by Erin O’Neil
My father was born and raised in Boston. He gave us two choices as to who our sports teams could be: the Red Sox and all other local affiliations or…ballet. I’ll provide some rare insight into my childhood: I quit ballet when I was five and have been a Boston fan ever since.
Our individual team affiliations automatically brand and market us as a certain type of personality recognized by other fans from across the country and around the world. It is widely acknowledged that Boston fans are ignorant and self-centered, and in their expert opinions, the only ones that matter. Philadelphia fans are abusive. New York fans are arrogant. Chicago fans are sad, LA fans don’t care and all Dallas fans want to do is hunt. But despite our differences in allegiance, there is one thing that can be agreed upon: we are all obnoxious.
The interesting fact here is that outside of sports, those fan reputations could not be farther from the truth. I have friends who love teams from each of those cities and not one is arrogant, ignorant, self-centered or abusive. I do have one from Dallas that does like to hunt, though. The amazing thing about competition is that it has the ability to bring out both the worst in us as well as the best.
Sport brings the world together, a form of communication that operates on a much higher level than we may be aware. The language of competition unites us to our cities and communities, to other fans and our players on the field (or court, what have you). It is one of the languages that everyone speaks and that everyone understands. Even the most bitter of rivals share a sense of camaraderie. The athletes hold our hearts and souls in a home run, a buzzer beater, or a goal in the 88th minute. One win has the ability to lift us from despair but one loss can put us right back there (i.e. the Sox loss to the Orioles completing their historic choke-fest this September). They give us some common ground, something to believe in. It may sound dramatic but one thing is for certain, it is never just a game.
When the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, the franchise’s catch phrase for the year was, ‘believe.’ The fan base became known as Red Sox Nation (I have NO idea how we got the reputation for being self-centered). They swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to break an 86-year championship drought. All the ridicule and all the heartbreak disappeared when Edgar Renteria grounded to Keith Foulke for the final out of the series. I remember looking at my father sitting in his chair with a look on his face that can be described as nothing less than euphoric. I’m pretty sure that same look was not present at my birth. A team inspired a city to come together and ‘believe’ that an 86-year long curse could and would be broken. We’ve been unbearable to live with ever since.
This past summer, when the women of Japan won the World Cup, there is no denying that they played on with an energy bigger than themselves. They held on their back a nation that had been ravaged by natural disasters; the thousands of homeless whose lives were in shambles. The iconic underdog win served as a singular message to the world that Japan is strong and cannot be kept down-not by the favored US team; not by the wrath of Mother Nature herself.
There is probably no better example of unity through competition than the Olympic Games. Held once every four years it is the collection of the greatest athletes on the planet in one place, at one time. What’s even more fascinating is that the nations come together, putting aside differences out of respect for the competition. It is a powerful scene when, at the end of the Opening Ceremonies, the countries are announced one by one and march out in their colors and with their flags all together. The countries that are in the most desperate need of victory always find success and no matter our nationalities, we support them all. Not everyone can go home with a gold medal but everyone somehow wins and we all get the privilege of participating in victory.
Fans around the world don’t speak the same language-literally or figuratively but we all understand. Ignorant, arrogant, abusive or sad we all share the passion. We may have different affiliations, but we all come together for the love of the game and when you stop to think about all the people who live in this world, all of our individual personalities, our innumerable differences; that one commonality is pretty powerful.
