Yay Team!

Professional athletics get little attention from me outside of martial arts. If someone mentions a sports hero, I smile vaguely and try to say something encouraging. Now, a nice Kendo match, two Judo pros going at it, or watching an Iado embu( a demonstration of Japanese swordsmanship) makes me focus.

Many people are interested in watching a local team make a recovery from a bad string of games. Or love it when a sports idol makes a dramatic comeback. It just doesn’t do much for me.

I admit that part of what turns me off is the adoration, the habitual and continual dressing in team jerseys, and buying products emblazoned with ” Official Chewy Treat of the PLOP!” or the slavish inclusion of the team name in every conversation.

Once, I dated a girl who loved a really bad hockey team. She thought wearing their Jerseys and caps on dates would be cute for us. I knew little about the team besides that they were neither the Bruins nor the Maple Leafs. The ridicule we received at the sports bar where we went with friends to watch hockey got to me. She took the razzing and gave it right back. I just wondered, “Why am I doing this?”

In those days, I had a big grey cat I’d brought back from Canada. Clancy did not like the girlfriend. He was very judgemental of my choice of girlfriends and had better sense than I. One day, he seemed to take great pleasure in pissing on the Jersey in her presence. She accused him of being a Maple Leafs fan. Not long after, she broke it off with me, stating that I was blind to the better things in life and was such a low life that it wouldn’t surprise her if I were a Bruins fan.

So much for sports, and I don’t care much for any team. I’d be deceitful if I told you otherwise.