Some folks who are in regular contact with me have already heard this, but I'm going to write about it nonetheless!
I love football. Well, the professional game doesn't interest me all that much, but I really enjoy watching the local high school play and I've been a very avid University of Oregon Ducks fan for many years. When I was attending the college, the team was pretty pitiful, but I still enjoyed the atmosphere surrounding the games. Their success over the past decade has made it even sweeter. This past season brought an event, however, that stopped me in my tracks.
Oregon played a very highly regarded Oklahoma team and pulled out a victory - a victory aided by a controversial official's call close to the end of the game. Truth be told, this game - like virtually all games - had errors committed by the officials that aided both sides. The controversy, however, exploded across the entire country. Virtually every media outlet discussed it ad nauseum. Fans on both sides overreacted horribly. I don't recall any instances of physical violence, but there were certainly stories of cars being vandalized and many vulgar epithets were thrown back and forth.
It wasn't only the fans of these two teams who were getting in on the action. The following week I received an email from a good friend who happens to be a fan of Oregon's traditional arch rival - Oregon State. He was basically trying to get me to admit that Oregon didn't deserve to win the game, etc.
I responded with an email that was pretty testy in tone. When his reply came back, basically saying "Whoa Nellie!", I knew something was very wrong here.
What would I have done had it been Oregon State in the situation? Yup - I would have been trying to get every OSU fan I knew to admit that they didn't deserve the win. This took me off in a new direction.
What is it about being a fan of a sports team that gives me a right to belittle the fans of other teams? I don't play for the team, in fact I never even played organized football. Yes, I attended the school, but how is it that a victory by "my" team makes me a superior human being to the fan of the other team or teams? Why do I get sullen and depressed when "my" team loses? Why should I let their success of failure have any bearing on my demeanor at all?
When I looked at these questions objectively (or at least tried to), I realized that I had to step back from this obsession. Cheering for a team doesn't make me any better than the next fellow. Letting their success or failure affect my demeanor is so obviously wrong as to be laughable. Will a win by the Oregon Ducks help me to overcome any of my personal challenges? Will it make the world a better place, solve hunger or accomplish anything else beyond swelling the chests of their fans? Of course it won't.
I have held a belief for a very long time that our society is a mirror reflection of ancient Rome. Civilization has changed enough to preclude us from attempting to conquer the known world militarily, but this country has done a pretty effective job of conquering culturally and economically. What are our sporting events if not modern equivalents of the gladiatorial games held in antiquity? Our society - for the most part - has developed beyond the blood lust of those days, but the irrational devotion is very similar.
I could make some kind of analogy of the obsession with my team's success being an addiction like alcoholism. After all, of a former president can be described as addicted to sex, why can't I claim this addiction. Actually, now that I think about it, I rather like the latter comparison. Sex - if practiced within the confines of a marriage and without any truly bizarre behaviors - is wonderful. A person need not abstain from sex to keep it under control.
The same goes for being a sports fan. To say that I'll never watch another game or cheer when my team scores would be foolish and needlessly masochistic. I just have to keep it rational and within the confines of the game!
