By Madison Ford

Entertainment Editor

I am athletically challenged. While many were excelling in rec league soccer in elementary school, I was standing in the goal dancing to Britney Spears and missing the ball.

While this ineptness seems like it would inevitably lead to a hatred of all things sports, this is not so. Despite my lack of athletic ability, I cannot help but enjoy the atmosphere of live sporting events. Granted, the majority of the time I do not understand what I am watching, but that does not detract from the experience.

How can someone who does not understand the game itself, the core of a sporting event, truly enjoy it? To this I say; there is much more to a sporting event than meets the eye. Perhaps what holds most of the appeal is the sensation of being a part of a team. It is as if you are a cell that is both small and essential to the working of an organism. It may take effort to explain to me exactly what is happening during a football game, but the thrilling atmosphere of a live football game, or any game for that matter, is easily understood.

When I say live, I mean live. Watching sports on television for me is like watching someone solve a high-level math problem as a form of entertainment. I can’t follow it, and I therefore find it exceedingly boring. It is only when I am live, in person that the full effect of a sport wins me over.

I was recently discussing this notion of non-sports fans enjoying sporting events with a die-hard sports fan who sees the subject in a different light. They felt frustrated by those who attended games and never even turned around to watch the players because they were too busy drinking and being disruptive to those around them. I can completely understand his frustration, but this is not the type of behavior I am referring to when I express how sporting events can be enjoyable even if you are not a fan.

The joy of attending a live game is almost just the opposite, because what brings the true appeal is that for just that one day, you get to be a “fan.” You get to be competitive and cheer for your team and groan at the players’ mistakes (even if you are only groaning because you noticed everyone else was). You get to be swept up in the culture of the game.

These experiences are not simply beneficial due to their opportunity to indulge the inner-fan; they can make memories that are lasting. When you reflect back on that day at the ballpark when you were a kid, is it the plays that occurred that bring you comfort, or rather, was it the bonding you shared with your father? Were those football games you attended special because of the final score, or because of the shared sentiments of your family on the ride home from the stadium? I probably could not tell you one technicality about any of the live games I have attended, but I remember many in great detail due to the memories that were created there.

I will never forget the first time I attended a minor league soccer game where my aunt’s English friend explained to me the ins and outs of the game. I yelled for each goal as if my life was on the line. The many scores of the Rangers games I have attended will forever be clouded behind my memories of sitting among friends and family and interspersing our minor anguishes and excitements with laughter under a warm Texas sun. And I think I am still in awe from the first time I attended the new Cowboys Stadium, which left me and my friends in amazement as we took in what was perhaps the most grandiose sports stadium we had ever encountered.

Perhaps screaming along at a sports game without understanding why is a sort of mob mentality; or maybe it’s a perfect combination of people and purpose that can only result in a smile.