"Fanhood"

As I was driving home from a long day of moving furniture and packing boxes, something began to stir in my head. I found my self obsessed with the notion of what it is to be a sports fan. I often become frustrated at my better half's lack of knowledge, passion and overall interest in professional sports. My mind took a journey through my past. I needed to recreate what drove to being a sports fan in order to answer my question and gain some perspective.

It is an age old disagreement. Some people simply cannot get enough of watching, playing, and discussing sports. While others think it is silly to spend a chunk of time watching, playing or discussing sports. In order to better understand why some people are not attracted to sports, I needed to reflect on my journey to this obsession I call "fanhood."

For the better part of my life I have been involved in sports. Growing up I played baseball, basketball, football, soccer and golf. Throughout my adolescence I did not pay much attention to the professional side of sports. It was not until my senior year of high school and into my college career that I actually became enthralled with professional sports teams. Why all of a sudden did I care so much about how many games back the Giants were, or if Baron Davis could keep his knee healthy for the post season.

As I began to put the pieces together I had somewhat of an epiphany. It is clear to me that grown men and women do not simply watch sporting events to see who and wins and loses. There are some very clear reasons for being a part of "fanhood." I realized that a "game" can tell a much greater story then just the game that is being played. You can look at any sport, and at any team, and at any match, you will find a great story that is being told through the game. A story about a person playing the game, a team overcoming adversity, a coach fighting for his job, or a city in desperate need of something to cheer for.

People who view sporting events as something you can just find on the television, watch for a while, and then click to something else are missing a huge part of what the game really is. It would be as if you picked up a novel, turned to page 78 and began reading. You would not be interested, you have no back story, no connection, and no development. Sports can be looked at in the exact same way. I love sports for the story that will be written by the outcome and the competitive nature of the game.

One example of this would be the recent death of Sean Taylor. I am not a fan of the Redskins, nor did I pay any particular attention to #21 however, the next two games I pulled for the Redskins to win probably more then I did for my local team. An intricate and involved story came out of that tragedy. I wanted to see the Redskins win, and win for Sean. Unfortunetly that did not happen, but it was still a story told through the game. You can apply this to the whole spectrum of sports, whether it is JR coming out of retirement and scoring his 500th goal, or Harvick's first win in Earnhardt's car, or watching Brees and Bush bring hope to a destroyed city.

My point here is not to convince everyone to start following sports and become crazed fans. It is simply to enlighten people and provide an explanation for folks who do not understand what it is that draws us to the game. There are certainly other reasons for watching sports and being a fan. I am sure most would mention that sports attract people because of the barbarianism, or the ability to gamble on them, or the deep tradition people have about roooting for the same team there father, grandfather, and great grandfather rooted for. I will leave you with this thought. People are entertained by sports for a number of reasons. It could be the size or skill of the players, it could be because they want to belong to something, or it could be because they want to escape their forty hour work week and be distracted by something else. The true sports fan finds meaning in the games that are played. It is not the outcome of the game itself, it the journey through the game and the stories that will be told along the way.

-NJ