Going Deep
Understanding the Only True Sport Left
I must say that in all my years living in Miami — I was born and raised there, and up until one year ago, it was the only thing I knew — I never thought I would consider myself lucky to be a sports enthusiast in Gainesville.But what has transpired throughout the professional sports world has made me understand the exuberant college football fan I used to label obnoxious and naive.
This summer a professional wrestler killed himself after murdering his wife and 7-year-old son. One of the National Football League’s most talented quarterbacks was linked to dog fighting — a brutal sport where they savagely kill dogs to win a few bets. And in the National Basketball Association, a former referee was linked to several high-stakes gamblers and was accused of making calls that influenced the outcome of games.
All of this was added to the ongoing cycle of the steroids controversy in Major League Baseball, which was brought to the forefront when the most hallowed record was overtaken by an alleged cheater.
I now understand college football fans. The ones who come to Gainesville on Friday afternoons and park their trailers in front of The Swamp, waving flags, painting faces and getting all worked up about a lesser brand of competition.
“Why do these people care so much about college sports and don’t pay attention to the pros?” I
wondered.
I didn’t understand that 20-year-old athletes giving it 100 percent every game just because they loved it was exactly what sports were meant to represent. I trashed that argument for the cheap response of, “I want to watch players play at the highest level, and as long as they produce on the field, I don’t care what happens off of it.”
I didn’t understand — like I do now — that sports are not about talent and production, but about how they affect other people’s lives. Maybe that is the price I paid for growing up in a city dominated by cheap thrills and the almighty dollar.
Of course I will still follow and write about professional sports, but lately they have made it really difficult for me to remain a devoted fan.
Major League Baseball can not be trusted when so many players are getting caught taking performance-enhancing drugs. The NBA does not seem legitimate after Tim Donaghy was said to have made fraudulent calls that cheated teams out of victories. And what kind of role models can you look up to in the NFL when there are players “making it rain” in strip clubs and torturing dogs that are not considered good enough to win a millionaire some money in a death match?
I now understand why they climb light posts after BCS Championships. Why they tailgate on University Avenue eight hours before a Saturday afternoon game. And why ex-players still dress up in their alma mater’s colors and sit in the stands to watch their former college teams play.
It’s because you can’t put a price on passion and integrity.
Maybe I should have realized all of this last September when I walked into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for my first college football game and saw 90,000-plus people dressed in orange and blue. You can only get that type of devotion if your sport is genuine. And college football is one of the few that still are.
So this September, when the Florida Gators kick off their defense of a national championship, don’t be afraid to be outlandish about a sport that requires a minimum grade-point average from its athletes. Feel proud when you join in on the excitement that is college football and, most important, consider yourself lucky. Because, after all, you are a fan of one of the only legitimate sports remaining.
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