For the Love of the game

Ehsan Azad

For the love of the game

What makes someone a sports fan? There are countless reasons that people fall in love with sports. Some love it because they are extremely athletic and excel at those games. Others have a deep love because of family bonds that have been passed over generations.  Some are just bubbly girls that fall head over heels for a “hot” player in their hometown. For me, sadly I don’t fall into any of those categories, yet I am madly obsessed and love anything to do with the world of sports. My reasons are more personal and helped me become one of the guys.

Growing up I was never really into sports. I was never that popular in school, so the opportunity to play sports wasn’t always there for me. Plus, being what my mother would call husky, I wasn’t exactly the number one overall pick in the school yard. I did watch football games and pretended to care about football, but never had the passion to even care about what I was watching.  I focused on cartoons and trying to make friends.  I was content with this life and I really didn’t see the need to change.

It wasn’t until I got in to high school when I realized that sports drove how guys lived their lives and what connected most of them.  I was in a new school and wanted to fit in. Luckily for me the leader of the guys was none other than my cousin Mo. He was the all popular kid that is portrayed in those high school shows. Extremely athletic, smart, and charming, I figured I could hang with him and hopefully it will rub off on me. The problem was that he was into sports just as much as the others and I couldn’t relate.  I would sit with the guys watching the Dallas Mavericks Playoff run and being overly confused on what was going on.  The only two topics guys my age would talk about were sports and girls. I knew nothing about the two.  What I did know was politics and anytime I would bravely muster a world about the elections, I was greeted by yawns, confusion, or a blunt shut the hell up. Fun group right?

I decided to play football and try to bridge the gap that way. My lack of athletic ability and low football IQ helped squash that idea.  The guys around me respected the fact that I tried, but honestly couldn’t relate to me.

It was around my junior year that I decided to give sports a chance. I wanted to actually talk about sports with my cousins and their friends and be one of the guys.  So I went online and found every article I could about the Dallas Cowboys. I read about their history, stats, and how the game was played. I started to watch games much more and played close attention to each player’s certain moves.  I learned about certain positions and watched documentaries about past super bowl winners.

At first, it was mentally exhausting to read about a subject I had no care for. The only thing that drove me was the need to be popular and relevant with the kids around me. But, a strange thing happened to me while I did my studying; I grew to like the sport. Football became fun to read about and I actually liked watching the game. I could finally relate what I was learning to what I was doing in practice.  It just became second nature for me to look up about football and other sports.

I slowly impressed my circle of friends with my new found knowledge and I even began small sports debates with Mo. We connected actually and we ventured into other topics like girls and even politics.

I did it; I was one of the guys now. I became better-rounded and soon I began to love sports. I realized it wasn’t just something for people to do when they were bored, but something that connected people and made fast friends. Today, Mo and I still hang out with a bunch of our friends. We have branched out with other topics and interests. Politics is even sneaking in a lot lately.  But, that love for sports is still there and drives our lives.