As I Live. And Breathe.
Last night as I write this:
The England women’s football team won the European Championships.
Now, I know this is of little interest to the core tnocs.com readership. But stick with me: that’s just a jumping off point for today’s piece. I’ll keep the Euro-centric soccer talk to a minimum.
It’s a big deal here for several reasons.
The main one being: the impact and increased visibility on women’s sport that England hosting and winning the tournament has given.
In a sport that is traditionally male oriented, the women’s team has dominated the news agenda like never before. And all of it in stadiums filled with families. With none of the aggression and trouble that marred the men’s final last summer in the same venue.
The last time the men won a tournament, the 1966 World Cup, women were banned from playing organised football. It shows how far things have come (but with a way still to go to reach parity).
That reference to 1966 is where this takes shape.
With music: there’s instant gratification. If you like a song, you’ve got that “forever,” to listen to again and again. Hear something you don’t like, and its only a few minutes wasted, you can swiftly move on.
Even if an act you love takes a turn for the worse and releases an overly indulgent concept album, forgetting everything that made them great: you still have the back catalogue to revisit and enjoy.
In sport, the majority of fans are going to experience consistent failure. Only one team a year can win the World Series / Super Bowl / Stanley Cup / Premier League. A quick online search tells me there are 30 Major League Baseball teams. And six have never won the World Series.
That’s 20% who are perennial losers.
Chances are then it isn’t going to be your team lifting that trophy. Though, in English football due to the concentration of money at the top of the game, if you’re a fan of one of the handful of teams owned by a billionaire? Chances are it will be you.
There are 92 teams spread over the four divisions of the football league. So outside of the handful, that leaves a whole lot of teams and fans that are never going to reach the pinnacle.
My own team is Newcastle United. Up to the 1930s, they were one of the most successful teams in English football. Which is of little comfort to me, as they last won a major trophy in 1969..
Seven years before I was born.
Combine that with the England football team (whether male or female) who until last night hadn’t won anything since 1966?
I’ve spent a lifetime watching my club and country repeatedly fail at my favourite sport.
tnocs.com contributing author and long-suffering sports fan jj live at leeds
For long periods, especially with my club, they’ve been mediocre at best with little chance of winning anything. In those periods its a case of adjusted priorities. Enjoyment comes from the one off victories, that week when things go right, even if you know that come the end of the season, it isn’t going to mean anything in the grand scheme of things.
In music, if that overly indulgent concept album turns out not to be a one-off, you can switch off and move onto someone else.
In sport: you stick with your team through thick and thin. Even if the thin period goes on forever.
In a way, that’s easier to cope with than the periods when things are going well and they’re challenging for honours. Its the hope that kills you.
Throughout my life the England men’s football team have regularly gone into tournaments with high expectations, only to come out the other side with those hopes dashed. Sometimes the journey to that point can be an exciting ride.
But you end up asking yourself: is it all worth it when the outcome ultimately is always the same?
…and then you go back for more next season… We’re gluttons for punishment, starting afresh each year dreaming of what might be.
And then something miraculous happens, the stars align and a lifetime of letdowns is washed away. Last nights game was tense, full of niggle between the teams. There were big chunks where Germany looked the more likely to score. There was no point where it felt safe to relax and enjoy it.
Come the final whistle though, and none of that mattered. We got over the line. Nobody in the stadium or watching in TV cared how it happened, only that we got the job done.
That’s the beauty of sport, the actual match was 120 minutes of torment with the euphoria of the final result made all the more intense because of that.
Music and sport play big roles in my life. Both provide escape from the everyday and both provide so much enjoyment. With music its more reliable, everyday I can put on something that I know is going to give me that high. With sport the highs are much further part and follow the wrong team and there’s a lot of disappointment to get through before you get to the good times.
The highs are higher because they are so uncertain and like last nights match they come with so much tension and stress. I’ve had so much joy from music and especially with live music there’s a visceral thrill but its a different kind of thrill to what I experienced last night.
None of this is to say that one is better than the other, in the theoretical question of whether I would rather live without music or sport my answer is:
stop wasting my time and trying to bring me down.
For now I’m basking in the warm glow of victory. The media here is full of it and I’ve devoured it all to keep that high going. Thinking about it makes me smile, just like that favourite record I’ve got the memory forever now. Today that feeling is accompanied by a soundtrack of new releases from Lizzo, Working Men’s Club, Beyonce and Jamie T. It all sounds good, it all comes together to lift the spirits and make life that bit better.
Today was a good day. We’ll worry about tomorrow when it happens.
For any other long suffering sports enthusiasts out there (any Mariners fans reading?) Don’t give up.
Turns out dreams can come true.
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Nice! Congrats on the win!
I truly don’t understand sports myself. It may as well be discus throwing, because it’s all Greek to me. 🙂
But I am fond of local lore, and so I loved the tale of “Billy Penn’s Curse” on Philadelphia sports teams. Once a major skyscraper was built to tower over the statue of founder William Penn atop the City Hall building, the local sports teams began to flounder. And it was only after a small Penn statue was placed on top of the skyscraper that the teams began to win…and the Phillies won the World Series just one year later! I don’t even follow sports and yet that felt special, so I can only imagine how it must have felt to the true fans.
The “Sports Story That Isn’t Really About Sports” trope is a favorite of mine.
There’s something about being able to stand on the periphery and discern whatever metaphoric point the author is trying to get across.
I’m dictating while driving, so I’ll just throw one out there:
Rod Serling‘s “The Mighty Casey” is the first that popped into my head. There are hundreds of others, in both film and print. Anybody else?
Does Moneyball count?
Absolutely.
Here’s a couple more:
Bang the Drum Slowly: A 1973 film directed by John D. Hancock, about a baseball player of limited intellect who has a terminal illness, and his brainier, more skilled teammate.
Ted Lasso: A show about s̶o̶c̶c̶e̶r football that is not really about s̶o̶c̶c̶e̶r football.
Searching for Bobby Fischer. U.S. Women’s Gymnastics scandal casts a new light on this film. Josh, the American prodigy, offers his opponent, a draw. Chess robs the Russian kid of his childhood. The father(played by Joe Mantegna) overrules Josh’s coach(Ben Kingsley) and lets him play speed-chess with Laurence Fishburne at the park. Both the father and, eventually, the coach, come to realize that Josh is just a child.
Considering what happened to the girls of U.S. Gymnastics, suddenly, the idea of handing off your daughter to total strangers in order to devote their entire lives to a single goal, should be reexamined.
A League of Their Own. It’s a film about the love/hate relationship that exists among siblings. (I am told. I am an only child.) Dottie(Geena Davis) drops the ball on purpose and lets Kit(Lori Petty), her younger sister, win, for once. The same Kit who blows off the third base coach and tries to give her perfect older sister a concussion. The late Penny Marshall stages a genuinely exciting climactic game. There’s no antagonist in either dugout. We like both Dottie and Kit. The viewer isn’t really sure who’s going to win.
Hoop Dreams!
Even I had to love that film.
Having grown up about 40 miles from where the original events took place, I have to go with “Hoosiers.” My grandmother came and spent a week with me (I was a couple of states away at the time), and her 80th birthday fell during that week. I took the day off from work and promised to take her anywhere she wanted. Her choice? Go to a good Chinese restaurant and go see “Hoosiers,” which was in theaters at that time.
During the film, we found ourselves holding our breath as we waited for the final shot. I leaned over and whispered, “Isn’t this silly? We know how it ends.” She whispered back, “You want silly? I remember holding my breath the first time.” She actually remembered listening to the original game on the radio. One of my favorite memories ever.
And the movie was about more than basketball, so I get to stick with your criterion and still tell this story. Thanks, @mt58!
No CGI in 1986. I can’t remember if it was one unbroken shot, but Maris Valainis had to make consecutive eighteen-foot jump shots and act with Gene Hackman. I wonder what his direction was. Tune Gene out, or stay in character, and look as if you’re mulling about a possible return to the team. Regardless, Valainis looked like he had a pure jump shot.
A sardonic fan who obviously loved Hoosiers used to shout four passes, four passes, because our mediocre low-mid-major alma mater/team would use up the entire 35-second shot clock before shooting. But the difference was, the point guard didn’t seem to understand the offense.
A lot of the movie plot was, of course, completely fictional. But I believe that playing strategy was actually used. And the end, where they were exhausted and he just held the ball and took a chance on one final shot, was absolutely true. They did actually combine two different games, one from the semi-state round and the final. The held ball was in the final. The all black team, in actuality Crispus Attucks High, was in the semi-state. Crispus Attucks was the best team that they faced, however, and made a better story, except for that final shot. The CAH team was led by future NBA legend Oscar Robertson, as a sophomore. They won the championship the next two years. Their basketball victories led to a significant rapprochement between black and white schools, and contributed to unity in Indianapolis.
https://www.si.com/nba/2016/02/23/crispus-attucks-oscar-robertson-hoosiers-pacers-indiana-high-school#gid=ci02554fb180002580&pid=1959-oscar-robertson-017075457jpg
Even from across the ocean I’ve heard of the Red Sox curse but wasn’t aware that Philly had one of their own. I’m not superstitious so I don’t go in for any of the rituals that some sports fans have or buy into curses but it makes for a good story I’ll admit that!
Hey man, that William Penn thing was legit! I even got pissed off as a teenager when Liberty One was first proposed, because we were raised in Philly on the understanding that the Billy Penn Statue on top of City Hall was revered, that’s what made our city so distinctive was the gentleman’s agreement no one would build higher than him. Liberty One was their first downtown skyscraper in ’87 and I hated it, along with the majority of Deleware Valley.
I was living in Florida when I heard about the construction workers putting a Baby Penn Statue at the top of the then highest building upon completion. It gave me such warm fuzzies knowing what that meant, lol.
The History of Philly Sports Fans is so fascinating and fun. 😁
I totally get it. As a life long Chicago Cubs fan I found myself literally screaming at the TV during 2016’s Game 7. The moves manager Joe Maddon was making were asinine; my neighbors can attest to that.
When they won – ahhhhhh, so sweet. But, no thanks to Maddon. I aged a year in those 4 hours.
If I switch to Time-Warner, I would have access to FoxSanDiego, but I refuse on principle. I’m sticking with the more cost-efficient cable plan. The blackout makes no sense to me. It makes sense only if everybody in my neck of the woods owned a private jet. So when the Padres are featured on MLB, I’m treated to the Spinal Tap album cover.
The difference between San Diego and Chicago/Boston is that the Padres are a regional team. Nobody cares if the Padres ever win a World Series. Underrated curse: Padres trade Ozzie Smith for Garry Templeton. At the time, I guess it made sense. There was no such thing as a shortstop who hit for power until Cal Ripken Jr. changed the game. Earl Weaver switched out my uncle’s teammate and best man at his wedding, Lenn Sakata, and installed Ripken. And the rest is history. My father’s side of the family, including myself, worship the late Weaver for making Sakata the opening-day shortstop. RIP.
I dunno man, y’all just took Juan Soto from us in DC, the Padres are aiming high now!!
I watched the game summary JJ, both of England’s goals were doozies. Like, the first one is a dream goal that rarely ever seems to happen that artistically, while the second one was just a good example of don’t give up, keep fighting, the goal may not look pretty, but it got in and that’s all that mattered.
I know enough about England’s terrible football history to understand how truly mind-blowing it had to be for all the fans there in Wembley with essentially a home game for the final match, and then actually win it! It’d be nice if it didn’t end up being such a once in a lifetime event, but it’s definitely fantastic so many UK sports fans got to share that ride together and can have that match to reflect on for generations.
Go Lionesses!
Next target is the World Cup and USA are the team to beat. You edged us out 2 – 1 in the semi-final in 2019, we had a goal ruled out for offside by the narrowest of margins and a penalty saved. Now we have a far better coach, better infrastructure and belief. Roll on this time next summer for that.
I’m horrible when it comes to cheering on US athletes on the world stage. During the Olympics I find myself rooting usually for everyone else because I’m so tired of the fawning American coverage by that point.
And the Women’s Soccer Team just rubs me the wrong way. I’m glad they pushed for and got the equal pay, they are as big if not a bigger draw than the men here in the US. I’m happy for their success. But it sure would be nice to see them get knocked down a few rungs and be humbled because they are way too cocky these days. As I always say, confidence is good, but it can tumble into obscene cockiness real quick if you don’t keep it in check.
Now watch, I’ll get deported to North Korea. 😀
I get what you mean. Anytime one team dominates I root for the underdog. As the US team have won the last 2 World Cups I’ll be rooting for anyone else, whether its us or not. And those goal celebrations from that 2019 match where they mimed drinking a cup of tea were way wide of the mark. If they’d mimed downing a pint of beer then that would have been on the money. Keep up with your stereotypes ladies!!
First football match I ever watched was Cameroon vs. Argentina on basic cable. They cut to commercial in the middle of play. Vlade Divac shot an ad to promote auto racing about a decade later for ESPN. He voiced the same thought I had a decade earlier: Can’t they call timeout?
Congrats, JJ. for finally breaking through. I’m sorry I’m in the middle of football practice (as opposed to Futbol) but I promise to give you a full rundown on my reaction to England getting to the top!
As promised, I had been watching on and off the Euro Championships brackets throughout the weeks on ESPN with the thought that the finalists would be Sweden ( the U.S. archenemy) and Germany.
Much to my surprise, England snuck on through and disrupted many a national ceremony.
So here’s to John Bull (look it up) and may they have a great success in the World’s (except against the U.S.).
Style points awarded for the ‘John Bull’ reference. My high school history teacher would be pleased!
Kudos to your teacher!
I grew up in New England so that make me Boston Red Sox fan whether I like it or not. And I like it. But here’s the thing about following the Sox, they keep finding new and creative ways of breaking your heart.
Their arch rivals are, of course, the Yankees who have a lot of money like that handful of football teams. My brother-in-law, who we’re currently visiting, had tickets for Monday night’s game. It was a really good time. When a foul ball landed just behind us, my brother-in-law started getting texts from all his friends who saw him on TV. I don’t think any of my friends were watching.
Not any from Boston, anyway.
Don’t get me started on the Yankees-Sox rivalry. It transcends all but the North versus South Civil war era.
Books have been written, marriages have been broken, families torn apart
(and if you non-New Englanders doubt the hyperbole, read any of the Sheila Variations website stories about the way the rivalry has insinuated into relationships across New England).
Great article, JJ (just coming back after a week’s vacation). I instantly thought of the Chicago Cubs and the infamous Bartman incident. Even I, not much of a sports fan, worked up some ridiculous (in retrospect) amount of outrage over that. Yep, how we react to sports tells us much about ourselves.