For however long your team is on the field, ice, or pitch, everything else fades into the background.
Life. Work. The news. All of it can wait for a while.
Humans are drawn to sports because they put our instincts on display.
A challenge. A competition for something scarce. Pressure. Cooperation.
Winning and losing, right out in the open.
Sports work because they simplify life. It’s happening on a screen in front of you, from the comfort of your Lazyboy.
And yet, you’re not just sitting back and watching. When you care, you’re in it.
I find myself leaning one way or the other depending on where you want the ball, or puck to go.
I hold my breath. I look away. I turn it off altogether because I can’t handle the tension.
In 2013, I started watching football regularly. I grew up south of Seattle, so I picked my team. The Seahawks. Nevermind they won the Superbowl that year, and made it to the Super Bowl the next. It’s been hard slogging as a fan ever since.
Picking a team makes all the difference.
You have skin in the game. You care about how other teams perform. You suddenly have very strong opinions about something you’ve never even tried.
But life is more interesting when you pick a team (or a side).
It’s wonderful in so many ways. Terrible in others.
Once you’re in, you’ll watch any game.
I usually default to rooting for the underdog.
Why is that? We want to see people overcome impossible odds, because on some level that means we can too.
Besides, there’s no drama in winners winning.
Anyone else get bored of the Patriots for a decade? Or feel a little less heartbroken when the Chiefs finally stumbled?
Underdog stories are everywhere. We saw that with the Blue Jays this year. All the way to the World Series.
They weren’t supposed to get that far, and everyone knew it. It felt like the whole world was rooting for them (outside of Dodgers fans, of course). I followed it closely and I don’t even like baseball.
The conversation went well beyond their record. It was about the team. How they treated each other. How well they got along. How much they supported one another.
The media kept repeating how impossible it was, how the odds said it shouldn’t happen.
That kind of talk can do one of two things. It can shut people down. Or it can light a fire.
When was the last time someone told you you couldn’t do something?
Oh hell, yes, I can.
There’s a new documentary on Netflix about the 1980 Olympics and the “Miracle on Ice” when the low ranked US team beat the Soviets and went on to win gold.
Maybe one of the best sports stories of all time.
The ingredients? An underdog. A team who believed they could do the impossible. And no shortage of people convinced it couldn’t be done.
And now, another sports story is unfolding in real time. Too many people approaching this Seahawks fan predicting the outcome.
Please stop. You’re jinxing it!
This team is its own underdog story. More than a decade since they’ve made it this far. A new coach just two seasons ago. Major changes to the roster. And very few people predicted they’d be here. They didn’t even make the top 10 list of potentials at the beginning of the season.
And yet, here they are.
Before I say anything else, let the universe know I understand that anything can happen in football and I, by no means, wish to tempt the football gods.
What makes this team special? It’s their belief.
A coach who painted a picture of what was possible. A team that created an identity they could live up to.
Expectations are a powerful thing. We tend to live up to them.
So what do you believe? About yourself. About the team you’re part of.
Are you giving people something to believe in?
Something that matters enough for them to care, and to give their best to?
How do you know that’s true?
#GoHawks
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Mary
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