Superbowl Sunday 2010

Let's be honest with ourselves: we are not sports fans.

I make no bones about this at work. I can ask questions about the various teams, players, strategies, etc... without looking like a moron, but at the same time I always preface my queries by telling them I'm not a fan. I think this is a good strategy, as the "not a fan/explain this" tactic seems to completely erase any thoughts of my freakish non-sports genetics. It's like asking a question to a practicing Catholic about catechism just after telling them you are an atheist. They hear what you said, but interpret it as: "he is interested, and I might be able to convert him to our way of thinking." They happily tell you, in the greatest minutia, how points are scored, players traded, even how the the two guys with the line-of-scrimmage poles got their job. Sometimes they do this with an enthusiasm that makes me long for the 17-year-old stranger telling me about his level 14 Paladin with the +3 Bastard Sword of Tyr's Rage, and his Utterly Holy plate armor.

See what I did there? The sports nut and the Jesus freak and convention geek are all acting the same way. How is this possible? It's simple: we choose our insanity, and then run with it. We all are consumed with the facts and figures of our passions, and wish to share our joy with others. Conversely, people on the outside looking in think they (the nuts) are, well, nuts. Who else would keep boxes of Pokemon cards and 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books "just in case?" Who would give up every Sunday (and many Wednesdays) to sit in an un-airconditioned church or go door-to-door talking about Jesus? Who stays up to 3AM on a workday to snipe a Brett Favre NY Jets jersey on Ebay?

I have to say, even after telling you all of this I still feel like kind of a minority. Any reasonably-sized town has a few sports bars and/or arenas, and more than its share of Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Temples, Sacred Circles, etc. Most, however, do NOT have more than one game store. Many of the stores I have drifted in and out of over the years were pretty sad at best, and most have gone out of business in fairly short period of time. There is the issue of crossover passions; many sports fans are also church attendees, and visa versa. Not so with gamers, who can be insular and cliquey in their hobbies. Sports and religious fans tend to be so for life with "team shifting" being a major life-changing event; our passions are somewhat cyclical and trendy. Anyone for a game of Mage Knight? I didn't think so.

Maybe this is why Gaming/Anime Conventions have become so popular. With nowhere else to turn, we drive for hours to a hotel with a large meeting area and a guy selling comics and Bruce Campbell on the stage talking about his latest b-movie. We need to know there is someone else out there who plays Stargrunt II or likes to wear a wizard costume to the medieval fair. We need to know there is someone else who speaks Klingon or has a "fursona.". We NEED to know we aren't alone, even if we kind of are alone most of the time, painting little figurines or designing a dungeon on graph paper.

Today, then, is Superbowl Sunday, the holiest day of the Football fan. 100 million people -one in three Americans - are estimated to watch tonight's game. People who don't even watch football regularly will get caught up in the festivities, much in the same way that most Americans celebrate Christmas even though they only make up 76.0% of the population. I may have issues with the vast sums of money that fuel both events, but you have to admire (to a degree) the single-mindedness it takes to pull off either. Heck, I can't find 3 people to play Bloodbowl on a regular basis, and I live in a community of 593,136.

Football fan, I salute you; above and beyond all other reasons, you prove that that you are not alone.