unifying games

 

Saturday night I stood on a uncharacteristically warm December evening watching my fellow K-State fans rush the football field as fireworks and music blared in the background. I have to remind myself it is all just a game on nights like that, when I feel so alive with excitement and pride.

For K-State, it was a season of really high expectations and dreams, bitterly sad disappointment and a worthy rebound. For other teams, it was a season of never quite getting it together, with disappointment after disappointment.

It always strikes me how much the same cycle repeats each year. Someone performs better than anyone said they would. Someone has that unexpected injury that weighs heavy on the team. Someone gets screwed out of the bowl they think they deserve. The SEC always plays for the national championship. Same story, different verse. Emotions run so high and I often roll my eyes at how central these games have become in our culture.

But when K-State Coach Bill Snyder got on that stage Saturday night to accept the Big 12 Championship Trophy, he talked about family. He talked about how 50,000 K-State fans traveled to see their team last time the Cats played in the Fiesta Bowl. It’s the support of this fan base, and any fan base, that bring college athletes encouragement and support as they navigate the lime light.

Before the game, I had been feeling stressed with holiday to-do lists, family pressure and travel plans. The newspaper was full with headlines of disagreement leading to hurtful words and actions.

For one night, it is refreshing to see people come together for one cause. To see strangers high-fiving and grown men crying, united beyond the same color shirt. To see fans experience disappointment with an upsetting loss while simultaneously cheering for the underdog victor.

There’s something about sports, especially college football that makes the world feel at least a little bit more united.

Is it sports for you, or does something else remind you we’re all on the same team?

LWTK’s mommy blogger, Sarah, is attempting to be a good mama to little Henry, wife to Shea, full-time employee and part-time grad student all while avoiding making dinner from a box every night. In her non-existent free time, she’s running, eating popcorn and blogging about it all at The Gatsby Diaries.