Being a sports fan stinks! Tell us your story.

[aphilso1]

One of the interesting masochist aspects of being a sports fan is that the vast majority of seasons end in disappointment.  There’s only one champion, and that leaves roughly 30 (in pro sports) to 300 (in college sports) fan bases heading to the off-season in varying degrees of frustration.  To put it simply – we’re all idiots.  We picked a dumb hobby.  Should have gone with knitting and Jeopardy reruns, or some other low stress/high satisfaction pastime.  But we didn’t, and we’re all in this miserable sentience of sports fanaticism together. 

 

This thread is for the airing of sports fandom grievances, so tell us your story of lifelong disappointment. 

[aphilso1]

OK, I’ll start.  I began my fandom at the tender age of 6.  I had already taken a liking to watching football on Saturdays, but this was when I realized you could follow the same team week after week rather than just pick a team at random when turning the TV on.  And I have the NBC contract and Notre Dame’s shiny gold helmets to thank for that.  I picked the team with the better uniforms to cheer for one Saturday, and they won!  Lo and behold, the same team was on TV the next week; I cheered for them again and they won again!  Well this is fun, I think I’ll keep doing this.  Cool helmets and they always win?  Yes please.  Fast forward to November 20th, 1993 – the very first time I witnessed “my” team lose.  Last second Boston College field goal, to send Florida State to the Orange Bowl instead of the Irish.  I was crushed.  I literally cried.  I was confused, since part of me thought ND couldn’t lose, just like the Globetrotters.  And yet they did…and have done so many, many times since.

 

I didn’t truly add another team to my fanaticism until college.  Sure, there were individual players/teams that I pulled for before that (Montana’s stint with the Chiefs, Gary Payton’s Sonics, Ozzie Smith’s Cardinals) but my interest waned when the key players from those teams moved on.  And I never really bought into those teams emotionally.  They were just things to watch while waiting for the calendar to flip to September for college football.  That is, until I attended the University of Nebraska.

 

Nebraska basketball immediately became my second love.  Students can stand literally on the court at the Bob and heckle the opposing team’s bench?  I didn’t care how much the Barry Collier team sucked, I sure as heck was going to be there for every game to participate in that.  Of course, the “don’t care how much we suck” aspect immediately turned into “a piece of me dies with each close loss.”  And just like that my lifetime allegiance was bought and paid for by a $30 season ticket booklet and a free Red Zone t-shirt.

 

I added other teams to my portfolio of fandom (Husker baseball, Phillies baseball, whoever LeBron plays for) but Irish football and Husker basketball were the teams that really made me *feel* each loss.  Then I grew an affinity for the Beautiful Game, particularly the US National Team and Sporting Kansas City, starting with the 2010 World Cup.  I’d now put my emotional investment of those teams on the same level as Nebrasketball and Irish football.  And collectively those four teams have given me a meager amount of joy relative to the repetitive heartbreak.

[jayschool]

@aphilso1 What a week or so, eh? SKC gets humbled by Austin, and then gets screwed against RSL. Huskers have a chance versus OSU, but ... well, you know. And now the men's basketball annual cold shower game.

 

Oy.

[Navin R. Johnson]

One play that still haunts me is the pinch hit by Francisco Cabrera that scored Sid Bream in the 1992 NLCS when the Braves beat the Pirates.  I can still hear the announcer's call of "base hit!" over and over.  Idiot is a good choice of words for me, being a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirate, Husker basketball fan.

[tcp]

jeremy giambi should have slid, but he was safe. 

 

i don't get wrapped up too much into sports. my life has been long and exciting enough in every direction to remove any need to live vicariously through athletes (or anyone else). 

 

still, the frigging A's should've beaten the Yanks. 

[huskerbill85]

Chiefs fan so until a few years ago nothing could compare on how to lose games. Even Mahomes first year was filled with heartbreak (best RB since Priest Holmes gets kicked off the team with a historically good offense, then Dee Ford lines up offsides wiping out a game winning INT.) So yeah theres nothing in sports that can break my heart anymore with all of those Chiefs playoff performances and Bo's losses vs Va Tech 09, TT 08, and of course Texas in the Big 12 title game. 

[Handy Johnson]

I was living in an efficiency above Spaghetti Works when Kirby Puckett hit the game winning home run in game 6 of the ‘91 Series. Drove to Mpls. the next morning with a couple buddies just to watch game 7 on TV. Still the smartest thing I ever did…

[49r]

1 hour ago, Handy Johnson said:

I was living in an efficiency above Spaghetti Works when Kirby Puckett hit the game winning home run in game 6 of the ‘91 Series. Drove to Mpls. the next morning with a couple buddies just to watch game 7 on TV. Still the smartest thing I ever did…

 

We...may have been neighbors.

[HuscurAdam]

22 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

Then I grew an affinity for the Beautiful Game, particularly the US National Team and Sporting Kansas City, starting with the 2010 World Cup.  I’d now put my emotional investment of those teams on the same level as Nebrasketball and Irish football.  And collectively those four teams have given me a meager amount of joy relative to the repetitive heartbreak.

 

So who are you watching on Friday?  USMNT vs. MEX or the Nebrasketball home game?

[basketballjones]

I'm still haunted by the '06 Texas/NU Football game where Nunn fumbled. 

Easily the best atmosphere I have ever been a part of for an NU Football game. Overcast and cold, but not unbearable. If you were, umm... hydrated... you didn't feel a thing. We played awesome. Crowd was nuts. Student section was insane. 

And then a light snow started to fall... and a totally weird vibe fell over the crowd. Couple plays later Nunn fumbled and they marched down to win it. 

[fr8-train]

Similar to that Texas/ NU game....I was at the Texas Tech/NU game where LeKevin Smith intercepted the ball to seal the win if he had only gone down, but instead ran with it and fumbled the ball back to the Red Raiders.  

[Red Don]

IIRC that was the game some 'classy' TT players went over to stomp on the 'N' in the middle of the field after the game!

[49r]

3 hours ago, HuscurAdam said:

 

So who are you watching on Friday?  USMNT vs. MEX or the Nebrasketball home game?

 

I'm going to Children's Mercy Park after work to go to a pre-playoff pep rally for SKC, then staying to watch the USMNT v MEX game at the supporter's club.  Should be a good time.

[jimmykc]

Jan Stenerud ruining my Christmas day in 1971.                                              How a botched play ended a Kansas City Chiefs dynasty - Arrowhead Pride

[aphilso1]

On 11/11/2021 at 8:40 AM, HuscurAdam said:

 

So who are you watching on Friday?  USMNT vs. MEX or the Nebrasketball home game?

 

Easy decision since I don't have BTN+.  USMNT on TV, Nebrasketball on the radio.  I'd probably still go that route even if I did have BTN+, simply because the US playing its biggest rival is more important than Nebraska playing (what should be) a cupcake.

[HuskerFever]

9 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

Easy decision... USMNT on TV,

 

Good choice.

[Dean Smith]

dos a cero

[colhusker]

Two point conversion in the orange bowl and Jorge Orta being called safe at first in Game 6.

[royalfan]

The whole thing started when my broke college parents bought be some Dolphins pajamas out of the clearance rack.  It seemingly has never got back on the rails, other than a brief Royals run.  

[cipsucks]

Brevity is the soul of wit.

1978 Missouri football game.

1984 Orange Bowl

Loss to Xavier in Minneapolis

 

Equal nut kick for all 3.