I tried to get this published elsewhere, but failed. I still like it. I’m sharing it here.
We fall in love for a lot of reasons.
I recently asked a bunch of people to tell me about a big sports event they participated in, watched in the stands, or even on TV. You could group their specific answers into a few categories, pure sport, inspiration, and family.
In no particular order …
Someone mentioned the 2021 James Madison-Oklahoma softball game. The Sooners were on their way to becoming the irresistible force in collegiate softball, and JMU played the underdog role to perfection. The two sides faced off three times in the Women’s College World Series.
College softball is perfectly packaged as a televised sport, and that series proved it. The pace is fast, the game moves quickly and the athletes are incredible.
Someone else recalled the 2017 Minnesota Vikings playoff miracle as the moment he became a football fan. Not a Vikings fan, but a football fan, because the play showed him that anything is possible.
And Joe Buck’s “DIGGS!” will give you a little pep, even when you know what’s coming.
A couple of people talked about their own personal moments, being on the field when a championship goal was scored, winning a state championship in track and field, being a part of a David vs. Goliath style upset … I asked them what it’s like to be a momentary folk hero. It must be pretty good, humility wouldn’t let them say so, but the little smiles gave them away.
Ricky Pearsall had a triumph of the human spirit last year. Robbed and shot, he was on the field for the 49ers less than two months later. It’s easy to see why someone might pick that game, especially.
Some of the memories people shared were straight up sports moments, as they should be. Giancarlo Stanton digging in with the bases loaded and delivering, just like every kid that’s ever picked up a bat has imagined, was one such sports memory.
Others were personal. One recalled going to the Yankees Old-Timers Day with his grandfather, seeing some of the greats on the field, and meeting some of the legends in the stands. And to do that with your grandfather … it’s a lifetime highlight. I hope if someone asks him that question one day, it makes the short list.
In every generation, in every Olympics, we are reminded that sport is about our future. Someone recalled watching the 2008 Beijing Games, being inspired by a 14-year-old Tom Daley and becoming a diver, too. I asked, springboard or platform? This is how young that child was when inspiration struck: My mom wouldn’t let me dive off the platform. Moms are moms, and sometimes a mom’s fear overrules the drama of athletic feats and stories well told.
While Daley towered above us, balancing on the edge of cement structures, we were also all looking up as Kawhi Leonard bounced … and bounced … and bounced a ball all over a forgiving Toronto rim. Two people mentioned this one.
Drama is why we keep coming back, no? This year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and basically the entire 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs were mentioned as two great examples of peak hockey.
Some moments just live on the circumstance and the visuals they give us. Maybe that is a part of what we want fandom, at our most romantic, to give us. Like when Bryce Harper delivered “the swing of his life” against the Padres’ Robert Suárez, who saw his ball sent to left-center, and the Phillies saw their season continue into the World Series. Or perhaps Saquon Barkley doing any number of Saquon Barkley things. He comes up a lot with this question right now, as you might imagine. The greats always do when you ask a question like that. Tom Brady and his many rings, Lebron James in Miami, women’s gymnastics at the 2024 when Simone Biles and Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera won gold, all of them no doubt inspiring another generation of talent to follow them.
Early impressions are lasting ones. We are so often fans of teams or players because we either grew up in a broadcast radius, our folks liked them, or they were at their peak when we were coming to fall in love with the sport. It was no different for one person who told about his introduction to the Australian Grand Prix because it roared by his neighborhood a decade-and-a-half ago. There was also the guy who smiled through a memory of going to see the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp to meet his heroes, because Mom and Dad made it happen. Similarly, another watched Tiger Woods make his improbable run in 2019 with his grandfather. I wish the older man had been in the room, so I could have also asked him what he thought about that moment with his boy.
It is easy to see how sport can reflect us socially or culturally. We bring a lot of reasons and a history of our own to these things. We put a lot into it. Sometimes we must explain the context of a particular event to help others truly appreciate a memorable moment. It is much easier to explain how they resonate on a personal level. The great plays and best outcomes — the swing, the stick, the deep bomb, the dagger, the buzzer beater, a woman runs fast, a man dives, an incredible backhand, a preternatural putt, a fine day in the sun, a long leisurely afternoon in the autumn shade, the fabled pimento cheese sandwich, the roar of crowds, the improbable post-season runs, high-fiving strangers — really, they’re all just permission, some of the world’s most ridiculous permissions, to fall in love with these silly things.
May we carry them forever.
What’s the best sports play or event you saw live? Why does it stick with you?
