By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
“Why do we fall, Bruce?”
“So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
These words, first spoken to Bruce Wayne by his father in “Batman Begins,” ring true for Buffalo sports fans on a near-weekly basis.
And I should know. As an avid, borderline mentally-unstable western New York sports fan, I’ve watched nearly every televised Buffalo Bills game since 1999. That year, when I was in the first grade, was also the last time the Bills made the playoffs. It doesn’t look like they’re about to change that anytime soon, either.
The first few weeks of this season were some of the most fun I’ve had as a Bills fan. It appeared they finally had their franchise quarterback in rookie EJ Manuel. But last Thursday, in a loss to Cleveland (sigh), Manuel injured his knee for the second time in six weeks. Now we’ll be treated to a steady diet of second-stringers Thaddeus Lewis and Jeff Tuel. Yippee.
Then, of course, there’s the Sabres, who have seven regulation wins in their last 35 games dating back to last season. Sure, they’re rebuilding, but this isn’t shaping up to be too much fun to watch.
But why do I care so much? Why do any of us care so much about the sports teams we follow?
It’s not logical. It’s not smart. And, in many cases, it’s not healthy.
You can see it during any sporting event, even here on campus. People lose their minds any time a call doesn’t go St. Bonaventure’s way in a men’s or women’s basketball game.
A perfect example is men’s basketball’s loss to Xavier last year. Charlon Kloof drove up court with seconds to go and had a chance to tie the game, only to miss his shot after what could be put delicately as a “questionable defensive play.” The deafeningly-loud student section fell silent immediately. It was as though everyone just witnessed an unspeakable tragedy.
That steep crash from undying optimism to total despondency shouldn’t be common, or even possible, for mentally stable adults. But it happens all the time for sports fans. Don’t believe me? Spend a Sunday with some Bills fans. We’ll scream, yell, cry, celebrate, gloat and question our place in the Universe all before halftime. Then Monday morning will either be the start of another gloomy week as a no-luck Bills fan or the start of a new, more hopeful chapter in our lives.
It obviously doesn’t make sense to be this emotionally invested. It’s not right that we lose sleep worrying about the future of young prospects or tomorrow’s big game. It’s not right that bringing up the wrong memory can make us angry months after the fact. And it certainly can’t be normal to shed tears after a group of people you’ve never met before loses a game.
But we are that emotionally invested, and we enjoy it. I can’t stop worrying about Zemgus Girgensons, EJ Manuel or the rest of the Buffalo athletes of the future. I won’t ever stop getting angry about the Sabres losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2006 NHL playoffs. And I’ll never forget all the moments, good and bad, that have brought me to tears.
Because you have to take the bad with the good as a sports fan. You have to scream, yell, cry and be disappointed to truly enjoy the good moments. To truly enjoy this month’s return of my favorite NBA player, Derrick Rose, I had to lay on the ground of my dorm room freshman year, crying as I watched him writhe in the pain of a freshly-torn ACL.
Someday, everything I have experienced as a sports fan will be worth it, and I’ll be able to enjoy the sweetness of victory. I know I can keep going until I get there – these first 20 years as a sports fan have taught me to pick myself up after a fall.
Taylor Nigrelli is the sports editor of the Bona Venture. His email is nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
