Today I
want to talk about a fascination that you can find in each culture of the
planet – patriotism or fandom. Where even the hardest guys get emotional and
hated enemies become friends or the other way round.
Last Friday
I went to my first Icehockey match with one of my fellows from English class.
There was nothing to prevent a great hockey night, except the fact that Simi
and I were cheering for different teams. Before the game I was sure that my
team, the 99ers, would win and said with a confident voice: “If the 99ers lose,
I will be a VSV fan from now on!” What a mistake. While the players were
fighting for the puck, I was observing the different fan groups behind us.
Funnily enough strangers became friends within the first minute of the game, on
condition that the wore the same colour or merchandise. In contrast even your
best friends could become a stranger or in the worst case, your enemy if he/she
supported the other team. I often ask myself why people can be extremely patriotic
about sports or even be obsessed. Now it’s the time to get to the bottom of
this question. Unity
The biggest
advantage of fandom is that you are part of a community. Nobody is left out and
all members have the same aim, to support their favourite team.( Well, there
are always some troublemakers within a fan group but that’s another topic. ) In
other words you are surrounded by people who understand you and your passion
for sports, not like your family at home, which thinks you are a lazy-bones
because every weekend you sit in front of the TV and watch your team playing. In
addition you can build a network within the fan group and easier get friends in
the case that you have a shy and reserved personality.
The adrenaline
Have you
ever been to the stadium when your team scores the winning goal within the last
minutes? It is impossible to describe that feeling rushing through your body
and when the adrenaline even reaches your little toe. You feel happiness and the time stands still
for seconds or even minutes. Whenever you feel down or sad and your team
wins, the sadness seems to be blown away.
Unfortunately it is hard to get this adrenaline kick outside the arena
and that’s probably one of the reasons why so many people stream to the
stadiums every weekend.
Emotions
In my
opinion the stadium is the only public place where you can give vent to your
feelings and don’t have to be ashamed. For instance, you can scream, cry, swear
and show your pleasure without being given strange looks or feeling despite.
It’s the only place where society accepts that man get emotional and in
some cases start to cry without being called sissy. At some point of the
game even the hardest fans get infected by the emotion of thousands of others
fans in the stadium. This is kind of a domino effect.
All in all
I would say that being a part of a fan group has a lot of advantages and even
if your team loses, like mine did on Friday, you know that there will be
another chance to win on the next weekend. In my case I was probably to patriotic and
didn’t even think about losing this game. Now the fat’s in the fire and I have
to call myself a VSV fan from now on, but there is worse.
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