I’m a huge Gonzaga basketball fan and I find
that I am surrounded by like fans in this part of the country. I also figure I’ve
paid a good portion into the Zags as my oldest son went to four years of school
at Gonzaga and received his bachelor’s degree there, some of it on my dime. But
they’re just a good basketball program with good young men and women who bond
together and support each other with lifelong friendships.
A
couple of years ago I met a man from North Carolina at a conference who was a
huge UNC fan. We immediately had a great dialogue about basketball as they are
Gonzaga rivals. It was friendly. It was fun. Instead of animosity it created a
basis of friendship. I’ve been to Seahawks games and seen the same thing with
San Francisco fans who were perfectly willing to dress in 49ers gear and sit
amongst the 12th man. There was no fear, there was no animosity,
only a respectful and genial rivalry.
In
England, when I went to a soccer game it wasn’t the same at all. There was
clear antagonism against the out of town team and a palpable undertone of
violence. I had a colleague at my school there who had done an exchange in Canada.
He had always wanted to see an American football game but he wasn’t sure about
trekking all the way south to Boston for a Patriots Game. His Canadian
colleagues assured him that in spite of all the media depiction of American gun
slinging, we were, in fact, a peaceable country and that he and his family
would be perfectly safe. And, of course, it proved to be true. I love how we
are safe to attend sporting events and have peaceful rivalries. That’s a great
thing about America.
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