No matter where I live, I seem to be surrounded by an overwhelming sports-oriented mentality.
The small town in which I grew up had a very good high school football team. Pep rallies were held before many of the home games, during school hours, and student attendance was mandatory. I never could understand the sense to this. I didn't care about football and saw no reason to reduce our daily education several times a year in order to hold something as meaningless as pep rallies.
But if I thought that was bad, I was in for a rude shock.
I went to college at Penn State. Talk about popular football teams. Sports was considered a way of life, there. Coach Joe Paterno was practically deified. (I admit to admiring the man's commitment to education, though I could care less whether the Nittany Lions had a good season or not.) People practically bled blue and white, there. Bumperstickers were everywhere, proclaiming, "If God isn't a Penn State fan, why is the sky blue and white?" Of course, the only thing that seemed more popular than sports at PSU was alcohol consumption. Regrettably, the two often went hand-in-hand. If there's anything more obnoxious than drunken college students staggering through town at two in the morning, loudly asserting, "We are… Penn State!"… I don't want to know what it is.
After college, I moved to the Philadelphia area and was surrounded by fans of the Eagles, the Phillies and the Flyers. This was actually a step down from Penn State, but it was still ever-present. Sports bars were everywhere. Hockey jerseys were worn by kids all throughout the malls. I just didn't get it.
But oh, boy… The worst was yet to come.
Let me just say two words: Utah Jazz.
I am not kidding: the sports rage here in the Mormon state is as bad as everything in the paragraphs above combined. I'm told that it's like this even when the Jazz don't have a great season, let alone make the finals. How bad is it? I can't count the number of Utah Jazz ornamental flags I've seen in the past month, both the big ones that hang on peoples' homes, plus little ones on car aerials. Elderly women walk around in Jazz shirts. I can't sit an hour at work without hearing someone mention the team or the latest game. Teenagers walk through grocery stores and say loudly, "Any Bulls fans here? The Jazz is gonna walk all over you." Basketball gets top newspaper space over items such as the death of James Earl Ray (which was relegated to page 8 of section D in the local paper). The rocket scientists I work with (as well as some brain surgeons in the area) were actually interviewed by the paper to get their scientific views on who would win in the playoffs. People who don't watch any other sports at all will watch the Jazz, and get worked up about it.
This includes my partner, who does not watch any sport but basketball, and then only when it's the Jazz. This year, she gave up even that, despite the fact that they made it to the finals. Why? She can't handle the stress. After watching just the last few minutes (plus the overtime) of game one against Chicago, she was a wreck. After that, she would just find out who won and be done with it.
I don't blame her. I just don't get why people get so worked up over sports. I can understand enjoying sports. I've been known to watch football on occasion. (One game a year is generally my limit.) I used to play baseball when I was a kid and was very fond of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But I have never been able to fathom people who get so bent about a sport that they yell at the television or badmouth the teams or in any way act as if it really matters who wins. It's not healthy. It's destructive.
And to some people, it's truly an obsession. Back at Penn State, it was an unfortunately common occurrence for the fans to tear down the goalposts after big games. Goalposts cost thousands of dollars, in case you didn't know. I recall one year, Paterno pledged to donate a couple thousand dollars to the sports fund (I think it was) if the fans did not tear down the posts after the next game. The fans obviously didn't care. Down they went.
And soccer fans! Hoo, mama! Are these people psycho or what? Especially the English ones. This is from a recent Reuters news clipping, referring to a recent event revolving around soccer:
Pictures of the pitched battles, burning cars and broken bottles revived some of England's worst soccer nightmares of the 1970s and 1980s, when English fans were infamous for creating havoc at home and abroad.Is this insanity or what?English soccer clubs were banned from all European competitions for four years after Liverpool fans rampaged across terraces at Belgium's Heysel stadium in 1985, causing a wall to collapse that killed 39 fans -- most of them Italian Juventus supporters.
I remember reading of one incident, years ago, where an unfortunate player accidentally caused a goal to be scored by the opposing team. His team lost. And so did he. Back in his home town, he was set upon by a mob and murdered.
How is it possible for anyone, let alone lots of people, to take sports this seriously? How can anyone think that any of it is important? It's just a game, folks. Sure, it's a huge moneymaking industry, too, but ultimately, it's only entertainment. Treat it as such.