Feb. 5, 2007
Confessions Of A Finally-Fan
|
I finally did it - actually watched a Super Bowl game for the first time. Well, some of it anyway. I couldn't help but root for the home team. Here in Indianapolis, folks have been quite excited....and last night, that excitement poured over into the streets and onto Monument Circle and into every home and bar in town. There was no station in this city other than CBS last night. Early into the game I ran down to the store to grab a few things that we needed. The streets were almost bare, the parking lot filled with only employees cars....felt almost like a ghost town. My van made fresh tracks in the snow, as I was one of the few not glued to the television at that time. I and a few others had the store all to ourselves last night. We've been in Indianapolis for 6+ years now, and it's only been in the last year and a half or so that we've finally started feeling some loyalty toward the Colts. Really, for me, it started when Tony Dungy lost his son. It was then that I realized how blessed this city is to have this man as our coach. How impressed I am with his faith and his character. Then, of course, having the home team be a part of the Superbowl has helped to personalize the team more for me. I knew a little about Peyton Manning, can't live here and not know a little about the man; it seems he's pretty much royality around these parts. But, I learned even more about him and about others on the team due to the focus on them and the Superbowl. I know that our neighbors to the west aren't feeling the excitement this morning and I found myself feeling badly for the Bears last night. I'm sure that the city of Chicago has been filled with team spirit and pride these last couple of weeks just as Indianapolis has been. We're only 3 hours away and we visit Chicago occasionally; it's a nice city. But, you know going in that only one team can win - of course that doesn't really take away the sting of losing. So, they've finally done it....they've finally made me a Colts fan. I'm not a fair-weather-fan, they've been wooing me for a while now and I would have felt this way regardless of a win last night. But, seeing the excitement of the players, seeing the tears in their eyes and the smiles that they couldn't remove from their faces if they'd tried. The pure joy and pride that they felt as a team....it personalizes it even more and you can't help but walk away from that with a little bit of excitement yourself. Indianapolis is a great city, and is certainly about more than speedways and racecars. We've all done our share of complaining about how much the new Colts stadium is costing everyone...so maybe we'll eat our words for a little while and happily hand over our earnings for a change. And, speaking of that, we'll be off to buy our new Colts sweatshirts today! |