(Sports) neutrality can be nice
That question comes up a lot when I talk with fans of professional soccer. I’ve been a casual fan of the game since I was a kid, when I played (terribly) in the local youth soccer association. I got hooked on Team USA via the 1994 men’s (those iconic faux denim jerseys!) and 1999 women’s (Brandi Chastain!) World Cup teams. But it wasn’t until a recent trip to London that I caught the Premier League bug.
Then a question arose: With which Premier League team would I cast my lot?
My Chelsea-fan husband, Dan, during our visit to London in 2017. Sadly, the Blues weren’t at home so this was Dan’s consolation prize.
My husband is a Chelsea fan because, as he tells it, he studied abroad in England in college and ended up in a bar full of Blues supporters. A bunch of them bought him drinks so he decided to cheer for their team…or so he says. So that was Option 1, to bring some continuity to our family fandom.
Instead of a Chelsea game, we went to Emirates Stadium and watched Arsenal play Bournemouth. It was far from spectacular but enough to seed my European football obsession.
Option 2? I could’ve become an Arsenal fan, since that’s the game we went to when we were in London. But I didn’t commit, which turned out to be a wise decision given how awful the Gunners have been since our visit.
Option 3 was … well … there weren’t any specific or compelling reasons for me to choose anyPremier League team. So I just … didn’t.
That felt weird. Very weird. For about 30 of my (soon to be) 38 years of life, I’ve been a sports fan. A D.C. sports fan, to be more precise. For all but two of those years, the experience has largely been miserable with the occasional shot of white-hot embarrassment. But that’s the way I thought sports was supposed to be. It’s like marriage. Once you choose your team, they’re yours, for better or for worse, for sicker or for poorer, ’til death do you part.
I didn’t stop to think that this was not, in fact, the case.
Don’t misread me — I’m not advocating for wanton frontrunning here. Don’t ditch the teams you’ve loved your whole life. What I’m saying is that, sometimes, there are benefits to devoting yourself to a sport or a league as a whole, not just one team or athlete. Benefits such as:
- You appreciate the sport more. When you’re not live-or-die invested in any game, you’ll find yourself following the ball less and learning the intricacies of the sport more.
- You can find a reason to watch any game. Two bottom-of-the-table clubs hashing it out? Hey, even crappy teams can put up a good fight.
- You can skip any game without guilt. You can like sports *and* care about other things in your life. Who knew?
- You learn about all kinds of useless, interesting things. Did you know that “Albion” is an old word for “England?” If not for a handful of mediocre English teams, how else would you find out?
- You leave games energized, not drained. When you don’t attach your life’s meaning to the outcome of a match, you can walk away from a well-played game with a bounce in your step rather than a hole in your soul.
The drawbacks? Well, for one, you won’t get moments like this:
Or this.
There is unadulterated magic in watching a team you’ve loved for years and represents yourcity reach the pinnacle of their sport. It’s priceless to stand in community for hours with 50,000+ people to celebrate that achievement in the streets of your city, together.
But here’s the thing: Unless you’re a Boston sports fan ca. 2000-2020, those moments usually require years of pain and tears. For most of us, there’s only so much emotional wear and tear we can take before we become powder-kegs of sports angst, ready to blow.
So if you’re considering adding some items to your plate from the global sports buffet, stop for a second. Think seriously about your ability to comfortably digest more heartbreak than you may already have on hand. Think about how nice it’d be to watch a game just for enjoyment, not life affirmation. There’s no shame in taking just a little bite of something new to add to the meat and potatoes you already have. That’s the beauty of a buffet: If you want, you can go back for more later.