Hook 'em

[tehdawgfather]

The appeal isn't the bright colors, or the pagentry or even the fantastic athleticism on display by some of the most gifted athletes our country will produce. It isn't the Pac 10's flag-happy officials, the Big XII's Red River Shootout, the Big 10's big houses, the ACC's climb to respectability or the SEC, where everyone's a rival with everyone

Comments

[tehdawgfather]

Exactly! I imagine that's sort of how Liverpool fans feel about Steven Gerrard. He's one of them. Just like most of the guys on our roster ... they're our guys and they fight for our team, and for us, and that's what creates that bond.

[tehdawgfather]

I thought it would be more the case that Gerrard is from Merseyside, came up through the youth system (like GA high school football) and is now starring for the senior team.

Though I agreee Carragher is the heart and sould of that team.

You're not kidding...

[scoreboard]

...one of the things that is making me think of giving up my Cal tickets is the fact that the Pac-10, year in and year out, has THE WORST OFFICIALS IN FOOTBALL. I have seen some direly incompetent officiating in my time, especially with the striped-clowns in the NFL getting the calls from their earpieces, but the Pac-10 officials routinely waver between glaucoma and outright mental retardation. And honestly, I'm gonna be 34 in a couple of months, I am too old for this shit and the doctor says I'm one more spaz attack away from having to be moved into the Plotz Ward full-time.

Of course, even if I kick everything else to the curb, it will be damn near impossible to walk out on Bama, for the very reasons you describe. I don't want to think too much about the governor's race in 2006 for just that reason...

Re: You're not kidding...

[tehdawgfather]

Of course, even if I kick everything else to the curb, it will be damn near impossible to walk out on Bama, for the very reasons you describe.

Rammer Jammer.

[phrawzty]

I've always found American College Football to be some of the most exciting spectator sports on earth. The marching bands, the (real) cheerleaders, the tens upon tens of thousands who carry banners and sing fight songs in unison.

[tehdawgfather]

It's as close to European soccer as you'll find in the U.S.

[tacologic]

In order to play professional sports you have to love the game. Listen to an interview with Peyton Manning where he just talks about how he watches games from 20 years ago just to see Hank Stram coach or Earl Campbell run. I remember hearing about that on the last day of practice when the Lions were 5-10 going into their last game, the team had a walk-through practice for an hour and hit the showers. And after the team went back to do whatever football players do in their free time, Barry Sanders went back out and ran windsprints for twenty minutes. As much as he's been a Bear killer too, I'm convinced that the reason Brett Favre stays in the league is that he truly loves to play the game. He loves to compete, he loves to throw, he loves to win.

I'm not saying there's not love in college and soccer, but it's in pro sports too. But if you let your views get tainted by people with messed up priorities, so bet it, but don't discount those that have the love.

[tehdawgfather]

It's not the love of the sport that I doubt in the pros ... no one could take the pounding an NFL player takes if he didn't love the game. It's hte love for the organization they're playing for with the same kind of love that collegiate players have for their university.

I think outside of the Packers or Steelers, you won't find that kind of love in the pros from the fans to the team. Not to say they don't like them, or even love them, but they don't feel the same way about professional teams the same way collegiate fans and players feel about universities.

[tacologic]

I don't know if I buy that. It's really hard to measure love. The best I can do is give anecdotal evidence. Bears playoff tickets sold out in two minutes. Two minutes! People camped out over night for Red Sox World Series tickets (I don't know why I'm focusing on tickets). And I'd never seen such intensely driven love for our team/hate of their team than when I was in Ottawa and watched the Canadian juniors hockey team take on the US. And that's not even getting close to what it's like when there's a Leafs/Canadians game from what I'm told. People love sports. People are fanatical about them. Doesn't matter what level, whether it's high school, college or pro.

[kat_chan]

You're forgetting the Browns' fans. The fans so die-hard and loyal that they forced the NFL to preserve the team and treat the Ravens as a new entity, and into a promise that a new team would be in place in Cleveland in 1999.

But I do agree that college sports are much closer to European association football. The fanbases are smaller, the rivalries more intense, and you just get the feeling that it's much more central to your identity. Any one of about 6 million Ohioans can be a Browns fan, and almost anyone in NE Ohio will be. But how many in the state, or that region of the state, are fans of Bowling Green? Know all of the words to "Forward Falcons" and "Aye Ziggy Zoomba"? I could very well be the only person in Columbus with a brown-and-orange BGSU fleece stadium blanket on their bed, and BGSU and Ohio State alumni stickers on their car. I'm a Falcon and a Buckeye; they are a part of who I am. I imagine it would be very much the same for a Spurs fan in North London, or an Everton fan on their side of the Mersey, and so on

[cailleanlarkin]

And you said *I* nailed it?!

This might be the first thing in the world ever that might possibly ever get me to watch soccer, btw.

[tehdawgfather]

I really would love for you to watch a Champions League game at some point this season with me. =)

[tacologic]

Want to know what really got me into soccer? I was in Holland visitng my mom, and there was a Euro Cup game, Holland vs. Belgium. Belgium isn't a great team, but after Holland won, there were literally riots in the street. Cars got over turned, people were jumping out of trees. I joined in with some people arm and arm, chanting in Dutch and dancing. It was incredible.

[cailleanlarkin]

Buy me a ticket to Holland and I'll root for any damn thing you want me to! ;)