Beech Tree News Network

Tuesday afternoon, while enjoying my lunch ritual of watching the Dan Patrick Show, a question came to mind; why do we love sports? Sports lovers have their favorite teams.  Mine are Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Cardinals.  Sports are good for a lot of things that might not even be considered.
Go to a sports bar on any given Saturday and you’ll find a large crowd of fans watching whatever sport is in season.  One of my favorite things to do is go to Buffalo Wild Wings during football season.  Establishments such as these have televisions on every wall, each with a different game.  Going with friends and watching the game over some wings, chips and salsa, etc. is a great way to spend an afternoon.  And believe me, I’ve spent entire afternoons at a BW3’s.
That’s all good.  And being at a game is one of the best experiences that an avid sports fan can have.  Having gone to my first St. Louis Cardinals game a few years ago was a great experience.  The handfuls of UK basketball games I have attended were extraordinary.  Granted, my excitement was dulled a little when I’d be in the crowd for a rare loss.  I’ve been a UK basketball fan all my life.  My other teams, I’ve pretty much been grandfathered into being a fan.  I became a fan of the Titans before they were even the Titans.  They’d just moved from Houston, dropped the name Oilers and fans were given the task of choosing a name.  Thus the Tennessee Titans were born.  I’ve been a fan ever since.  I’ve been to pre-season, regular season, and even the rare playoff game.  I remember a bitterly cold December night (I think the temp was in the negatives), Monday Night Football no less. I couldn’t feel my toes for two hours after the game, but hey, I was there!
One woman replied on twitter that she’d been a UK fan all her life.  She said she had great memories with her dad watching the Cats.  “He raised me right”, she adds.  I asked my friend Chris this question, and he was kind enough to add the following:
Why do I love sports?

There are many of the typical reasons, but I’d have to say that the main one is probably the sense of community. Like most people, many of my favorite teams and players are determined by my “home” cities. Chicago, because my mother and her family grew up in Gary, Indiana, a drive comparable to the Morgantown-Bowling Green trek; Nashville, because that’s the nearest “metropolitan” city; Boston, mainly because, as a baseball fan first and a Cubs fan for about 1000 years before I was born, I couldn’t help but sympathize with the plight of the city that finally ended in 2004 and 2007 (and is about to end again... seven years is too long!).

Anyway, as fans of a certain team, you feel like you all belong to a fraternity. You laugh, cheer, and cry together.

When Jordan retired (both times), I felt like my life was over.

When Aaron Boone and Steve Bartman decided to make their presences known at their respective LCS games in 2003, a little piece of me died.

When Big Papi finally took us on his back and told the Yankees, “Not so fast...” the next year, followed by the Sox’s sweep of those pesky redbirds in the World Series, I hadn’t felt joy like it in my life (and haven’t since).

The Big Three finally giving the Celtics another banner to hang; Kevin Dyson JUST missing the end zone in Super Bowl XXXIV; Coaches Cal and Pitino bringing our Kentucky boys back to the Promised Land in back-to-back years. THESE are the moments that touch thousands (if not millions) of people who are proud, in defeat and victory, to refer to themselves, the teams, and their players as “we”. You never get the feeling that you’re alone, for any reason, when it comes to sports.

Well, unless you’re a Browns or Jaguars fan. 
Thank you, Chris.
You see how passionate we are as sports fans.  I imagine this upcoming season of Kentucky basketball will give us fans many more reasons to love sports.  The moments,  the camaraderie, the individual and team stories are just a few reasons that we love sports.  Sports have been around, in some form, as early as Greek-Roman times, truly “back in the day”.  So you see, sports really are as old as time.  By the way, I cannot wait until basketball season-only a few days away!

Hello.  My name is Andy Sullivan.  I received my bachelor’s degree in business from Mid-Continent University in June 2009.  I began writing for Beechtree in July 2009.  I enjoy writing, photography, watching basketball and football, and playing guitar.  I also write a blog that encompasses sports and entertainment, called Sports and More, at http://andyuk79.tumblr.com If you have any comments, please leave them in the space below.  Thanks for reading!