If you spend your whole day waiting for football, and then watching football, and then the teams you want to win lose, it feels like an entirely lost day. "Hey, PV, what did you do today?" "Hmm, I spent about six hours feeling empty and disappointed."
I feel like Jerry when George asked him if he ever felt like he got a haircut when he didn't. What is this? What are we doing? Our lives? What are we doing with our lives?
But that's for anybody rooting for the Seahawks and/or Jaguars (or rooting against the Packers and/or Patriots). If you were rooting for either the Packers or the Patriots, you probably feel like today was a really fulfilling day.
Just one of the realities of sports fandom: we give up our free will, tying our joy and misery to entities completely out of our control.
It's even worse when your team sucks, and you're an "analyst" and you're supposed to be picking games and being accurate about it but your team sucks and you want your own team to lose just so that you can have better prediction numbers, but then you pick against your team and they win and you don't know HOW to feel because your team just won but you didn't wan them to...oh my god this is why I'm not a Lions fan anymore!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget to add in the time wasted with the "predictions". But I guess a fan of a team that has made it to the big game four times and choked four times eventually finds a way to thrive on that feeling of futility. How about predicting when the Vikings will collapse next season?
ReplyDelete"Hmm, I spent about six hours feeling empty and disappointed."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you know this, but these kinds of days are a necessary part of being a sports fan. You can't get the highs if there aren't lows to contrast them against.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd characterize a million people because any anonymous person may or may not like the Packers.
ReplyDeleteMy sixth grade teacher was a Viking fan who took great relish in rubbing my nose in every Packer loss. An eleven year old kid! But I don't think of all Viking fans as jerks and bullies. Sports fans are no more or no less what humanity allows.
But as I say from my experience Packer fans seem to enjoy the Packers for the Packers and are happy to enjoy the Packers because it fulfills them in a way. It makes their lives larger in a way to root for Brett Favre. This is why they sold out games in the 70s and 80s--because just the idea of the Packers is bigger than what they would otherwise have. Alot are Packer fans more than they are football fans and could care less about other teams.
RK
Is anon a Packer fan? If so, RK, please continue to dispute my characterization of Packer fans as "obnoxious bullies" that are like Yankee fans. Because while I'm sure anon thinks he's clever talking about the Vikings losing four Super Bowls and frequently collapsing, I think I've heard those insults somewhere around, oh, 1,000 times. Very fun.
ReplyDeleteBut I only suspect anon is a Packer fan. Because it is a Packer fan's birthright to cheer for the team with more championships than anybody else, and to insult fans of a border-state rival by pointing out their four Super Bowl losses. I get it--it's the lucky lot you drew.
Whoops, the comment you responded to now slipped past your response. Nobody's missing the point, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to stereotype all Packer fans--that would be idiotic. But I'm counteracting the general media representation and self-image of Packer fans by pointing out that to Viking fans, you are a lot like Yankee fans. I've listened to many Packer fans point out the Vikings' championship futility. Eventually, am I still supposed to accept you as the ultra-loyal, small-town underdogs? When your team has won 12 titles and a faction of Packer fans (though not all) take great pleasure in reminding me of the Vikings' championship futility, eventually you're going to remind me of Yankee fans.
Like I said, it's the lucky lot you drew. Packer fans get to cheer for "Titletown"'s team, and if they want, they get to make fun of a nearby border fanbase because their favorite team has never won a championship. Hey, that's perfectly natural. Just don't expect me to get all gushy about it.
I'll point this out: all sorts of fans, not just Packer fans, make fun of the Vikings for losing four Super Bowls. I've heard it from fans of other sorts of other teams. It may seem more pronounced from Packer fans because Packer fans and Viking fans (due to location) have a lot more interaction, and of course because the teams are rivals. But fans of a lot of other teams make fun of the Vikings for the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThis leads some Viking fans to respond with Larry David/George Costanza type self-loathing, neurotic anxiety (like me). It leads other Viking fans (like this blog's Id) to respond with bitter anger and hatred.
dont the Minnesota Vikings technically have an NFL championship?
ReplyDeleteYes, they won the NFL championship in 1969, the last year before the merger, but (of course) lost the Super Bowl, 23-7, to the Chiefs. So technically they have an NFL championship, but they don't REALLY have a pro football championship.
ReplyDeleteif youre going by "pro football championships", the Packers then have 3 rather than 12 as you have stated before. Granted the Vikes are still shut out, but the difference (0-3) isnt as dramatic as it has been made to seem.
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