The Sports Fan

How much is in being a sports fan, truly?

I say it because I'm a fan of different teams in different sports, but I can never just enjoy a game by my team. I can enjoy them truly crushing the competition, but since that rarely happens, the best way to describe my condition is: nervous.

I'm always nervous. I have no ability to adaquately judge the flow of a game. If it looks like my team will win I automatically fear the worst. Any evidence to support my claim turns into irrational fears exploding and my body aching and groaning. I can not be silent or still during a game. I am exuding numerous groans and moans and always fidgeting. To the person who has little interest in sports, it looks bad.

Am I really that bad? Not at all. See, I don't know serious fans who aren't like this. It comes with the territory. The point is I could be a lot worst. This past friday, I went to see a high school football game. To me watching this was watching the equivalent of a 6th grade game. Win or less, you just want to see a football game. No emotions involved. This wasn't true for some exuberant men who yelled and screamed at every supposed bad call or missed play. These weren't simple asshole parents, but just regular people who had seen the best days of their lives in high school football and hang on to what happens to their high school team like it is life or death. I couldn't believe these guys. They were insane.

There is a good and bad to being a sports fan. The good is that you like something that unites you with the majority of the people. I've found you can be a fan of something most people either don't get or aren't into and think yourself the better because of it. This happens everywhere with music, literature or film. It even happens with other things like politics, social issues or languages. I've run into them all and even shown moments of arrogance that I immediately regretted. The beauty of sports is that it is considered dumb sometimes by people who know it, but also considered beautiful and intricate. You're more likely to eat humble pie because examples of both happen all the time and you learn to live with it.

The bad is that you lose perspective of how important sports shouldn't be and allow it to take over your life. Your feelings become based on how well your team is doing. Unless you are a bandwagon jumper and thus not even a real fan, it's stupid to do. Teams either show spurts of greatness or none at all. The majority of fans don't expect their teams to be contenders for championships every year. The fact is this can be done with anything. The lesson isn't lost on any interest. It's just with sports it becomes so intense because the uncertainty of how well your team is going to do is being spotlighted and talked about on a national stage. That sucks!

The sports world is amazing. Only in sports do you have expert writers on tv shows making fools out of themselves because they understand they are experts for a thing that sometimes makes no sense and borders on ridiculous. Only knowleagable professional wrestling fans have better ideas to the value of life. Too many things in the world are taken too seriously. Most of the time sports isn't. That's what is good about it.

But it always can be.