I am not super competitive about most things, but I do have my moments when I really get zealous. I have told you before that I am a sports fan, especially football. With a son who played football for 10 years, played through middle school, high school and into college and still covers sports for the media, I really had no choice. Fortunately, I already loved the game before I ever had Jon.
Since I attended the University of Alabama the first time I went to college and my husband and son both have degrees from there, needless to say I am a Bama fan. However, this blog post is not really about that.
I am fierce about wanting to see Alabama win against whoever they are playing, while they are playing. I dislike really only one other school most of the time, but it has almost nothing to do with sports of any kind. It has to do with things that happened to friends of mine when I was in high school and how this school misled and poorly handled a situation with my child a few years ago. Nothing this school has done has ever won any favor with me, so I just dislike the whole institution. The easiest thing to do is just cheer against them at a football game.
This morning, after Alabama lost the championship game to Clemson in a really close, hard fought game last night, I was watching a TV cooking show where the hosts have no affiliation with either team. They commented on what a phenomenal game it was and how proud both schools should be for getting to the championship game and for playing such a great game. And the guy is right. We should all be proud.
My son has told me many times that the actual players don’t take things as hard as most fans. He has also told me that the players who know each other on different teams don’t let being on different teams get in the way of friendships. If you will watch after the games you will almost always see players kneeling together to pray after a game or guys with different uniforms hugging each other. Maybe they went to high school together, maybe they attended the same camp, maybe they just recognize how alike they are as players, not how different the color of their jersey might be.
Last night, after the game, the losing head coach was pushed around in the crowd and left wandering through a massive swarm of people for a long time trying to find the opposing coach. He would never even consider leaving until he had shaken the hand of the man who had just beaten him, but is also his friend. Our coach is way more competitive than I am and he is way more serious. Yet when he finally found the other coach, he grabbed his hand, hugged him fiercely and smiled as big a smile as I have ever seen on his usually dour face. Tomorrow he will be back at work trying to figure out how to beat this guy next year. After all, that is his job. Being a good sport and a friend is his life.
Most of my friends cheer for that other school I don’t like. I don’t let the issues I have with that school stand in the way of being friends with these wonderful women. I will not cheer for their team and quite frankly I don’t really care if or when that school wins a game. I do care about and love my friends and don’t give a second thought to what team they cheer for when we are together.
We all have differences and when we cheer for our teams we need to do so with respect and sportsmanship. We need to remember that the guys on the field who are actually working hard and getting tackled know how to play the game as hard as they can and then let it go. We need to do the same.
Roll Tide!
