GOOD SPORT: Love and loyalty make the difference

A sport can be an addiction. A sport can dominate a person’s life. Whether it’s taking 800 pounds of tailgating equipment across the country for your team’s big game or wearing your super fan apparel in your living room and knocking over your bowl of popcorn and your soft drink when your team wins on a buzzer beater, sports are fanatics’ whole worlds. Sports make the world go round for a lot of us, and our obsessions can only get bigger and better.

If you have been around me for any of the past eight years, you know that I am indeed a Utah Jazz fan. When you are from from Texas this is obviously not normal. Most of us grow up liking the same teams our parents like. I can tell you my dad was a Jazz fan long before the time of Karl Malone and John Stockton and way before the Jazz were in Utah. My dad was a New Orleans Jazz fan when he was a kid because he loved basketball and the only NBA games he could get on his radio in Midland were New Orleans Jazz games from a far-reaching Louisiana radio station. He grew up with Pistol Pete Maravich and Hot Rod Hundley and the Mardi Gras-colored Jazz. He was not a Karl and John bandwagoner. I was in a way, but I was born during the time of the Jazz’s NBA finals run versus the Chicago Bulls (talk about loving an underdog team). I have always loved the Jazz and always check in on their scores, roster changes, draft picks and summer league games as much as I can. I am sure when I am my dad’s age, I will be watching every game in my easy chair after a hard day’s work.

Here in Texas we only know about one kind of football–the good ole “break the other guy’s neck with 25 pounds of pads on” football. I do like American football a lot; however, I have taken a liking to futbol, or soccer as we Americans call it. I like soccer because it is a game of strategy, and it offers a variety of teams and leagues. The World Cup has a billion viewers worldwide on average compared to the Superbowl’s 15 million. Not only is soccer popular, but it is also fun to play. It is a giant chess match to see who can break the others’ defense and then score. It is a very conditioned sport that requires a lot, and I mean A Lot of running. The amazing plays and goals that are pulled off are so much fun to watch. Thankfully, if you’re like me (slow) you can play goalkeeper and not have as much field to cover. On the downside, the goalie does have a ball coming about 90 miles per hour at him or her all the time.

I’ve also thought about coaching. I am always told by people I have a coach’s vision. I remember all the playbooks I made when I was little. I just enjoy breaking down a defense as a challenge.

I may seem un-American for liking soccer, but I’m not because there are plenty of American soccer fans. I may seem like a traitor for liking Utah instead of the Spurs or Mavericks, but compared to all the Lebron Jame Miami Heat bandwagoners, I feel what makes sports great to watch–loyalty to a team. Loving a team makes the great world of sports more fun for me every day.