A wise man once said that everyone pays their dues. Through
life, there will be times of success and failure, rewards and obstacles in our
way. Now, I don’t believe that man was talking about sports, but he sure was
talking about competition. For the New York-metro area, we’ve been nothing but
spoiled. Right now, the New York Giants, my favorite football club, is winless
through six weeks of games. Through these six weeks, I have become frustrated,
concerned, and mainly pessimistic. Yet, just because my team is in the dumps,
doesn’t mean I won’t be in front of the TV the next Sunday watching them
compete. I have too much pride and I care so much that it seems absurd to
others.
Sports shape my entire life; my mood, my actions, my normal
style of living. I guess when failure occurs in a repetitive fashion, we point
out the rights and wrongs of our teams. We all point the finger to that one guy
who’s letting you down and we start up the blame game that everybody knows so
well. We have been so spoiled that we seldom consider the teams we have and the
games they perform in. In the limelight of New York, athletes sign with our
teams to aspire as superstars, to become world champions.
Since the development of professional sports back as early as
the late nineteenth century, New York has brought home fifty-five titles, the
most of any city in the country. Since 1923, the Yankees have won twenty-seven
rings, the Mets and Knicks have brought two. The Rangers, Devils, and Islanders
have won eleven combined, and finally, the Giants and Jets consist of five
championships between each other. History doesn’t lie; we don’t know anything
else but winning. But when our expectations are high every year and our teams
don’t perform or exceed to the best of their ability, we treat them like trash
and throw them out on the street to rot. A fanatic is one who is marked by
excessive enthusiasm and intense devotion. What makes us give up on our teams?
Why are we so convinced that our teams can never
have a bad year? There’s nothing in the rule books against playing a lousy
season; it must be allowed! Our superstar quarterbacks and pitchers are human,
even when they seem heavenly like.
The greatest thing about sports is the bond between a fan and
the team; the passion for winning is like no other. Just like in our personal
lives with family or friends, we want to be by their side through the good
times and bad. Sports are another family, a family you can never lose faith in,
a family that will never let you down, and a family that puts their best
product out on the field day in and day out. The most loyal fans I know are the
season ticket holders who continue to go watch their team play, even when the
predictions of their success are low. I’m talking to you Mets fans. You’ve had
it rough. I don’t know what rough is, but every
team has gone through it. Every city,
every player, and every fan has dealt with defeat.
With my teams on the older side and wrong side of thirty,
young talent stands alone for the future, and through these transitions bring
ups and downs like a rollercoaster, winning franchises go through a cycle. The
same team can’t win every single year. If that was the case, what’s the point
of playing? The point I’m getting at is don’t ever give up. There’s always
another opportunity to win, and that’s the beauty of sports. So when I look at
the records of all the football teams and see the Giants in dead last, or see
an embarrassing and injured Yankee team miss out on the playoffs, I take a
moment and realize how great I’ve had it. I have gone to three championship
parades in Manhattan since 2007, and not many people can say they’ve done the
same. I may have been born into a spoiled environment, but it’s all I know. I
may expect success, but I also respect failure, and the lessons learned that
can come from it in the future. I love my teams too much.
Not to mention, we’ve had it pretty good.
No comments:
Post a Comment