I've never had a favorite football team.
Part of the problem with growing up in a one-sport town like Portland is that it forces you to look elsewhere for a favorite team in a lot of sports. For me, things fell in place easily for most sports: The Trail Blazers have always been my number 1 team, my parents raised me as a Cubs fan, and I became a Zag fan when I enrolled at Gonzaga in 2005.
But football has always been different. There is no major football program in the city of Portland, meaning that if you want a team to root for, you have to venture outside your borders. For college football, the decision for most Portlanders is easy - it's either Oregon or Oregon State. But I've never felt an attachment to either team; they've always felt so disconnected and distant from me. Other than sharing the same state, I've never felt a connection with them. In professional football, the Seahawks are shoved down Portland's throat in an effort to regionalize the team to the entire Northwest. But again, there's no connection for me there. The Seahawks are Seattle's team, and I didn't want to root for them simply because they're the closest team to me geographically (I also got sick of having to watch Seahawks games every Sunday instead of better NFC matchups).
I've tried to latch onto teams now and again, but it never felt genuine. My best friend is a Raiders fan, but I could never get into the silver-and-black the way he does. Other teams just couldn't hold me, either. There just isn't really a team out there for me.
But despite all of that, despite the absence of an emotional connection to any one team, I am more excited for football season this year than I have ever been.
Every time I've seen highlights or caught a glimpse of a preseason game, I realize just how much I've missed watching the sport since last season ended. When I hear about the big college football matchups, I mark my calendar. I love watching every play, whether it's a tight game in the 4th quarter or a blowout by halftime. Every pass, every run, every hit; for some reason the game of football is gripping me more than ever in anticipation of the upcoming season.
I don't understand this about myself. I don't have a favorite team in college or the pros, not even one that I casually follow, and yet I still dive into football season excited and anxious.
If you talk to most people who are fans of a particular sport, and they'll tell you that they have a particular favorite team. It's only natural that someone who devotes a lot of time to a particular sport does so because they have a team that they support. Anyone who says "I don't care who wins or loses, I just like watching the game," is lying to you. (In retrospect, you probably think that about me right now. Am I nothing more than one of those people??? Don't worry, I can assure you that I do care who wins or loses, simply because there are teams that I hope lose. Patriots, you've been warned.)
No, for me, there are teams that I would prefer to win each matchup, but in the end, there isn't one team that I can devote my fanhood to. It's not that I don't care or I don't want a team, it's just that there is no natural connection between for me with any one team. And yet still, I'm excited for football.
I asked my friend Alex if this was a normal situation, if it was weird that someone without a favorite team could still love football.
"No," he said. "It just means you love the game."
"How many people are like that?" I asked.
"Not many."
But even those people have reasons. Those people that love football simply because they love the game are emotionally vested in football somehow, whether it's through their upbringing or environmental circumstances. I never had anything like that. I never played competitive football - no Pop Warner, no high school ball, no nothing. I wasn't a student of the game and I didn't really start watching it a lot until late in middle school. My college hadn't fielded a team since 1941. I had no family who played, I wasn't raised on it like I was with baseball and basketball, and, oh yeah, I don't have any favorite teams. What is there that connects me to the game itself?
I don't know. I may never know. And I don't really care.
For whatever reason, whenever football season rolls around, I find myself glued to all the action, examining the plays, reading the updates, humming the Monday Night Football theme. I'll dig out the football that's been buried under my bed for six months and toss it around. Every August and September, I start to realize how much I missed the game while it was gone, and when the seasons end in January and February, I kick myself for not appreciating the short time we had together.
This season it's happening all over again. I can't wait until week 1 of the NFL season, when I can flip between three channels to catch the games. I can't wait for that first primetime college football matchup. I want to see a running back rip off a 25-yard run, or a linebacker burst through the line and sack the QB. I can't wait to watch some football.
It's a beautiful game, whether it's in a packed stadium with 80,000 screaming fans or on a converted baseball field. Every matchup, every game, every storyline, every play, it's so much fun to be a fan of it.
I may not have a favorite team and probably never will. But I am a fan of the game of football, and I'll take that all the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment