I never understood how people could get so into a sports team. Become a diehard _____ fan. I never understood it. I know people who literally get emotional when their team loses. You’re not even a part of it. You didn’t put in any effort into making the team. You didn’t have any effect on the outcome
of the game. You cheering louder didn’t make someone make an extra shot or somehow make them catch the ball better. I’ll never be able to say that my cheer helped ____ hit a homerun. “If I was not there, it would have never happened.” Unless you’re like, one of those guys who reaches over the wall to interfere with the play and catch the ball before the outfielder has a chance. Then, I guess you could say you have a big effect on the game. Like that one Cubs guy. That fool…
The reality is, Michael Jordan never heard me scream at him to take a shot. Peyton Manning never heard me yell at him to pass it to a wide open Marvin Harrison in the endzone. Tiger Woods never heard me whisper that he should probably use a 5 and lay up instead of trying to go for that green with that wood. They ultimately make the decision that they think is best. And that’s the reason they are out there and I’m sitting on the couch watching them. The natural talent helps a lot too.
It’s crazy how perfect we expect them to be. If a person goes 5-10 at the free throw line, and the team loses by 3, we blame that person for missing those free throws. Like somehow, if we were in their position, we’d be able to make those clutch free throws. It’s so easy to expect so much from them. We look up to them and want them to do incredible things. I wonder if individuals have as big of followings as teams do. I know a lot more diehard Laker fans then I do diehard Tiger Woods fans. I can bet that Manchester United has a much bigger following then Roger Federer. I don’t know why that is though. Maybe it’s the numbers? You can wear a jersey and people will publicly recognize your love, but you can’t really wear a Tiger Woods jersey. You can wear a….sweater vest. But that’s about it. People will just think you’re fairly fashionable. Or cold. But just on your chest area. Not on your arms. Vests are weird things. Why would you make something that didn’t really have sleeves? I guess there have been times when my arms are really sweaty, but it’s still kinda cold outside, so I try to roll up my sweatshirt, but it’s still not good enough, yet still too cold to take the sweatshirt off entirely. I guess vests are ok when wore under the right conditions. What those conditions are, I have no idea.
I’m taking this leadership class for grad school and one of the questions the teacher asked on the first day was to think of 5 leaders we really admired. They could be historical, personal, fictional, famous, etc. After I picked 3 personals, I kinda drew a blank. And the next name that popped into my head was Kevin Garnett. Why? I have no idea. If you read this blog frequently, you’ll know that a lot of weird things poop into my head. But then I started thinking, “Kevin Garnett is actually a great leader.” Any team he’s been on, he’s commanded respect and I 
think he brings a lot to his team. If I were on a basketball team, I would love to have KG as my captain. Then I started thinking how good of a leader he would be in a business setting. Could he lead a financial analysis meeting? Could he lead a quality control meeting? I think he honestly could. And I wonder, if we took a poll out of people who knew KG, and asked them who they thought was a better leader; their current boss, or KG, which one they would pick. My money is on Mr. Garnett. Why? Because he’s proven himself on national TV. He’s lead a team made up of superstars and scrubs to a world championship on one of the biggest platforms ever…national TV. And we were all witnesses. What has my boss done that I was impressed with? He lead a 15 minute meeting about productivity? But different people respond to different kind of leaders. Garnett is very emotional and gets people fired up. Some people might not take to kindly to that. I just ran through a mental list of all the topics of leadership I could start on, and was not happy with the copious amounts, so I’m just going to stick to my original topic.
Is it weird to anyone else that 40 year old men wear jerseys of 22 year olds? Is it weird to idolize someone that much younger than you? To the point where you’re willing to spend $100+ just to wear the same number as them? I totally understand younger kids idolizing famous athletes. I have absolutely no problem with that. I think it’s actually good for a kid to look up to someone, especially an athlete. I think a young kid can learn a lot from how an athlete handles himself professionally and in pressure situations. But an old guy wearing a college kids jersey? Is that right? Just to idolize him for his talents? He’s entertaining to watch, but he’s still a kid.
It’s going to be a weird step into adulthood when I realize I’m older then all of the people I’m watching. I guess I’ll deal with it when I get there.
Thanks for reading.
-The Semi-appreciative Sports Fan
