Here are two important facts: Fact 1: I’ve spent my whole life obsessed with sports. Fact 2: My wife and I met nearly 15 years ago. Given those two facts, I figured some of my sports fandom surely rubbed off on her. So, I decided to put it to the test. I came up with a two part assessment for my wife to prove her sports knowledge! Let’s dive into it.
Sports Knowledge Test, Part 1
Firstly, I asked her to provide either the team or the sport for some of the biggest sports stars in the world. These players are on my mind just about all hours of the day. My wife was sure to do pretty well, right? Have a look:
| Athlete | Wife’s Sport Answer | Wife’s Team Answer | My Thoughts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidney Crosby | Hockey | Penguins | Good start! |
| Shohei Ohtani | Baseball | Don’t know | That’s okay, at least she knew the sport! |
| Aaron Judge | Baseball | Jays | A little strange to think the Jays, but still okay! |
| Patrick Mahomes | Football | Your brother’s team | My brother is a Packers fan. Clearly, teams are going to be an issue here. |
| LeBron James | Basketball | Toronto | Okay, for some reason she’s stuck on Toronto sports. |
| Steph Curry | No idea | No idea | What the heck?! |
| Lamar Jackson | Basketball | No idea | Come on! |
| Connor McDavid | Hockey | No idea | We’ve watched him in the Stanley Cup Finals twice! |
| Josh Allen | Baseball | No idea | You’ve gotta be kidding me! |
| Cale Makar | Basketball | No idea | You’ve gotta be kidding me! |
| Nikola Jokic | Hockey | No idea | You’ve gotta be kidding me! |
| Hughes Brothers | Baseball | No idea | You’ve gotta be kidding me! |
| Joe Burrow | Baseball | No idea | You’ve gotta be kidding me! |
Making Part 1 Easier
After 5 straight “You’ve gotta be kidding me’s”, I decided to take away the team component of this. Clearly, that was too much to ask. From here on out, I was just asking (maybe begging) that she tell me what sport these very famous athletes play:
| Athlete | Wife’s Answer | My Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy | Football | INTERNALLY SCREAMING! |
| Carlos Alcarez | Tennis | Oh my gosh, she got one! We are back on track! |
| Jannik Sinner | Golf | Forget it. |
| Scottie Scheffler | Golf | Lucky guess. |
| Myles Garrett | Baseball | Pathetic. |
| Juan Soto | Baseball | Lucky. |
| Paul Skenes | Golf | Pathetic. |
| Kevin Durant | Basketball | Lucky. |
| Tarik Skubal | Hockey | Pathetic. |
| Connor Hellebuyck | Golf | Pathetic. |
| Puka Nacua | Golf | Oh, nothing to see here, just my wife not knowing what sport my favourite football player from my favourite team plays! |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | Basketball | Way to finish strong, babe. |
Sports Knowledge Test, Part 2
Don’t forget, folks, this was a two part test. I really wanted her to succeed with part 2. That’s why I made it as easy as possible. I would name the sport and she would name a player and a team within that sport. The player didn’t even need to be on the team that she mentioned. Just please, my beautiful wife, show me that you have even the littlest bit of sports knowledge!
| Sport | Her Player | Her Team |
|---|---|---|
| Hockey | McDavid | Sens |
| Football | Mahomes | Rams |
| Basketball | Kobe | LA Kings |
| Baseball | Babe Ruth | Blue Jays |
| Golf | Tiger Woods | ——————— |
| Tennis | No Idea | ——————— |
Well, if this wasn’t a great way to enter the mind of a (non-sports fan) female, I don’t know what is. While I appreciated her choosing the Sens and Rams (my two teams), the fact that she couldn’t name a proper NBA team, went back a decade for her NBA player, and a century for her baseball player left me feeling defeated. Even worse, she chose the Blue Jays as her baseball team. I’m a Toronto sports hater over here! Oh, and she couldn’t think of one tennis player? That just proves that her saying Alcarez played tennis in part one was indeed pure luck!
My Wife’s Test Score
Anyway, let’s total up her score:
Part 1
- Guessing the sport: 10/25
- Guessing the team: 1/13
- TOTAL: 11/38
Part 2
- Correct Players: 5/6
- Correct Teams: 3/4
- TOTAL: 8/10
OVERALL SCORE: 19/48 (40%)
In the teacher’s world, we call that a fail, or F for short.
Final Thoughts
Time to debrief. Let’s face it, as soon as my wife didn’t know what sport Steph Curry played, this was bound to be a disaster. So what did this teach me? I certainly don’t want to feel like my wife has been ignoring me for the last 15 years.
After all, when the Rams lose a heartbreaker, my wife shows sorrow towards me. She makes sure to up that level of sadness when the Sens lose in the playoffs. She cheers when these teams win, too, when she’s actually paying attention at least. So who cares if she has such a lackluster, borderline pathetic lack of knowledge in the world of sports? She’ll tune in when it matters most, pretend to care, and she’s willing to somewhat listen to my silly sports rants from time to time. Isn’t that good enough? I’ll let you decide, I’m still hung up on her thinking Nikola Jokic was a hockey player.
