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Football

By: JJ 9/9

Football, Football, Football! With the Mariners irrelevant and the Sonics gone for good, it's time for the Northwest to turn its attention to the region's true sport. Football! No other sport around here can get the water cooler talk transferred from barbeques and boat trips quicker then the game we love. The very thought of our Seahawks, Huskies, and Cougars strapping on their buckets and swapping paint on the gridiron gets my blood going.

Now there are many reasons for our love affair with this game. Maybe the fact that heading out of summer into fall and winter the weather turns cold and, of course, rains. The smell of the grass and mud on your uniform makes people think that they have finished their work. The other two sports are clean and antiseptic. In the blue collar world, how tired you are correlates with how hard you work. People can then identify with some of the heroes solely based on this belief. However I think it goes deeper, more primal. I don't know any of my friends that haven't thought about or gotten excited over a big hit that has the whole room cheering. To be able to stand up and take the best shot that your opponent has and still keep walking forward toward your goal is as basic a male trait as there is.

Most fans see themselves as the conquering heroes and associate with the real ones. Now you feel you're one of them. This is where the civic pride kicks in. Your team goes to another town and lines up against another team with fans that feel the same way about their team as you do about yours. This is FOOTBALL! NFL, NCAA, or even High School and Youth football leagues invoke the same power, the same passion.

Yes, that's right; it doesn't matter the level. If you have a section, row, and seat, you're not immune from any of the feelings described above. And that's okay. Being a great fan is the part of football that we get to do. And if the 12th man or the inventor of the wave (at Husky stadium) has anything to say about it, we do it very well. So on Monday's at the water cooler this fall when you're recounting the weekend games, just remember players play and coaches coach. But without the fans, none of the game will work or even matter.