4 Notable Celebrity Sports Fans
By
Richard Janvrin
Contributor Updated: 11 February 2025
Richard Janvrin Contributor
Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today.
4 Celebrities That Are Massive Sports Fans
Celebrities may be known for their performance on the big screen, in music, or in another field, but at the end of the day, they’re regular people like anyone else. Thus, it’s not uncommon for someone, regardless of their net worth, to be a fan of a sports team from where they’re from or where they’ve resided for a long period of time.
Below, I will examine the fandom of celebrity sports fans, including how it started and how deep it runs.
Matthew McConaughey
Of all celebrity sports fans, none have the level of passion McConaughey has for the Texas Longhorns.
His fandom for the Austin, Texas-based college football program started when he attended the university from 1989 to 1993. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio, Television, and Film and was a Delta Tau Delta fraternity member there.
Not only did he go to the university, but he’s from Texas. He was born in Uvalde in 1969.
He’s even worked as a professor in the communications department at the university.
Today, McConaughey is seen regularly at Longhorns games and was named “Minister of Culture.” He contributes to fundraising efforts, gives motivational speeches to the team, and is seen on the sidelines as a pseudo-member of the staff, so he’s more than just a huge sports fan.
We’ve even seen him appear in “alt casts” with The Pat McAfee Show, most recently in the 2023-24 season.
McConaughey shows no signs of slowing down his fandom. In this new era of college football with NIL, I’m sure he’ll contribute to those collectives to help continue adding talent to his beloved Longhorns roster.
Drake
A native of Toronto, Canada, it should be no surprise that Drake is a celebrity sports fan of his hometown, Toronto Raptors, in the NBA.
In 2013, the team named him the Raptors’ global ambassador. With this role and his consistent appearances at games sitting courtside, he’s developed relationships with players and coaches.
Drake was even seen hyping up Raptors head coach Nick Nurse in a 2019 game against the Milwaukee Bucks. He put his hands on his shoulders and appeared to say, “Let’s go!” to the coach, who was with the Raptors from 2018 to 2023 and was there for their 2019 NBA championship run.
There have been times when some of those relationships have soured. One player, DeMar DeRozan. He played for the Raptors from 2009 to 2018.
In 2024, DeRozan appeared in Kendrick Lamar’s video for “Not Like Us,” a rapper Drake was feuding with.
Needless to say, Drake wasn’t a fan of one of the Raptors’ all-time greats doing that.
“If you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself,” he said.
It’s unclear how much that’s impacted his support.
Further, Drake is an avid sports bettor, often engaging in NBA mobile betting and more. That alone makes him one of the biggest celebrity sports fans.
There’s even a site dedicated to tracking his bets, though it appears outdated as of 2025.
Nonetheless, he regularly posts screenshots of wagers on Stake, an online sports betting platform and casino considered offshore in the United States because it is not licensed to operate there.
Regardless of how he feels about the Raptors today, Drake is one of the most famous sports fans there is.
Spike Lee
There may not be a more dedicated and famous sports fan on this list than filmmaker Spike Lee.
An avid New York Knicks fan, Lee has had season tickets to the team since 1985.
He’s from New York, and even though he didn’t get season tickets until 1985, he was a Knicks fan long before then, too.
Lee has routinely cited his most memorable moments as a fan of the team, including seeing them since Game 7 of the NBA Finals in 1970 when Lee was just 13 years old.
“It was a memory I will never forget,” Lee told NBA.com. “Willis Reed coming back and the Garden went nuts. It was a very special moment in Knicks history.”
Since getting his season tickets, Lee has consistently been seen courtside at Knicks games. He also appears in Knicks gear, wearing their patented blue and orange.
Unfortunately, he’s often credited with why Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller put up 24 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Thankfully, though, the Knicks went on to win that series.
In 2020, though, there was an incident in which Lee stated he was done attending Knicks games after an incident where he claimed to be harassed by the team’s owner, James Dolan. The Knicks PR staff shot back and claimed they didn’t want him using the employee entrance but rather a VIP entrance instead.
“Anything the Knicks say, it’s going to be a lie,” Lee said. “I challenge you to get the answers. I want Madison Square Garden to produce an email before I arrived at the Garden yesterday saying, ‘Mr. Lee, you can no longer use the employee entrance.’ It never happened.”
Despite that controversy, Lee has been back at Knicks games and continues to support his hometown team.
Mark Wahlberg
Rounding out this list is Mark Wahlberg, a notable celebrity sports fan of the New England Patriots.
Much of his fandom is tied to the days of Patriots prominence with Tom Brady under center with the team from 2000 to 2019.
At one time, Wahlberg was almost synonymous with the organization.
There was one moment, though, when he had a bit of egg on his face. He was seen leaving Super Bowl LI, the game where the Patriots were down 28-3. A massive fan of the team, Wahlberg missed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
He claimed to have left due to his child being sick.
Wahlberg also made a massive wager on the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. He mentioned he also bet on their opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles, because he fondly admired the team after appearing in the film Invincible, based on former Eagles player Vince Papale.
He never revealed the size of the bet, and of course, the Patriots lost that game.
Heading into the 2024 season, with Bill Belichick and Brady long gone, he welcomed rookie quarterback Drake Maye to the team in a video for Fanatics, calling him “Drizzy Drake.” He offered to help him train and told him that if anyone “f**** with him,” he should call him.
Regardless of the Super Bowl LI snafu, Wahlberg has never left the Patriots behind despite the old regime coming and going. He’s one of the biggest celebrity sports fans there is.
