Sports as Religion

Being a fan of something in the entertainment industry is a religious experience because once you start following it for a long time, there becomes this blind following that you accept no matter what, and start not liking things that compete with it.

Sports represents this in the truest sense. Fans fight each other over that emblem on the hat. If you go into Bitterdelphia and wear a Cowboys "star", they will fight you, no matter how nice of a person you are. You could be a Yankees fan you're whole life, and why does it matter? Say you have a family member with Parkinson's or something, and the Red Sox organization raises tons and tons of money searching for a cure for it, it'd make logical sense to cheer for them, after all, this helps your family, but you wouldn't because you're a Yankees fan, and that's what you believe in. This is the same moral conundrum that bothers me as to why Republicans gain the Christian vote. A true republican has a "what's mine is mine" personality which is fine, i respect that type more so than any other, but the Christian faith is a "taking care of your fellow man" philosophy. It drives me crazy that so many Christians fall for the Republican politickin' of it, but they've been doing it for so long now, they can't just switch, it's not going to happen.

In his cooler days with the 49ers, Terrell Owens once after scoring a touchdown against the Cowboys ran the ball and planted it in the middle of the Dallas star, thus mocking the symbol of Dallas. Emmitt Smith pushed him out of that star violently and was praised for defending a mere symbol, because to all the talking heads of the time (and man, there were so many less talking heads even 10 years ago) said he was defending things like honor, and that symbol means something. I thought it was great taunting. It's paint in the middle of a grassy field.

I'm taunted on a regular basis for enjoying two football teams. Sports fans for the most part think it's taboo to cheer for two teams, like I'm following a polytheistic (more than one god)religion. They all have their "god" and no matter what, they've been following it there whole lives and despite the fact that life and circumstances are constantly changing, they keep following that one thing, whereas I'm saying Mohammed and Jesus are both right. In the sporting world, they are normal, and I'm an outcast, but once you throw in things like logic, the situation changes drastically.