On Sports Fandom

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm big into sports. I've heard a sports topic come up from time to time about fandom. Who you should or shouldn't cheer for? In my particular part of the country, northern Indiana, there are a variety of "local" teams one could root for - and no obvious geographical frontrunner. 

Detroit is 4 hours away, Chicago 2.5 hours, and Indianapolis about 2. Major college teams are IU, Notre Dame, and Purdue - all still requiring hours of travel.

An oft used objection recently came up again and I felt it necessary to respond. The objection, if you cheer for ND football, you are morally obligated to cheer for ND basketball too, not IU basketball as so many do.

Well, I kind of understand that critique, but I think it's invalid. Here's my response:

Q: 

What do the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bears, Detroit Tigers, Notre Dame Football, and IU basketball all have in common?

A: 

They are my favorite sports teams and they all won championships in the mid-to-late 80's (the time frame I began to get into sports)

See, I picked my teams because they were good and fairly local to my northern Indiana residence. (The Celtics counted because they had Larry Legend, a Hoosier born and raised)

But apparently I'm "conflicted" because I cheer for one college football team and another school in basketball?

So let me counter this criticism with a couple of salient points. 

1) I didn't attend any of those institutions or work for any of those organizations. I have no inherent loyalty owed. I cheer for the teams, not the institutions. I don't owe fandom to any other sport beyond my choice.

2) I have stuck with these teams since childhood through thick and thin. And there has been a lot of thin. All of those teams were mediocre at best between '95-'01. And even when '02 saw some playoff runs and a title game appearance, no championships were won.

Isolating ND football and IU basketball only accentuates the lack of great success over the past 30 years. Their last two titles were in '88 and '87 respectively. I'm not conflicted or a cherry-picker or whatever. I am loyal (to a literal fault it would seem).

My story isn't that uncommon here in northern Indiana. Few attended/worked for either IU or ND. Many did grow up with IU BB and ND FB being successful and championship-caliber, while ND BB and IU FB were less than stellar.

So with a lot of "free agent" fans out there, why not choose to follow the better teams in each sport, even if they're from different schools? I know Ohio St. football fans are also OSU basketball fans for the most part, but do they also follow the baseball or volleyball teams?

It's not our state's fault we have two historically great teams from different schools. I'd say it's quite natural for the general population to generally pull for one school during one season and another for a different sport. 

P.S. There's a whole different discussion to be had about the Generation Z group of fans who follow individual players only and care little for the teams at all. But we'll leave that one for another day.

Theology from Parenting

It's been close to a month since my last post. Life has gotten busy and no real strong music has come across my path for #MusicMondays inspiration.

Well, something did dawn on me the other day - kind of a half-baked theological idea - and I thought I might as well process it out via this post. 

See, I've found myself using the phrase "...because I don't want you to get hurt" as I've been redirecting our two toddler-aged boys. "Don't stand on your chair, don't climb up on the table - because I don't want you to get hurt." Our oldest especially is entering the stage where we can explain a little of the reasoning as to why we are saying certain things. Usually we have to keep it basic - both because of his level of understanding and our energy levels. So often I default to "because I don't want you to get hurt" just because it's an easy-enough generality and I know he can get that.

After saying this at some point last week, I realized there could be a spiritual lesson there. If parenting can teach me about how God is our Father (and it can), is this how our Lord sometimes communicates with us. Take away our tiredness, and I think it might. 

God doesn't always explain everything to us. His Word is comprehensive but it isn't always super-detailed. Sometimes he explains why his will needs to be followed. Other times he leaves it at the level of "I don't want you to get hurt". It is easy to question why God sets the standards he does because so often they go against what we naturally want. 

But God sees the bigger picture. He sees how a short-term fix might lead to long-term damage. 

Again, there are plenty of examples in Scripture where he gives rationale for his "rules". Often though it boils down to his fatherly love for us and wanting to prevent us from harm.

Another corollary to this that is not even half-baked (is quarter-baked a thing?) popped into my mind regarding this too. We just celebrated Easter, is there a connection from this idea to Christ's ultimate sacrifice and his resurrection?

In order to shield us from God's just wrath, our brother took our place out of his infinite love, in essence saying "I don't want you to get hurt". 

Still working these things out in my head at this point. If you agree or disagree I'd be happy to hear it in the comments below or via FB/Twitter.

It is not an entirely new idea to me - God wanting to protect us from harm. But it has taken on a new aspect now that I am a dad myself.