder than he speaks. Chris's ownership of a soccer ball implies an interest in playing soccer, but the lack of any feats more impressive than kicking the ball kind of far makes it seem that this is another instance of Chris taking a mild interest in something, making a video about it, and leaving it be. In a twist that is part unsurprising and part extremely surprising, Chris has more experience with American football. In his emails with Jackie, Chris confirms that while he was never the most interested in it, Chris would play football during PE class. According to Chris, the class would be split between boys and girls. Presumably, they would each be further divided into two teams that would then play against each other. Chris didn't enjoy the levels of violence displayed by the JERKS, and was eventually placed to play among the girls by "special request." In spite of his limited experience with both forms of football, Chris directly references both among the sports he plays on his first Match.com profile, and cites them both immediately when Kacey suggests that volleyball is not a very masculine activity. It seems that for Chris, simply having played before is enough to call himself a player if it helps his love quest.

Running

Like football, running is a sport that takes many forms. Considering that Chris's lifelong hero and his prized creation are both runners, one can imagine that Chris has a certain level of appreciation for running sports as well. In his famous December 2009 video Sonichu's Edge, Chris records himself "jogging" around downtown Charlottesville. In his video, Chris shows just how unfamiliar with running he truly is (for example, mispronouncing "parkour" as "parkay" and thinking parkour is in any way related to distance running). During his run, Chris seemingly takes many breaks during cuts in the video. Given Chris's shape, many would consider this excusable. What is notable is that at the beginning of the video, Chris states a belief that all runners do this. Jogging was a topic discussed by Chris and Kacey quite often in their calls earlier that same year. The troll behind Kacey acted quite bothered with Chris's lacking in ability, criticizing him for only being able to jog for 3 minutes time in Kacey Call 19. In Kacey Call 21, Chris claims that he has upped his time jogging to 5 minutes. Still unimpressed, Kacey suggests that Chris ought to record himself running so that she could tell him how to improve. Chris makes the excuse that it would be difficult to film himself jogging due to the way he swings his arms. Kacey replies that when jogging, one is supposed to keep their arms beside them. Some video game characters will swing their arms stretched out beside them while running, so it is possible that Chris picked up the habit from them. Regardless, when Kacey suggests that Chris should at least set the camera in a stationary position and jog in front of it, Chris says that he will "think about it" and leaves it at that.

Volleyball

One of the sports that Chris is supposedly so skilled at in our sister dimension is volleyball. This was claimed post-transition, which means its possible that volleyball's listing was influenced by an aforementioned comment made by Kacey about volleyball being "really a girl sport" after Chris described playing it in high school as a "boy thing", however, that is just speculation and cannot be confirmed.

Other

When Chris lists sports he's played, baseball is usually among them. Despite this, no stories of Chris playing baseball seem to exist. However on an OKCupid profile, Chris claims that "baseball sucks." A similar situation exists regarding tennis, where we know that Chris took a class on the game in college, but that is all. As for E-Sports, Chris has only gotten into playing competitive games online relatively recently as of the Revelations Saga, with Tetris 99 being a current favorite since just before the Jail Saga.

Chris, the Sports Fan

Like all fandoms, being a sports fan can be an important part of someone's identity. Many fans will attempt to follow their team as they travel large distances to play against other teams, and rivalries between teams will more often than not extend to their fans. While it would be very entertaining to watch Chris give a Chop Chop Master Onion's Rap Showdown-esque rant about how the University of Virginia Cavaliers were robbed of an important win by the referees, Chris is not as passionate as these aforementioned fans about many things other than vidya and (formerly) hanky panky. That said, Chris has expressed interest in consuming sports related-media throughout the years.

Attending Live Sports

As a waterboy in high school, Chris would have had the opportunity to see plenty of action on the basketball court. In fact, given Chris's work ethic, one may assume that Chris would spend more time watching the game than performing his actual duties. While that is not outside the realm of possibility, if he did, he never saw anything worth remembering to him, as in Mailbag 28 he was asked in a letter if he had any basketball stories among other questions. His response is to ignore this part of the letter. Regardless, during in a message on The Place from October 2020, Chris would cite his time as manager as an exception to the rule of him not being "really big into watching sports."

In May 2010 Chris won 4 tickets to Extreme Action Sports, a motorsports event held in the John Paul Jones Arena. He attempted to find 3 people to attend with him, however he would say in the Greene County Conspiracy video that none of his friends were able. While many would consider this happening to be reason to simply stay home, Chris would attend anyway, sitting next to a "lovey-dovey couple" who he supposedly tried to be friendly towards. Chris does not say whether he enjoyed the event itself to any degree, his video about the subject makes it clear that being there alone was quite disappointing.

Watching Sports on TV

When Chris has referenced watching football on TV a number of times. In October 2011, Chris listed a Panasonic 32-inch color television on Craigslist, and in the description noted that it "defined SUPER BOWL SUNDAY, as well as Thanksgiving Football Watching". It may be worth noting that Bob's alma mater, Auburn University traditionally plays football against its main rival, the University of Alabama, around Thanksgiving. In fact, based on later comments, it may be inferred that all this football watching Chris says he has done was Bob trying to introduce him to the sport in one of his many attempts to get Chris into his myriad hobbies and interests. In a The Place Chat from October 2020, Chris says that he is not particularly interested in watching sports when asked if he keeps up with college football. Ironically enough, this question was prompted when Chris brought up that at-the-time head football coach for the aforementioned University of Alabama, Nick Saban had been diagnosed with Covid 19. A similar sentiment would be shared in a somewhat confusing Twitter post from 7 February 2021 about Super Bowl LV, Chris, roleplaying as Sonichu claims that Chris is not much into football, or sports in general. Sonichu, however, is implied to enjoy football, and perhaps even plays football himself.

Hey, y’all. Just a quick note, since it is #SuperBowl2021 today: Chris is not into watching football and sports games that much, so Super Bowl is not a big thing with her; not gonna be watching it. Me, however, we actually play and practice our sports and activities back home.⚡️ [GIF of Charlie Brown trying to kick a football with text saying "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?"]

Whether this means that Chris would be watching the Super Bowl as part of his Sonichu roleplay, that Sonichu would watch it if not for supposedly being in the real world inside Chris's body, or anything else is not exactly clear.

In November 2023 livestream, also while Chris was roleplaying but this time as Jesus Christ, he was asked to bless the Green Bay Packers so that they make it to and win Super Bowl LVIII. Chris responds to this request saying that divine forces have pre-ordained that the winning team would be the one that "earned it." This could be taken as Chris hiding a lack of interest in the NFL, considering that if Chris had a favorite team then one may expect him to give some sort of reason why they must win in order for the merge to be completed successfully, but that is mere speculation. On a related note, though, Chris never outright denies interest, and even confirms that the higher powers of his lore have some sort of concern for the outcome of the league's season.

Consuming Sports Merchandise

Some of the video games Chris owns are sports-based.