Growing up is going to happen, and when it does we need to learn to re-balance what’s truly important. But we also must remember sports binds us together; it runs through us and connects us. That goofy camaraderie of sports keeps that little kid inside us going.
—
Matt Kiebus’ recent Buzzfeed Article, How The Buffalo Bills And My Friends’ Weddings Made Me Realize I Need To Grow Up, is a poignant reminder of how “real-life” obligations can clash with the free-wheeling sports obsessions of our youth
This is not to say that growing up means checking our passion for watching sports at the door. We don’t have to be less rabid fans of the teams we love and root for. Indeed, the occupants of the Dawg Pound in Cleveland are grown men, as are the cross-dressing guys with the pig noses down in Washington D.C. and the Raiders fans sitting in the “Black Hole” on home Sundays.
Going to the football game and tailgating with buddies (dressed like idiots if you so choose) is your God given right. So is carving out time for your live fantasy draft. And of course it is your God given right to freely yell at your television when your team flat out blows it or to send your fantasy-football arch-rival a viciously taunting email when he’s up against you and your Peyton Manning has thrown his sixth touchdown of the game. And we can be waaay out-of-proportion-to-reality upset when our team loses. Or even when our fantasy team loses. These are important things.
♦♦♦
As grown-up-dom inevitably comes, it does demand a re-shuffling of priorities: shuttling the kids around, mowing the lawn, or going to your wife’s cousin’s bar mitzvah or wedding, rather than lounging on the couch, ordering The Dominator from Dominoes, and watching 10 hours of football. After all, there is life happening. And besides, we have to maintain some semblance of credibility when we tell our own kids not to watch too much TV.
Kiebus’ Buzzfeed article recounts his own coming of age and the attendant reshuffling of his priorities through the lens of his die-hard devotion to the Buffalo Bills:
“When it comes to football season, I’m not always known for making rational decisions. At times I’ve put watching Buffalo Bills games ahead of family, work, my financial well-being, and, most regrettably, my relationship with my girlfriend. Sundays that I should have spent getting ahead on work I’ve watched the Bills lose to the Browns. I’ve wasted money I should have been saving to move out into an apartment on buffalo wings and Bud Light. When I recently watched a game with my mom and brother — who I don’t see often — I spent more time with my teeth clenched, tweeting obscenities, than I did enjoying their company. I always said, “All I ask is for four hours on 16 Sundays between September and December,” without exceptions. I always thought this was reasonable. I’ve always been wrong. . . .
All these weddings have forced me to take a crash course in being an adult. In the past few months I’ve purchased my first suit, rented my first car, dry-cleaned my first suit, and had to call my first locksmith. And I’ve been forced to confront my own uncertain future and continually arrested development. Next month is going to be the first time I move out of my childhood bedroom since I returned from college — I’m 26 years old. I graduated high school ready to conquer the world. I graduated college having no idea how I was going to conquer anything. So I made excuses: the recession, the economy, loans, no car, no internships, my job was below me, “I don’t know what I want to do.”
But now, after dragging my feet like a kid whose parents are carrying him to the bathtub, I committed to something more than a team that lets me down: spending every day with someone who doesn’t. I’m moving in with my girlfriend and taking a very large step — it’s nowhere near marriage — but it’s something. We’ve been programmed to be cautiously optimistic about autumn since the first time we shoulder a backpack. We worry about whether we’ll have class with our friends. We worry about how we’ll do in those classes. These days, in the fall I hope the Bills finally turn it around. I hope to not fear what’s coming. And I hope I finally grow up.”
♦♦♦
It’s a nice message.
Growing up is going to happen, and when it happens, we need to learn to re-balance what’s truly important. But we also must remember sports binds us together; it runs through us and connects us. That goofy camaraderie that is build around sports keeps that little kid inside us going. So while we are growing up and making rational decisions about what needs to get done and how we spend our free time, let’s take care not to completely forget about that kid.
It almost makes me want to say “Go Bills.”
Well, almost. (Go Giants!)
Read the full original Buzzfeed article here.
♦♦♦
Photo credit: Flickr/Charliebubbles (Lead Photo); Flickr/awinner (Young Bucs Fan)