Professor Sam Sommers brings psychology to sports fans

As the co-author of the new sports psychology book, "This is Your Brain on Sports," Associate Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers is uniquely positioned to answer most questions about how athletes, coaches and fans think. But there is one subject that even he can't completely solve: Why do people who claim to enjoy sports watch Skip Bayless and Stephen Smith squabble on ESPN's "First Take"?

"There is something viscerally and instinctually appealing about people being brutally honest and screaming," Sommers said. "Things that make you think, things that require a little more effort on your end versus more meaningful, thoughtful affair: it's a question across different domains."

Sommers' book, written with longtime Sports Illustrated scribe, L. Jon Wertheim, can go from light to serious and exhibits a scope from the fan's couch to the batter's box. Each chapter sheds light on how sports can bring out seemingly illogical emotions and sports phenomena that can be explained by science.

Some topics answer questions like why quarterbacks tend to be more attractive (hint: they aren't) or the effects of sex before competition (there are none). Others seem fit for an MBA classroom, explaining, for instance, how rivalries enhance performance and how deadlines are mentally essential for bringing out the best results. Regardless of the subject, the voice of the book never wavers, providing a mix of academic inquiry with the tone of a sports fan.

From the outside, the pairing of Wertheim and Sommers appears odd, but the opposing worlds of sports journalism and academia match up well. In fact, it was Wertheim who sought out the Tufts professor with the initial seed of the idea.

"Two years ago, out of the blue, I got an email from him saying he had my book [Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World] and read it, and he had a hare-brained idea to bounce off of me," Sommers said. "Within a couple of weeks, we had not only brainstormed a list of 25 ideas but hammered out a book proposal."

The result was an ideological cousin to Wertheim's book, "Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won" (2012), which he wrote with University of Chicago economist Tobias Moskowitz. "Scorecasting" delved into the analytical side of sports, seeking to describe phenomena and misconceptions through empirical standards. Most notably, one chapter not only proved that a home-field advantage exists across most sports, but it showed that it was the result of hidden biases amongst referees that favor the home team.

Given Wertheim's 20-year history at Sports Illustrated covering a wide array of sporting moments, from the Federer-Nadal tennis rivalry to painkillers' effects on young athletes, there seems to be no sports topic that Wertheim has not tackled in his long, respected career. For Sommers, his teaching style of using real-life scenarios to explain academic principles, which he also used in his book, "Situations Matter," meshed well with Wertheim's sports journalism background. The ability of Wertheim to recall a time he interviewed Floyd Mayweather Jr. or had a sit-down with Maria Sharapova, then have Sommers translate the conversation into a psychology lesson, helps seamlessly connect the two worlds.

What's apparent in the book and in talking to him in person is Sommers' love of sports. When he brings up the common hypocrisy of all sports fans (raise your hand if you have ever condemned an athlete for using steroids then rooted for another steroid-user because he played for your favorite team), it is with a casual, self-aware tone that seeks to explain, not judge. It's a lot like getting in a typical sports-bar debate, only your counterpart has a Ph.D.

"Two sports fans watching the same event, it's not just that they believe different things, they literally see different things," Sommers said. "One of them sees the ball getting to the first baseman's glove before the runner hits the bag and the other doesn't."

The authors' curiosity in exploring these common differences make "This is Your Brain on Sports" different from the typical sports book. Sommers saw similarities in his book to those of Malcolm Gladwell or the "Freakonomics" books and podcast, which have gained popularity in their marrying scientific or academic thought with accessible writing.

Since the book's announcement, Sommers has popped up in places he had never expected to see. It started with a short article complimenting the Cleveland Browns for hiring Paul DePodesta, a former baseball executive, to their front office that appeared in the beginning of a Sports Illustrated issue.

"When we wrote the [article] in January, with a byline in Sports Illustrated, that was pretty cool," Sommers said.

However, that would not be all the magazine had in store. Two weeks later, the excerpt on the attractiveness level of NFL quarterbacks not only reached the long-form section, it was featured on the cover.

"I have been reading that magazine since I was 16, and I knew pretty early on I did not have the athletic ability to get on the cover, but writing was my chance," Sommers said.

With the book being released the week before the Super Bowl, Sommers traveled to host city San Francisco to be interviewed about the book, getting a spot on the famed Radio Row where the biggest figures in sports media stake out real estate in the week leading up to the game. Additionally, Sommers and Wertheim have continued to explore the intersection of sports and psychology with their own podcast. Originally formed to help promote the book, the podcast serves to explore topics that were either left on the cutting room floor or have reached the public conscience.

Despite his journey into the world of sports media, Sommers is not ready to be a talking head on ESPN's "Around the Horn."

"It's a bit out of my element. I'm a college professor, this is what I love doing — teaching my classes and holding office hours, but it has been fun to do the odd TV and radio appearance," Sommers said. "I have always been a social psychologist who fancied himself a bit of an expert in the world of sports, and now I can plausibly argue that I have a book on the topic."