Does anyone NOT follow sports?

Yep, and you probably won't match because of it. Time for you to start thinking about another specialty.

I'll ignore your jackassery for now.

I was not asking if you had to watch sports to match into ortho. My question was directed at the culture of orthopedics and how integral the discussion of and the knowledge of TV sports was to the culture of orthopedics.

It seems, from my observation, that there are 3 types of ortho surgeons:

1. The "jocks" - played sports all their lives and now are ortho surgeons
2. The "brains" - didn't play many sports, but scored 250+ on the boards and have 10 NEJM publications
3. Combination of the above.
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Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, eh...

That isn't just ortho, that is the way American men relate to eachother. Jon and Kate don't come up often in conversations in ortho.

hah! Maybe not at your program...

Ha, well I know what program is going in my #1 spot. sssssssssuper!

Haha, Jon and Kate came up at the ortho interview I had at Wayne State yesterday. Granted it wasn't part of one of the official interviews...but a resident was there!

Also, I don't follow sports, don't really play any either.

Sure, I like to watch a good college football game when its on, but I don't follow sports. I can think of much better things to do than waste my life reading ESPN.com and watching every game on TV. I played soccer in high school and college, and no, I'm not giant nerd. There are many ortho residents out there like me. We are not all "jocks" who can only talk sports.

This thread made me smile. While I played sports in high school and college, I'm certainly not a jock. I have never enjoyed watching sports. Since as one person said in this thread, men do seem to bond over sports, I have been wondering if I should "study" at least enough to carry on a conversation. Is it worth it guys? Or as a woman, am I allowed to make small talk about something else and still be your friend?

To the original poster - wow, I want to do international mission work too. Glad I'm not the only one!

If you brew your own beer you can talk about brewing beer. That is about it though. Ortho= beer, sports, chest bump, under armour!

I am an orthopod - 5 yrs into practice. Every one talked about sports and its importance to ortho.


My answer at my residency interview many years ago was that my orthopaedics was meant to allow old folks to walk and restore limbs to trauma victims. (Now I am a trauma and joint focussed surgeon).

Some people will argue that previous sports experience improves hand - eye coordination. Yes it is probably true. However, most orthopods were not sports stars in college high school. That is why you have 5 years of training. Some will be good in the begining but others will catch up.

So live life at your terms. Do not change your self to make friends (studying sports to carry on a conversation). There is plenty in real life to keep non-sports people going.

In residency or in practice - your colleagues will care far more about if you can be trusted to be honest and fair. I do not think people base their relationship based on knowledge of sports.

Thank you, that was very encouraging.

Oh, we're being serious?

If you talk to your ortho residents and attendings about regular stuff, you'll see that they are a pretty diverse group of folks. Not ethnically diverse as a community, but diverse in terms of who they are, what they've done, and what they like to do when they're not working.