Am I a Fan??

 

I wonder how much of his body is not painted......

 

At the start of this football season I arrived at a strange area, I wondered about my fandom, specifically my “love” of united (Manchester United). See, I couldn’t figure out why I was such a strong fan of that specific team…. Wait.. I’m going to treat this like an extremely simple essay with an introduction/background, body and conclusion.. up up and away….

Introduction/Background

I started out being a fan of Manchester United at some point in my youth… I can’t think of a reason why. Seriously… I just became a fan, that was my team.. Manchester United and Brazil. Football was my only sport, those were my only teams.. I still don’t know why, It was probably because I saw them win.. I was and still am a child, I also used to jump off trees (after climbing them for another unknown reason), throw stuff at other stuff and generally do a lot of dodgy ass sh*t, so don’t judge me… B**ch. Anyway, As I grew larger and older and less mature, I picked up teams from other leagues. I had Kaiser Chiefs in South Africa, a team that wore blue in Nigeria, Every Kenyan Team (otherwise I feel like Im cheating), Zamalek in Egypt… I think, Mamba or Simba or something in Tanzania, Juventus in Italy, Barca in Spain, Werder Bremen in Germany, PSV in Holland, Lyon in France, DC United?? in the USA… You know what I watched a lot of football. I liked these teams for a variety of reasons but that’s not important right now… Then I branched out into other sports and collected teams in the nba, nfl, rugby, cricket, tiger woods and whatever other sport I watched at least once… but back to my point… Lets just jump into the body… Jump..

Body

Back to last summer… I couldn’t figure out why I was such a huge fan of manchester united… when I say why I don’t mean why did I become and continue to be, I mean why as in is there a point anymore… I thought to myself have a outgrown the specific type of fandom I have for Manchester United?

Before I continue its important to note that by outgrown I didn’t mean have I become too old or too mature because I clearly havent.. I meant have I come to a point in my overall sports fandom and habits where my manchester united “love” is out-of-place with the rest of my personality and the way I see things… bear with me.

In every other facet of my sports fandom (I am this [] close to writing condom).. I have a more balanced view.. If juventus lose, Life goes on…. If the San Antonio Spurs lose, Life goes on bitterly… If manchester united lose, I go outside with a machine gun looking for ninjas who smell like Liverpool fans.

So I realised there is no difference between united and the spurs to me. I have never been to either city or watched games from either of the two teams live like in person and stuff…. In fact I was in the US for a Spurs victory, albeit in a whole different state and I’ve never even been to England, so I arguably have closer connection to the spurs than I do to united. Nobody in my family was a huge fan so really there was no reason for my life to be so positively and negatively affected by how well 11 strangers played against 11 strangers (argument for another day).

Furthermore, United is not the type of team i would choose with my personality. I like teams like the Spurs who are well coached, consistent, unflashy, businesslike, don’t seek attention in other words the opposite of cristiano ronaldo (dickhead). United have elements of this, true, but I did not know this when I became a fan. I just chose them.

Furtherfurthermore.. more.. united is the goliath.. i like Davids.

Conclusion

I have rambled on and on… The point is.. I came to realise that, I had a unnessesary connection to united that I had from childhood or young younghood and it had carried on to my youth and young manhood. Unlike my connection to famous people who I didn’t know, which is more rational or irrational depending on how you look at it (another day, I promise), my connection to my teams was more balanced and had more perspective. Except with united. So I decided to slowly bring the “love” down to where I felt it fit in with the me at age x (now) not the me at age younger. I realised that I had held on to whatever ideal I had placed in united way back when I used to throw stuff at other stuff, that had worn out its usefulness.

So when Chelsea beat United 2-1 last week. I picked up my books and went to class (time difference) and didn’t think about it much from there. Do I still want united to win everything?? of course. Do I still hate Chelsea and Arsenal?? yes, but not because I like united, i just think those are two dickish teams (which is an accusation that can be levied at united with little resistance from this cool ass dude).

 

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Now, I have united in perspective…. or better perspective. I still have an irrational like for them like every international sports fan who has never left their house does, but I wont be shooting pregnant ladies because Rooney has scored 6 goals in 12 months.

 

That doesn’t mean I don’t need therapy, when Kenya lost in the cricket to New Zealand by a million, I was lurking around outside a mcdonalds listening to everyone talk trying to tell the difference between the Australian and New Zealand accent… I couldn’t do it… Otherwise.. well you know..