Most of the people who view this blog have come here through Facebook and one thing I'm sure that most of Facebook friends (and the few followers I have on twitter) have noticed is that I talk about sports a lot. I have many interests but sports is one of the easiest for me to talk about. I'll talk about the various sports I follow and a little bit about my history with them. I had been thinking lately about why I follow the teams that I do and I figured that today would be as good of a day as any to write this. Of course, today is the day of the biggest annual sporting event there is so it seems appropriate. I am going to work backwards in order of how much focus I give each sport. Sports not mentioned here are sports I don't follow closely enough or simply have no interest in.
Basketball
Basketball is a sport that I cared very little for when I was a kid. I never had much interest in playing it in any organized fashion. To this day I still have very little interest in the NBA. However, I have started following college basketball. The NCAA tournament is one of the best postseason events that there is and I've enjoyed even when I didn't care anything else about the sport. I suppose one reason for my lack of interest of watching basketball is that I am a Clemson fan and Clemson, as you may know, has had a horrible history in the sport. I suppose I started watching the sport more some time after Oliver Purnell became head coach of Clemson. I'm not entirely sure why but perhaps it was the new play style or maybe a slight change in the culture surrounding basketball in Clemson. Basketball is still not a sport I follow as closely as others and certainly am no expert on it, but I do at least watch now when Clemson is on TV and when it is tournament time. I would follow my alma mater, North Greenville, more, but it's really hard to follow division II basketball.
Hockey
I live in the south where, until recently, I think the only thing people knew about hockey is that it's played on ice. Obviously, this is not a sport I grew up with. I started paying a little bit of attention to the sport in 2002 when the Carolina Hurricanes made it to and lost the Stanley Cup Finals. My interest was fleeting but at least I had a team to follow. I started to pay attention again at the beginning of the '05-'06 season. This was also the first good team the Hurricanes had since last making the finals. Part of the reason I started paying attention again is that I was about to move to Raleigh where the team is located. I lived in Raleigh and the Canes continued to surprise everyone with how well they were playing. As the end of the season drew near, my personal life took a turn when my wife left me, leaving me alone in Raleigh away from my friends and family. I chose not to move home until I had finished the semester at seminary but I desperately needed a distraction and the Hurricanes' fantastic run through the playoffs provided just that. They would win the Stanley Cup that year and it was fun being in a city with pro team to win a major championship. I learned to appreciate the sport of hockey during this run. Also, I learned that playoff overtime in hockey is one of the most intense things in sports. I know hockey is not the easiest game to watch on tv but I would suggest to anyone with any interest in sports to check out a game in person.
Football
This is the sport I have the most experience playing. I was always on the line and prefer that to any "skill" positions. Football is by far this country's most popular sports. When it comes to sports in this country, NFL is king. However, here in the south, college football rules. I enjoy both. I'll start with the pros.
NFL: As a kid, I don't have much memory of watching the NFL much except for the watching Super Bowl and going an Atlanta Falcons game one time. This changed in 1995 when the Carolina Panthers started playing. When I was fourteen, everything about the new team seemed cool to me with the colors, the logo, and the uniforms. Also, the team played their first season in Death Valley in Clemson. I regret never having made it to a game when they played there before they moved to Charlotte. It also helped that they were one game away from the Super Bowl in only their second year of existence. They later made it to the Super Bowl and even though they lost, that was a very fun year. Another thing with the Panthers is that my mom occasionally gets free tickets to their games. I've learned enough about Charlotte that I have a much easier time getting to and leaving the stadium than I do other teams around here.
College: Since there are different levels of college football, there are different teams I follow. Division II is easy: the school I went to and the team I played for myself, North Greenville. At the division I-AA (now FCS) level I pull for the Furman Paladins. I consider them to be pretty much the home town team for Greenville and everyone in my family has always pulled for them so I do to. Division I is, of course, the Clemson Tigers. I have lived all my life around the Clemson/S. Carolina rivalry. My family was odd in they never did choose one over the other when I was growing.up. However, when I was young, my family happened to vacation at the same week and place as Clemson head coach Danny Ford for several years. Although my memories are vague, he taught me how to swim. This leaned me toward Clemson and I became more and more of a Clemson fan as a got older. My one difference is that unlike most Clemson fans, I do not hate South Carolina. The rivalry is fun and I certainly want Clemson to win every year but I don't pull for SC to lose when they're not playing Clemson. I have one final word about college football. As great as the sport is, division I is ruined by what is the worst post season in all of sports. I'll save my rant on that for another time.
Baseball
Finally, we get to baseball. While baseball has been eclipsed by football as the country's most popular sport, it is the sport with the most history. It is also the sport I have the most history with. On Summer nights as a kid, I could usually be sure that one television somewhere was turned to a Braves game. Both my dad and maternal grandfather were huge Braves fans. Everyone in my family was. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I became one, too. Before I pulled for any other team discussed here, I pulled for the Braves. For the longest time, the Braves were awful with Dale Murphy being the lone bright spot for them. Then 1991 came and everything changed when the Braves made the World Series. With the Braves now a good team, baseball became even more fun to watch. Even now, I'm still always learning more about this sport. I look forward to the start of baseball season more than any other season, especially when the weather begins to warms.
As I finish writing this, the Super Bowl has just ended. This is the worst time as far as sports are concerned. Even though I enjoy college basketball and ice hockey, baseball and football are the two sports I look enjoy the most. When the Super Bowl ends, I'm ready for baseball to begin. I'm finally done now. In hindsight, I should have split this up into several posts. I didn't realize it would be so long, but I enjoyed explaining my relationship with different sports. I'll have other posts about sports in the future including something about expressing faith in sports and why I hate the BCS so much but until then, it's time to rest.
