Michigan Football, Sports

The religion of being a sports fan

I joked to someone about ten years ago that Michigan football was my religion, but now I wonder how much I was joking. There are many parallels between the fervor of sports fandom and organized religion. We use both religion and sports as excuses to do stupid things, get in arguments, and celebrate shared experiences with our fellow devotees. We act one way six days of the week, and then become different people when we attend on the weekend.

Faith, Hope and Love

love

The basis of any entity-follower relationship is adoration (love) that the follower feels for the entity. Churchgoers love their God, and football fans love their football team. Think that religious adoration is stronger than the love of a football fan? My Saturday experiences might argue otherwise.

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Michigan Football

My favorite moment of each year

I’ve been going to Michigan nearly my whole life, certainly as far back as I can remember. I’ve seen many great games, even though several of the great games ended up in Michigan losses: #1 Notre Dame 1989, #1 Miami 1988, #1 Florida State 1990, #7 Colorado 1994, and the list goes on. I’ve been at some great wins, too: Notre Dame 2011, the Virginia comeback game, blanking Ohio State 28-0, too many others to count. In other words, I’ve been a Michigan fan all my life, and I’ve been to many games at the Big House. Which brings me to my point.

For about twenty years now, I’ve been saying that my favorite moment each year is the moment I emerge from the tunnel in Section 3 at Michigan Stadium and see the green of the field(turf) for the first time. When you come through the relative darkness of the tunnel, the saturated colors of the end zones and player uniforms almost hurt your eyes, but it’s impossible to look away – it’s quite nearly breathtaking for the passionate football fan.

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