Don’t get angry, it’s only a game

Paul Pabst

• Last Updated: November 25. 2009 10:23PM UAE / November 25. 2009 6:23PM GMT

I love sport. That is not an exaggeration. I am comfortable saying this openly.

I love sport and I know that my life would much less enjoyable without it.

That is as simply as I can put it. What I do not understand, however, is when sports fans go overboard. On Saturday, the University of Notre Dame American football team lost their third game in a row.

Notre Dame have one of the oldest and strongest fan bases in all of US sport and they are not happy with the state of Fighting Irish football.

This came to a head early on Sunday morning. According to multiple reports, Notre Dame starting quarterback Jimmy Clausen was punched in the face by a disgruntled fan as he left a restaurant, just hours after the loss.

I cannot understand what makes a fan so upset by a loss that they attack a player. I am a lifelong Notre Dame football fan and while I was not happy with the loss, I went on with my day.

I think that if I ran into Clausen after the game, I can safely say that I would not have punched him.

So what is the difference between me and the other type of fan?

Anger and depression among sports fans is real. I have felt it and I have seen it. Usually children have trouble controlling their emotions. We as adults should be above this.

But that is not always the case. I coach a football team of 12-year-olds. When their favourite team lose, I can see them get sad or angry.

That is to be expected. When this anger manifests itself physically, that is when you can have a problem.

If a child throws a shoe, that is harmless. When adults lose it after a game, it can be serious, even deadly.

In 2008, a man and a woman in Alabama were shot and killed by another man during an argument that occurred while watching an Alabama- Louisiana State University football game.

Earlier this year a New Orleans fan was shot by a Miami fan he had taunted after the Saints beat the Dolphins.

I know that these are extreme examples, but each of these incidents started when a fan got too involved in how his team were performing.

I have to admit that after my favourite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, lost to the Florida Marlins in 2003, and therefore missed out on their first trip to the World Series in my lifetime, I lost my cool.

I punched the wall of my living room just after the game ended and caused damage, mostly to my hand. Luckily for me there was not a fan of the other team in the room.

I do not think that an incident would have occurred, but that is how it starts.

There is an old cliché that some fans “live and die” with their teams.

This is more than a throwaway line. For many sports fans the winning and losing of their favourite team directly affects their mood and morale the following day.

I work with a big New York Yankee fan and when the Yankees are playing well, I never hear him complain.

When his team are struggling, that is all I hear from him. He seems tense and angry, and he is 35-years-old.

What happened to Clausen cannot be explained away by saying it was just a passionate fan losing his cool after his team lost. That would be unfair to the fans who deal with losses properly.

It would be easy of me to pontificate that these overzealous fans should change their priorities so that the struggles of their team do not send them into a depressed state.

It is easy for me to say now.

I am still upset that the Cubs lost in 2003, but I am dealing with it.



ppabst@thenational.ae