Why I can't be an avid sports fan
Where I come from in Africa, sports is absolutely huge. The culture is perceptually bombarded with sports references, discussions, and paraphernalia among other sports delights. We, like the rest of the planet, enjoy a wide array of sports like basketball, football, boxing and the likes. For the purposes of this blog, I'll be focusing on football, or rather, as so inexcusably called soccer by my north American amigos.
In the spirit of the UEFA Champions League which is happening right now, it seems appropriate. Now, I just want say that I'm not advocating that either side of the spectrum is better nor am I trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm merely just explaining my take on the idea of being a hardcore, die-hard sports fan.
I quite enjoy sports myself, being quite active in my days in quite a number of events, and I find myself watching sports or sometimes even marking down calendar dates of significant sports broadcasts. To bring is back home, to Africa, almost everyone is a supporter of one football team or another. Clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona, AC Milan, & Chelsea are all household names. Even without a semblance of soccer knowledge, you are probably thinking, and rightly as I will point out in a second, that these are names of these soccer clubs are towns! Towns, not in Africa but in England, Spain and Italy respectively. That's right, these club household names are most popular in Africa, and Africa isn't alone. Pretty much every single country in the world shares the same affinity for football clubs. So this means a Pakistani boy, for example can be a Manchester United Fan, and I would imagine there are many Pakistani United fans. In fact I go as far as to speculate United paraphernalia is far more popular than those of any of the country's own clubs.
This is what I find most interesting about this football especially — that, every country has it's own football leagues and it's own clubs, but it's citizens are supporters of a foreign club most times, to which, let's be honest is completely arbitrary and most times they share no concrete attachment to the said club they are supporting. I too am guilty of this, I am a Chelsea FC fan myself, if I can use the word — fan. I own a jersey which I had purchased a couple of years ago. I can go half seasons missing all their games and catch up in time for the Championships. I'm more of a passive fan, when we lose, I chalk it up as one of those things, but I'm not losing sleep over it. I'm often called a fake supporter because I don't catch all the games or sometimes don't care enough to watch them.
I'll let Mitchell & Webb tell it. It's a comedy sketch, but as they say a lot of truth is said in jest.
Perhaps, I'm looking at it from the wrong perspective. What does it matter if the people supporting these clubs are not in close proximity to where their club is located, so what? If a Barcelona fan moves permanently to the UK, does that mean he is automatically subscribed to UK football? It's all harmless fun, who the hell cares?
Right. This was my first concession, too. But let's take a closer look, is it harmless really? In the most basic sense of the word? Really? Have you ever heard a die-hard sports fan talk about the rival teams supporters? The riots? Post-championship, win or lose. It's likely to happen. But, let's put aside all that for a moment and imagine we lived in a perfect utopia where something ultimately insignificant as the results of the "Champions League" (which is conviently held every year), didn't really affect how we thought about or even acted towards each other.
A few days ago, I visited a friend's house, he had invited me to watch the 2nd Round of the UEFA Champions League, Arsenal FC was playing. The incessant chanting and yellings graced my ears as I made my way to his door. These shoutings are not foriegn to me, we all grew up in a culture with avid sports fans, I don't care where you live. And he was the real deal — apartment littered with logos, posters, gear, premium cable sports package, you know, the whole nine-yards.
Anyway, as it turned out, on this particular day, Arsenal wasn't doing to well, they were losing, not badly enough to warrant his erratic rages. At that moment, I realized I couldn't do it, I couldn't do that. The mental frustration, the mental calisthenics you put yourself through following through with each miss, each goal each minute of the game, it's such a roller coaster of emotions considering the the high stakes of the match. I was trying to enjoy the game myself, but his frequent outbursts and cursing didn't allow for an enjoyable experience. His team was losing and at this point the game was almost over and he could no longer hide his frustrations, the expression on his face was in a constant state of change, it was like seeing Rorschach in Watchmen.
At that point I was conflicted, because I felt a great deal of respect for him to be able to bring himself to love something as much as he did, and identify with it so strongly — it pained him immensely when they lost, but I also realized how different I was as a fan of the same game and how exaggerated ones reactions can seem when being observed from an outisider who doesn't support the same team you do or even care about sports at all. It makes perfect sense all avid fans would get together and rejoice or lament about their teams fate, it made for a more lock-step experience.
I'll end this blog post with this, it's a joke from Louis C.K., and I can't think of a better opportunity to tell it. C.K. is telling the audience how he doesn't allow his kids watch sit in front of the TV all day and how some other parent call him out on it and even calling him an asshole — they claim he is ruining his kid's lives, and how could they have a normal future without TV. This was his response:
Just, if you think that's a really good idea to have them watch tv, the next time your kid is watching television, just come up behind them when they don't know you're there and just turn it off without any warning.
[screaming] Do you think that's a good sign?
Do you think that's a sign that it's healthy for them, that when it's ..
[screaming] Because you've created such a high bar of stimulus that nothing competes.
I know it doesn't quite apply, in his case he is talking about his own kids — their minds still in development. Nevertheless, I'll let you draw the parallels.
