As the title seems to suggest, I’m not into sports. Well, watching them anyways (I don’t mind playing a game once in a while). To me, a football game is an indication that mankind hasn’t evolved nearly as far as we’d like to think. I tend to hope that humans have a lot more to offer than their physical attributes, and I certainly have never been inclined to spend any of my time watching a bunch of huge men get out onto a field, glorified for being able to knock each other over.
If I have to be completely honest here, I have never been able to understand someone who puts so much value into any sport. In my mind, whether a team does well or loses shouldn’t have an actual effect on a persons mood or life. Why should something that doesn’t need to bother you, bother you?
So, back to the title. What changed?
This weekend, my cutie pie boyfriend asked me to go down to The Lone Star State for his college reunion at Texas A&M. At first I wasn’t keen on going to the game. (I was wanting to go to Houston! My parents and sister are down there and despite the game I thought it would be a great opportunity to see them.) However, as new experiences usually allow for… my mind opened up to something I thought I hated.
I’m not saying that I’ll be following ESPN or anything. I found that I do understand people who follow ESPN a little better, though.
Students and alumni of A&M have so much pride for their school. When they are on that campus, and even later in life, being an Aggie seems to be part of their identity. The football game is a way for them to showoff their support for how much they like and appreciate their school. There are a ton of things that A&M is known to be good for, football is just something that everyone can easily get behind. It’s hard for the whole school to get together and cheer for an engineering program, but that doesn’t mean the school doesn’t have just as much pride for that. (This was just an observation. I’m not trying to say this is an absolute truth.)
This may seem silly, but I guess I never realized that the fans are supporting more than the team itself. The team stands as a symbol. When people are going out to the Ravens game, they are rooting on Baltimore as much as any individual player.
The reason that I like this, is that I think that the more a person is able to like and support the place they identify with, the more they are willing to help that place become better. If that starts with a fondness for a football team, so be it.
(Pictured: Me wearing maroon in support of cutie pie boyfriend who is wearing maroon in support of a team that represents a school he loves.)
Essential Sustenance for Contemporary Aliveness 