More Reasons Why I Love Sports

22. NFL Films

This is mostly for football nuts, but do you remember the last really good NFL Films flick you saw? I do. It was a replay of the last Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Dallas in the 1970s. I'm too young to remember it, but I was wrapped up in every moment the "Voice of God" John Facenda described. When I was in college I used to be home a lot in the afternoons and I would just flip on ESPN Classic and watch an old NFL film. My favorite one of all time was one called "Winning and Losing." They interviewed coaches like Bill Parcells and the late Bill Walsh about the differences emotionally between the two. Bill Parcells was completely candid and admitted fully "that after every loss he is literally sick for days. He said that there's nothing that makes losing in football feel better. There are no moral victories. There's no silver lining. Losing feels 10 times worse than winning feels good." Only NFL Films could capture something like that. They've been doing it for decades and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

23. Baseball Hats

Sports has a hard time translating to fashion statements in the real world. When's the last time someone let you into a club with a jersey on? Once when I was going to a bar with my friends in Tucson one night the bouncer told me I had to take my jersey off. This wasn't like the Shark bar or anything, this was the sleaziest bar this side of Oklahoma. The worst part was that it was "heavy metal night" meaning that everyone who was still into hair bands showed up in the same clothes they wore in 1984. Baseball hats are different. With the exception of a military base, you can wear a baseball cap anywhere. I've got a ton of different teams and I want to be able to collect all of them. There was a period of about two years where I made an effort to not get the same hat as someone else, even if I just saw them in the mall. That's how much of a fashion accessory it is to me. Jerseys and t-shirts aren't usually as fashionable, but baseball hats are on a different level. My next hat? Toledo Mud Hens, don't even think about getting it!

24. The Locker Room

As a player there is no greater place for solace than inside the locker room. When I was a freshman in high school on the basketball team we played Chaparral High School which has one of the top basketball programs in the state of Arizona and we realized that two seconds after tip off. They scored 24 straight points on us and we were down by 36 at half time. We had scored 8 points. I couldn't WAIT to get back to the locker room and hide forever. There's no fans, no opposing players, nobody except the guys you're with and your coaches. It's a time to re-group, re-focus, and get back out there. In our case we got back out there and lost by 63 so maybe we should have stayed, but that's not the point, the point was there was a time when we felt we could actually come back, and it came inside the locker room. The locker room also serves as a place to discuss any team problems, personal problems, bond, scheme, and chill out......Except for football locker rooms. They smell like hot garbage midway through the season.

25. Pride
Pride in everyday life causes people, especially men to do some really great and some really stupid things. The sporting world isn't any different at all. We've all seen those athletes and coaches that are so full of pride they need to get larger pants. Pride has caused people to really risk their lives in the face of better judgment. Whether it's the baseball player that has his arm dangling off his shoulder, the football player that is past his prime but wants to win that ring, or the basketball player that refuses to be denied a dunk even though he's been rejected the last four times by the rim. But without pride in sports, we'd have a bunch of pansies who never took any chances. Ask Boise State of pride had anything to do with their win. They could have rolled over and played it cautiously, but they didn't. They were Boise State and they WEREN'T going to lose. Ask Donovan McNabb in a game against the Cardinals a few years ago. Was a broken ankle going to keep him from trying to put them away? Nope. Ask Peyton Manning in the 2006 AFC Championship Game. Tell me pride didn't have anything to do with that win. He wasn't going to lose the Patriots again. Pride is a magical juice that forces athletes to forego all rational thought and just DO. And having witnessed some of those doings has convinced me pride is a great reason to love sports.

26. Hockey Games

I'll admit, I think hockey, at least on television, is about as exciting as going shopping for throw pillows. Hockey live? Totally different story. I don't know much about hockey, I grew up in the desert and I always thought that's what people did when they were spitting, hockey-ing a loogey. But here come the Phoenix Coyotes. I won some tickets from school to go see them at the America West Arena downtown and was totally blown away. The game was fast, the hits were hard, there was this cold chill coming up from the ice, every score was a celebration, and for me, the best part was there was a group of guys who taunted the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. Yes, they were hammered, but you didn't see that at Suns games. Hockey fans are ruthless fanatics who are in love with their sport. Did I mention these guys were about 60 rows up? That's how much they care. Hockey games keep your interest and although the scoring is similar to soccer, the chances at scoring are about 100 to 1 in comparison. I wish I knew more about the game or grew up with it because I know I would probably attend 10 games a year just to be involved in the excitement. Did I mention these guys beat the crap out of each other at least once a game? Yeah, that's kind of exciting.

27. Jackie Robinson

I have to acknowledge that there have been many players to come through sports who had to endure the same punishment as Jackie. But Jackie was different. Jackie had so much riding against him that to do what HE did, was incredible. He had to play in New York which Randy Johnson can't even handle. He couldn't stay with his teammates. He was constantly berated with racial threats and slurs. Not like today's whiny athletes where if someone calls them a "faggot" they get the ACLU involved. Jackie did all this and STILL won the rookie of the year award which is named after him. His fire, his demeanor, his intelligence, and ability really helped changed the way white Americans thought about black people. He was more than just a baseball player. He allowed guys like myself to play on teams that were predominantly white and not even think twice about it. He is literally the only reason I give UCLA any respect whatsoever. The most important athlete ever was a student and how can you hate that? Another reason, I love sports!