10,000 Reasons Why Sports Are Great

I'll admit first hand that Bill Simmons is one of the funniest writers I've ever read. He has his own column on ESPN's Page 2 and the stuff really is a great read. One of the articles he has is called "Why I Love Sports" which is a lot of fun to read and it got me thinking as to why I think sports are great my self. I realized that there are about 10,000 reasons....

1. After your children, your significant other, and your parents, your team is the most important thing in your life
The only thing that I wear more than my Cardinals jersey or Suns jersey is my wedding ring and my shoes for work. If it were socially acceptable I'd probably wear my Steve Nash jersey to a wedding.....again. But this time it won't be MY wedding. Anyway, we all follow our teams obsessively, have day dreams of playing along side them at some point in our lives, and spend a ton of money to see them in person, or in the case of NFL Sunday Ticket, to just actually SEE them. We even hold our allegiances to the teams above our friendships. My friend's dad has been convincing me for years to become a Laker fan, but despite 40 years of no championships for the Suns, I still refuse. It'd be great to root for the same team as your friend, but hey, screw the Lakers. You got to love it.

2. My Friends
I have to give kudos to my friends for being a part of my sports life. It has really added an important part to our friendship that always leaves us something to talk or argue about. I refuse to talk sports with most people because I have no reason to believe they have any idea what they're talking about, but my friends, just like yours, are the easiest to talk sports with. My friend Ted has a ton of insight into sports, but his value comes mostly from his connections with people. For some reason he ALWAYS gets great seats for free and he's willing to share with the rest of us. That's undeniably the best and I don't know if he understands how much it means to have great seats to a game and the fact that he's at the games to root the teams on makes it more fun. It's like being a girl and a friend gets you those pair of shoes that you just LOVE and with no strings attached, they just wanted to get it for you. That's cool. My friend Hugo is on the inside track with sports that you won't see on prime time. He's major interests are boxing and soccer. Although I've got my issues with soccer, I've always maintained that fans of soccer are some of the best people you'll meet. His national pride (he's from Mexico City) trumps everything else in sports and he's always keeping us up to date on boxing by letting us know the newest fighters, who sucks, who's great, and who's fighting next. Lastly, my best friend, and biggest sports nut I know beside myself, is Giovanni. He is a (puking) die-hard Lakers fan so him and I have had it out with one another on about four thousand different occasions. In fact, all of our favorite teams play against one another in the same division (meaning the Lakers, Dodgers, 49ers all play against my Arizona teams) and I have professed my hatred for those teams on more occasions than I can count. The best part about him is that there is nothing that I'll tell him he doesn't know already about sports or sports news so we can basically pick up where we left off every time. The only thing him and I need to work on is avoiding calling each other "gay" every time our point falls flat.

3. Video Games
I really wish that I had the time and attention span to play games like Harry Potter, Half-Life, and Halo. I'm also very thankful I'm not a gigantic nerd......let me rephrase, those who don't play sports games aren't nerds per-say.......who the hell am I kidding, they're DAMN nerds. I have some horrible memories from my sophomore year in college where my roommate was literally a local legend for his Halo skills. To become a legend, you've got to spend a TON of time playing a game which is fine if you live by yourself, but since I was actually interested in the opposite sex it was difficult to convince my future wife at the time to not leave me because she was afraid she would see me one day and I would have suspenders and a pocket protector. Anyway, for those of us who aren't obsessed with games that involve wielding magic swords video games have provided an outlet to basically fulfill our fantasies. The best part is the games don't get old either. Sure, RB #31 for Georgia rushing for 5,000 yards in 2005 is virtually impossible but on my video game he's a campus legend with four Heisman trophies and three national championships (I lost one on a last second bomb by Chris Leak, I finally convinced myself not to send him any more hate mail). The games have become so sophisticated and intricate that you can immerse yourself into thinking that you're a star player AND the owner of the team simultaneously. I was once a first basemen for the Diamondbacks in the video game world and hit 113 home runs 2004. The worst part is I was literally PROUD of what I had done and when I got closer to 74 home runs I started getting nervous and hit .238. Clicking buttons has never been more fun.

4. Sports Movies
Not all sports movies are created equal. In fact, some are just downright stupid. Movies like the "Gridiron Gang" and "Soccer Dog" need to have every DVD copy burned and money refunded to those who saw it in the theaters. There are some movies that really are just that good. Some of my favorite movies include "Friday Night Lights," "Invincible," "Above the Rim (we miss you Tupac)," and "The Program." Each of these movies went more than just into sports and were mostly unpredictable unlike the movie "Miracle" which by the way bored the hell out of me. The best sports movies are the ones that are original. Not the re-makes typically of what happened before. You know what's going to happen, you know who said what because you've seen the play a million times, and for some reason it's not believable that an awkwardly un-athletic actor who admittedly wore a corrective boot is really an NBA PLAYER (i.e. Damon Wayans in "Celtic Pride."). I'll have to admit though that I'm a sucker either way it goes. Even if I don't like the movie I still ended up watching it at some point. It's like sleeping with that girl who you KNOW is nasty, but hey, you never know, she could be a classic.

5. High Definition TV
I want to tell a quick story. It's a story about a guy who was inside of a Circuit City in Tucson in 2005 while his wife's nephew got himself a new cell phone and in his boredom he turned around and saw the NFC Championship Game between the Falcons and the Eagles. There was something different about the TVs though. I saw the return man field a ball at the 10-yard line, but for some reason the field inside of the Georgia Dome looked absolutely CRYSTAL CLEAR. I could see the holes on the Falcons player’s jerseys. The lights were just bouncing off of the Eagles players' helmets. I asked the clerk why it was so clear and he said, "It's HDTV." From that point forward I made it my mission to find out what exactly HDTV was and how I could get it. I went to Best Buy that next weekend and saw some more examples of what HD was and how it would impact the sports world. I'm not one to get wrapped up in technical fads, but HDTV has literally changed the way we watch sports and I plopped down 1500 dollars for my first plasma television and I'm not sorry for it. I've seen 100s of Suns games in HD, all of the Cardinals games are in HD in addition to the Super Bowls, all of the NBA playoff games, SportsCenter, ESPN2, and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It's made watching sports so much more fun because it almost feels like you're there. HD is just that much better than regular TV and the sports world caught on immediately.

6. LaDainian Tomlinson
I feel truly blessed that I've been able to witness the greatness that is L.T. I don't even like the Chargers, but how can you NOT root for this guy. He is simply the most flawless player to probably ever stop onto a football field. He literally can do it all. I have reason to believe if they put a head set on this guy he would end up out-smarting Bill Belichek all by himself. Did you know this guy has lost 10 fumbles his entire career? TEN FUMBLES!!!! And he's fumbled 24 times. In the hyper-competitive AFC and being the MVP of an explosive offense with a young quarterback this guy loses less fumbles than Dennis Miller jokes rock the house. By the way, he threw 2 touchdowns and rushed for 1800 yards and blew away the single season touchdown record set shortly before. Let's not forget that he's lightning fast. Strong as a bull. Serves as a personal wall for his quarterback. Has hands as soft as a stripper's ass. Plus he's a great teammate, stays out of the police lineup, he's humble, and is intense about winning (by that I mean he got up in the face of one of the Patriots players for messing with his team, talk about pride!). I understand how great Jim Brown and Joe Montana were, but I'm talking about the here and now. Right now L.T. is the best player, offensively or defensively, in the NFL right now. By the time he's done. He'll be at the top of this list.

7. Cultural Lines Can Be Blurred
I went to a fairly culturally and economically diverse high school. On the field however is when I noticed those differences the most and certainly cared the least. I'd look around my defensive huddle and realized that the other defensive tackle besides me was bi-racial and from a middle class family while I came from a single parent home in the drug-infested Maryvale area of Phoenix, one cornerback's dad was a school board member and the other lived in one of the more dangerous parts of the city. One of our linebackers was originally from Tonga while the other was as about as white as a sheet of paper. It didn't matter, we all wanted to win. Sports have a tendency to bridge that gap between people despite their race, gender, socioeconomic status, or political views. I've met many people whether it be through playing sports or watching them to where we had differing views of the world, earned a different income, had different ideas about race relations, and even were of a different sex, but we had that those few things in common: we hated the Lakers, the Cardinals need to get better now, the Spurs are boring, and hockey is unwatchable. I think it comes from the fact that once you start getting into matters outside of sports people tend to be un-informed and have different values and it can be frustrating. In sports, the values tend to be the same because everybody wants to just win baby.
8. Jerseys
Jerseys are one of the more ultimate ways to stay close to your team. I personally have dumped hundreds of dollars on jerseys of all sports including hockey, baseball, basketball, AND football. Some of them are downright embarrassing like my A.C. Green Phoenix Suns jersey or my Joey Harrington Detroit Lions jersey. The worst part is that I haven't even blinked an eye when purchasing. Jerseys give you that feel that some how, some way, you're giving your team the boost that they need. You're wearing their colors. Whether it is home or away you blend right in with the crowd. Jerseys mean so much we'll even wear them in front of the TV when no one even knows we're wearing it. It's the ultimate in fandom. There are limits though. You cannot, repeat CANNOT come to a game with your name on the back of the jersey. No one knows who wore number 43 and was named "Rojas" for the 49ers. It confuses us and as football fans confusion simply means beat down. Just be careful is all I'm saying.

9. Fight Songs
The Big Band era went out a very long time ago, but one place it's alive and well is in amateur sports. The fight songs for teams not only bring out the pride in the team, but in the fans, alumni, and coaches. The songs stand the test of time and after every major championship a team wins the fight song gets sung usually in a drunken, screaming, stumbling manner, but it's sung with conviction. Think about all of the fight songs you know. USC's, Ohio State's, Notre Dame's, or even your own high school's. The songs are original too unlike in pro sports. They don't have to repeat Queen's "We are the Champions" over and over again because they've thought of nothing original. The songs stand the test of time and although they may be corny and sometimes poorly written, ("hit 'em high, hit 'em low, go, go, go! for example) it's synonymous with the team.

10. SportsCenter
Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duhhh. We all know the signature beat of one of the greatest sports shows in the history of American media. Ever since SportsCenter debuted 25 some-odd years ago it has easily been the most informative and entertaining newscast I've ever watched. Yes, I know SportsCenter has its downsides, but let's get real, they've got about 60 minutes to report on the world of sports and make it interesting. Discussing how someone made a great block in the third quarter for a 10-yard gain is as about as interesting as "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." My mom used to get upset that I would watch the show every morning before school, but I always told her that watching SportsCenter was like watching any other news show except they talked about sports. To be totally honest, some of my vocabulary came from listening to SportsCenter anchors put their thesauruses to great use. It's helped me write better papers in graduate school and actually SEEM remotely intelligent. Emphasis on SEEM. SportsCenter is a great show. Just compare it to your local sports report and see which one goes more in depth and seems to actually care. I remember one time when I was in Anaheim and Vlad Guerrero hit this BOMB out into right field and I almost caught it but the jerk in front of me snagged it. It didn't matter; I didn't turn to KTLA to see if I would get on TV, I turned to SportsCenter. I mean I ALMOST GOT ON SPORTS CENTER. That excitement is one of the reasons I love sports.
These are just 10 of the 10,000 reasons that I love sports. Trust me, there WILL be much more to come.