My Life With Sports

My life as a sports fan is a bit more complex than the average fan, or so I assume. No one in my family watches sports. My dad couldn't care less about any of it. He used to take me to Michigan football games when I was young, but he inherited the tickets from his father when he was too sick to attend them anymore. My brother loves the Red Wings, but that's as far as he goes, and even there his knowledge is sketchy at best, largely because he rarely watches them because he's convinced he curses them with his ratings. Not joking.

I'm guessing that some of it came from my grandfather. He loved University of Michigan sports. Mainly football, but if their basketball team was relevant he would tune in to their games. I know one thing for sure, I got my knack for yelling at the television from him (and probably a curse word or two). If it wasn't Michigan sports, it was Detroit Pistons or Detroit Tigers. My grandfather played basketball in college, and was pretty great too, but went to war and never picked it up again when he returned home. He used to show me his newspaper clippings, and his stats were definitely impressive.

However it came about, I'm a sports nut. I'll watch anything, much to my wife's chagrin. As for my sports allegiances, in almost all cases I root for Michigan teams. I love the Tigers, the Red Wings, and the Pistons. I love the University of Michigan, especially their football program. As such, 2008 was a rough year. Thanks to the Red Wings for making things a little less painful, but that happened before the misery that was the 2008 Tigers baseball season (something I saw coming a mile away) and the Wolverines football season (a train wreck I didn't think possible).

One team I don't root for is the Lions. This has nothing to do with their recent woes. I think most of it came from the fact that no one in my family rooted for them. Even my grandfather didn't seem to care one way or the other about them. When I was growing up, they weren't very good. That's no reason not to like them, and that wasn't really the reason, it was just a reason for my initial ambivalence. It was the ineptitude of the ownership that killed any respect I had for that franchise. It was the fact that their leadership was so soul-crushing, they pushed Barry Sanders into early retirement because he lost his love for the game, and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. His loyalty was rewarded with mediocrity, and he deserved better.

So when it comes to football, I root for the Colts. It started innocently enough. Being a Michigan fan, I'm a fan of any of their athletes (prepare for a major contradiction to this). When I was younger, I loved Jim Harbaugh. When he played for the Colts, and took them to the AFC Championship, and was one close-but-no-such-luck hail mary away from the Super Bowl, I was rooting hard for the Colts, and it was the first time I had rooted that hard for an NFL team. I also liked Peyton Manning when he was at Tennessee. I just loved watching him play. So when he was drafted by the Colts, my transition was complete. I was, and have been since, a Colts fan.

Here's that contradiction I spoke of earlier. As a Colts fan, there's one franchise I hate more than any other in the NFL, and that's the New England Patriots. I'm painfully aware that their quarterback is a Michigan alumni, and that he's one of the most successful QBs in the history of the NFL through his first seven seasons. Well, I can't stand him. I was happy for him during their first Super Bowl run, and have disliked him more and more each season. Perhaps that's me being a petty, jealous Colts fan. Perhaps it's that he comes off as a prima donna when off the football field. Probably a combination of both. But either way, he's one former Michigan athlete that I ignore as often as possible (though I will say I was a bit sad to see him injured; despite my not liking him or his team, I still like seeing good players and great games, and he was definitely missed this season).

In spite of my allegiances to teams, I love the sport more than I love any particular team. That goes for any sport. I want to see great games. I like hating loud-mouthed villains and rooting for humble heroes. I love watching great athletes compete (never more evident than with my love/hate relationship with Derek Jeter; I love how good he is, the fact that he delivers when it matters, and that he seems like a humble, likable guy; but I hate the Yankees and refuse to root for any of their athletes) and the drama that ensues. Sure I could do with less media. I could do with more integrity from ESPN. I could do without the enormous salaries that keep climbing each offseason. I could do without watching some of my favorite local players leave for or get traded to other teams. But all of that adds to the drama that is sports, and I love sports.