Fever Pitch
If you were to confess a passing interest in the English Premier League and European football (soccer) to a male native of England, it would be akin to admitting to a foreign visitor that you studied their language for one year in highschool. Immediately the visitor would speak to you as if you were fluent in their native tongue.Such is the case with English fans of the Premiership...
I have a manager named Andrew who immigrated to the States from the Motherland. I made the mistake of admitting that I on occasion watched English soccer on television and that may favorite team was Newcastle United. Instantly I became an ardent fan in his eyes.
To understand the English males devotion to their football club is akin to the love Oakland Raider fans have to their team. They live and die by the success of team. There are no other football teams worthy of their passion as the Silver and Black...
It's an addiction...maybe the folks in Green Bay are similar to the crazies in Oakland...
So assuming that I attended the Church of the Premiership, Andrew immediately loaned me some of his treasured DVD's and a book titled Fever Pitch. Nick Hornby, the author, details his life through Arsenal football. His faith in his club, his misery as they slog through years of mediocrity. It is a very funny read, if you understand the absolute loyalty that these English fans have for a club.
Along with the book, came the film version of Fever Pitch. Yes, yes, there was another later film starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore called Fever Pitch as well. This also was based on the book, however the sport was changed to baseball so Americans could relate to the topic at hand.The English version starred Colin Firth. Although there is a very misleading cover for the film it is rather funny watching Firth's manic devotion to Arsenal football. Manic devotion might be understating his allegiance to the Gunners. Arsenal consumes his life, his soul. I suspect many a Raider fan sports Raider boxers!
Now, the tagline for the film is, "There's more than one way to score!" Oh those naughty English!...if one was to think this was a film about sex, they would be sooo wrong. It's about a man's love for a team, oh and possibly a woman. Geez...talk about false advertising!
I suppose on some level I am predestined to be an English soccer, er, football fan. They tend to be a misery filled lot. That is what the sport is about. Your club battles it out for 90 minutes teasing you with near goals, only to fight to a draw. My dad set me up to be a soccer fan by teaching me to root for the Chicago Bears.If Da Bears aren't just miserable, they are teasing us. Just good enough to make the playoffs and then *poof!* the season's over in a knife through the heart loss. We groan and grumble about our offense's deficiencies and the penny pinching ways of management, yet season after season we support Da Bears, knowing it will be another year of anguish.
Yeah, it's 22 men running around in shorts kicking a ball around...but I still do find the sport absolutely absorbing. Go Newcastle!
posted by LoneCactus @ 11:07 AM
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